Real Housewife in Minnesota

Valentines Day Decor

2012-01-16T18:59:00.001-06:00

So I know I still have my Christmas Tree up.......(seriously)....... and there's still gingerbread cookies in the jar, but this house is ready to for the love-fest that is Valentine's Day.

I should start by saying that until this year, I didn't decorate one bit for Valentine's Day. I found a few random things around the house that happened to be either red, pink, or heart-filled and considered that Valentine's Day appropriate.

The entryway table got a few new additions include a great printable from the Girl Creative.

I found a solid black frame that I had in storage and decided this will from this day forward be the seasonal printable frame. Yup, it's official. I read too many blogs.

Next to that I put a Valentine's obsessed frame (with a photo of us from Olive you Leah's wedding!) and a beanie baby from my grandma-in-law's collection.

The beanie babies are worthy of an entire additional post. Long story short, my husband's grandma collected them and when she passed away she literally had BINS of them that my mother in law sorted through. I dug through and grabbed all the seasonal ones and now they decorate the house during the holidays. It's a fun little piece of Grandma that can live on in our house :)

Outside we've got the wreath that I my mother-in-law put together last year. I still love it, even a year later!

Now this is the best part of the post. For anyone who stuck with me through the last few paragraphs, I promise you'll be rewarded momentarily.

In digging through the old frames, I found another old-school frame that seemed pretty Valentines appropriate. I'm pretty sure my husband gave me this for a Valentine's Day gift many moons ago. Rounding out my Valentine's decor is one of the first photos I have of the hubster and I. I believe this is Valentine's Day 2003 for anyone interested :)

Awwwww......awesome. It's sitting right in front of the window above the sink. Which makes doing dishes just a little more fantastic than usual. Now I get to enjoy it another month!

When Mr.Housewife's away...

2012-01-12T19:25:00.002-06:00

Bo Bo will sleep with his momma in bed :-)

The man-friend is traveling for work all week, meaning I'm corrupting Bojangles! He hops on up like he owns the place. What have I started?!?!

Sorry Honey!

Best of 2011: Decorating

2012-01-11T11:49:00.000-06:00

Today I'm sharing a few of the decorating/house projects we tackled in 2011 around here! Stop by House of Grace to see more people's projects!

We did some small changes in the Master Bath: including paint, mirrors and artwork

Also updated the mudroom to include our awesome lockers! We still use these everyday and they've held up amazingly well!

Finally, the guest bedroom got some love with new bedding and decor.

Next year we've got some more fun decor updates; hopefully coming soon! Stop by House of Grace to see other great projects from the year!

Best of 2011: Recipes

2012-01-09T12:03:00.000-06:00

House of Grace has a great link-up this week celebrating all the best of 2011!

This year I didn't do much cooking of anything new and exciting, but I did share a few recipes that are favorites of mine. These don't get much more random but here are my top 2 recipes from 2011: Tuna and cookies :)

Perfect for lent coming up: Tuna Pie

Iced Sugar Cookies

Swing over to House of Grace and see if there's any fun recipes for you to try out!

Quick Fit Tip: Pack your bag....and take it with you!

2012-01-03T18:58:00.000-06:00

It's the first week of January, fitness clubs are flooded and the treadmill wait times are already starting to annoy me.... Here it is folks, the first of many "quick fit tips" for this lovely time of year! Cue the chazzy logo!

I'm going to just post these bad boys as they come to me, hopefully just documenting things I try to do to get my act together with some sort of fitness routine. The first one is actually a more recent development for me, but it's made a major difference!

Quick Fit Tip #1:

Keep a fully-stocked gym bag in your car with you.

Schedules are unpredictable. Somedays I can leave the office at 4pm, somedays it's not until 5:30 or 6. Sometimes I have meetings all day? Others I have good size breaks in between. I have yet to find a time that works for me to work out on a regular basis. When I have my gym bag ready to go, I can go over my lunch break if I have time, or I can more easily stop at the gym on the way home from the office.

My gym bag is a small duffle from Vera Bradley. I like that it's made of fabric, so I can throw it in the wash once in awhile. I keep my nicest/newest pair of running shoes in this bag, along with one workout outfit. I also usually throw a water bottle in so I can guzzle something during my run. The larger, square pink bag stays in the bag all the time.

It's just a large size vinyl make-up bag that zips up. Inside I keep anything to help me get 100% ready to go if I need to at the gym. This is a MAJOR win if I fit in a workout between other things during the day (ie; over the lunch hour).

Top Row: Deodorant, Shampoo, Conditioner, Swimming Goggles

Bottom Row: Toothpaste, Toothbrush, Hairbrush, Small bag with hair ties, headbands and lotion.

I'm the type of person that wouldn't work out if I couldn't find a hair tie. If I don't have a hair tie OR a sports bra? No frickin way! This little bag never leaves my gym bag and pretty eliminates me forgetting something.

I also keep a pair of headphones in this bag that never leave. I am NOTORIOUS for losing headphones, and this way I'll never be forced to get on the treadmill without my Nicki Minaj (seriously).

I've kept my gym bag in my car the last month, and have gotten a workout in 2-3 nights out of the work week. It's made it MUCH easier for me to avoid one the excuse of being unprepared.

Does anyone else do this? Anything I'm missing out of my gym bag?

Introducing: Quick Fit Tip

2011-12-30T07:24:00.015-06:00

So the holidays have come and gone. Once New Years eve passes (the most overrated holiday in my opinion) I'm prepared for all the annoying people to flood my gym. They take over my treadmills and steal my spot in step class. They have decided "this is the year" for them to get fit and take control of their life.

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While I may sound bitter (which I kind of am) I also support it 100%. As someone who went on their own weight-loss journey a few years ago, I totally understand that it takes commitment and dedication. If that means I have to share my treadmill with you, I guess I'll take it.

I haven't shared much of my own story on this "oh-so-public" blog, but about two years after graduating college, I lost just over thirty pounds by making some major changes in my lifestyle. I changed up the exercise routine and also used Weight Watchers to drop some pounds. Five years later I'm still at my goal weight and shockingly the changes have stuck.

In an effort to share some of the love, and help out all of you who think "this is your year!" I'm going to share some tips and tricks that have worked for me over the years. Know that I'm not going to tell you to run five miles a day or start eating only tofu. I'm just going to share the small things I do everyday to remind me to stay on track. Remember, your resolution will only work if you remember it in March, then July, and then all the way into next October. Stick with it and you'll see progress!

Whenever you see this real chazzy clip art I whipped up, you'll know a "Quick Fit Tip" is coming. It won't be every week on the same day, and it probably won't even be every week. Because I am forgetful. And this is my blog, so I can do whatever I want :)

Can't wait to share some ideas with you all!

Master Bathroom: Decor Update

2011-12-29T07:18:00.000-06:00

You may remember approximately 9 months ago (seriously, last April!) I did a few updates to our master bathroom.

For the last few months it's looked like this.

I'm still loving the blue color, and the mirrors were a MAJOR improvement from the massive builder-grade mirror that we'd dealt with since moving in.

I had picked up a couple decor items and just hadn't gotten around to putting them up in the room. With the day off Monday I figured it was a good time to get some of this stuff done!

Between the mirrors, I added a subway-print along with a glass shelf.

The print is my favorite and says "Enjoy, Lather, Soak, Unwind"

Now on the shelf we have some additional storage that keeps things off the counters. I'm loving it!

Happy Holidays

2011-12-27T14:20:00.000-06:00

MN has not experienced the average winter. Shockingly it's been hovering around 30-40 degrees the last few weeks and I am DYING for some snow. The good news is that we get to head north to visit both families, and they at least have a dusting to enjoy.

The parentals live on a lake, and I LOVE the photo below. My dad had quite the intense cross-country skiing operation set up and we spent about an hour on the lake with the dogs.

His lab was leading the way with a harness, and dad was then pulling my nephew on a sled behind him. It was quite the train set up! Meanwhile I just focused on staying upright because I cannot possibly do that much multitasking.

Bobo was in HEAVEN and probably ran over 3 miles during our little adventure. He even lovingly dragged a deer hide out of the woods for his momma. I threw up a little in my mouth and then we were on our way.

We ate loads of amazing food, including a pretty fun, non-traditional dinner Christmas Eve. We had shrimp, crab, and steak which was AMAZING!!! The only thing I contributed were the Red Lobster knock-off "Garlic-Cheddar Biscuits" which were a big hit.

The rest of the weekend I spent every waking moment with my adorable amazing godson. There is nothing better than being around kids during the holidays. We helped my nephew write a letter to Santa, and had a riot watching him open his gifts. He loves to help you open your presents and tell you how "awesome" they are (his new word of the day)!

He helped the hubster make french toast for the family Christmas morning and also saved lots of snuggle time for me. There is nothing better! Wishing you all an amazing hoilday with your loved ones!

Cookie Baking day

2011-12-23T07:14:00.003-06:00

The women in my neighborhood invited me to a little cookie-exchange last week. We had to make an obscene amount of cookies (12 dozen!!!) to exchange. I responded with the cookies I'd bring, and didn't think that I'd pick THE MOST TIME CONSUMING cookies ever!!! I volunteered to do my iced sugar cookies because those are Mr. Housewife's favorite.

Forgot that the point of the exchange was to make cookies for other people. So I made 12 dozen cookies in front of my hungry husband, who was then told he couldn't have any. Hahaha. I'm a crappy wife. Thankfully I put out the SOS call to a few girlfriends who spent their Sunday cooking away with me.

Bo stalked Kelly all day hoping she'd drop a few sprinkles his way. She THANKFULLY doesn't mind my drooly obnoxious dog and even gave him a belly rub or two.

We seriously spent like 6 hours working on these damn cookies.

Then, the kicker was when I actually went to the party. Two of the neighborhood ladies said "You really didn't even need to ice them. Our kids would've loved to do that part!"

Thanks ladies. I'll slave away in my kitchen for you all; pasting frickin red-hots to iced santas just for you to remind me that your five year old could've done it.

Noted for next year; I'll bring the uniced versions to save myself 6 hours of my life and provide your child some entertainment (says the Grinch) :)

Christmas Card Scrapbook

2011-12-22T10:07:00.000-06:00

Greetings from the world's worst blogger! Holy cow, December has flown by. We have had LOTS of changes our way that have made us a smidge more nutty than usual.

While it's actually still December, I wanted to share a super easy holiday project I actually finished last year. I forgot about it until I pulled our holiday decorations out and remembered that I'd finished it! I love looking through old Holiday cards or letters. It's so fun to watch families change over the year and see that small snapshot into people's lives. I wanted a way to save remember these moments, and keep them all in one spot.

Last year I picked up a small red fabric covered (8x8 I believe?) scrapbooking album from Michaels. With the coupon it was under $10.

I picked one with a photo sleeve in the front just so it could be a little more decorative. Then I grabbed a few seasonal pieces of scrapbooking paper in various colors. I used one of the more festive patterns as the insert just to scream "We love Santa" a little more.

Then I grabbed all of our family holiday cards and made a page for each year. I am not a big scrapbooker, so this really meant sticking a piece of the holiday paper in and taping our card somewhere in the middle.

I know some people may do this with all the cards they receive, but I just wanted to capture our family as it changes over the years. Otherwise I'd have to do many pages a year vs. the one that I plan on doing now. (all about the ~~laziness~~ time savings!)

Thankfully we've only got 4 years of Holiday cards and I'd saved one of them each year which made this pretty easy. We've done cards that are both 5x7 and the more narrow sized (sorry, can't think of that size) and both fit into the 8x8 sized scrapbook. If you wanted to include letters you may be better off doing a 12x12 sized book.

It's proudly displayed on our entryway table for anyone who visits over the holidays. Now I've got a more personal decoration to display each year, and a great way to save those cards!

Bo - a Hunting Machine!

2011-11-30T19:03:00.000-06:00

Some of you may recall my many tales of my dog being an epic a-hole. I like to call him "imaginative." He has a real passion for birds. Actually, he just likes to chase things in general. That made for a not-so-happy dog-momma. We had to find a way to get the dog some exercise, and attempt to find ourselves some sanity.

Enter: Doggie bootcamp.

A few months ago, we sent Bo on a little vacation.......for six weeks! He not only learned basic obedience, but he also honed his already natural hunting skills.

I have to say I was VERY hesitant to do this. We established that I would never be able to do day-care drop-off because I bawled for 20 minutes after we dropped him off the first day. They said we could call and check-in as often as we wanted, and of course we checked in the first week. Once I heard he was loving life running around the country-side and swimming all day after ducks I knew he was going to be just fine.

We visited him after 2 weeks and spent the afternoon with him. The first 20 minutes we had to hide and just watched the trainers working with him in the field. Then we got to spend an hour or so just playing with him. I missed that dog!

Mr. Housewife with Mr. Bojangles at our first visit

With my baby-dog

After the six weeks were up, it's safe to say we were VERY eager to get our dog back. The final day we got to go out with him in the field and hunt with him for an hour or so. The dog is COMPLETELY changed! He is off-leash (while wearing his training collar) and he honestly never even gets buzzed. (I know that sounds terrible at first, but we've even buzzed ourselves and it kind of feels like the little shock you get if you rub the carpet and then touch a doorknob. It's always on a very low setting and only if he deliberately chooses to disobey. He honestly gets shocked less than once a month.)

Shockingly, I LOVED working with him in the fields as well! The man in my life focuses on the hunting part, and I do most of the controlling with Bo. We use a whistle and he responds to different numbers of whistle blows (ie; 5 quick tweets and he comes right back to you and sits at your side. AMAZING)

The hunter and his dog

I knew we had made progress when Bo scared up a bird that ended up flying quite aways off (like a whole football field away). He took off after him in a cornfield and we couldn't see where he was at all.

After a few minutes of worrying we finally decided to just call Bo back to us; figuring that bird got away. We gave him the command and after just a few seconds Bo appeared out of the cornfield, with the bird in his mouth! He'd tracked it down the whole time and brought it right back.

On a retrieve

Happy he brought back the bird!!!

We've since gone hunting with him a few more times, and I'm shocked at how much I enjoy it! It's an amazing way to get outside and spend time with my man-friend. I'll say I'm not a huge fan of seeing the birds, but I don't usually see them up close. It's such a great feeling to just watch the dog doing what he was born to do. 1 hour of hunting and he sleeps like a baby. It's awesome!

Now I'm asking all of you, if I start blogging about camo dresses or adorable blaze orange apparel.....commit me to the psych ward!

Recipe: Iced Sugar Cookies

2011-11-27T22:22:00.000-06:00

It's week 3 of the Dare to DIY challenge!

Dare to ... eat cookies!
As we begin to attend holiday parties, share your favorite cookie recipe for all to enjoy. It’s like a digital cookie swap. Share the recipe and a review of the cookie. If you can, add a picture. And don't worry about the extra calories. At Christmas, cookies are calorie-free.

This seemed like a great time to *re*share my FAVORITE holiday cookie recipe. These are a big hit around my house and I'm hoping to make another batch next week. Here's the recipe!

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter (2 sticks)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add rest of ingredients.

2. Chill in the fridge at least 10 minutes. Roll the dough out.

*Tip: Use LOTS of flour to make sure it doesn't stick to the counter.

3. Cut out your shapes and place them onto an un-greased cookie sheet. (thinner = more crispy)

4. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Take them out when you're supposed to or your first batch will look like this:

This is what I like to call an epic failure. See that little crispy tree on the bottom? Not good for the marriage.

If you finally get your act together and take them out correctly, then you're ready for some frosting. In my humble (clearly amateur) opinion, this is what takes the cookies to a 10.

Powdered Sugar Icing (from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

Ingredients

- 1 cup powdered sugar

- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 tablespoon milk

1. In a small bowl combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Stir in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until icing reaches drizzling consistency.

Start out with the white, then use seperate bowls to make additional colors as needed. A few drops of food coloring and I had yellow and green to work with.

I had some leftover red gel icing, so some of the trees and snowmen got a little extra attention.

Those are obviously scarves on the snowmen. No they don't have eyes, they are magical snowmen who only need red scarves to feel complete. Moving along....

TA DA!!!

Hope you all had a great holiday!!!

Thankful Schmankful

2011-11-23T15:58:00.000-06:00

So I'm assuming you all know it's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I drew a get out of jail free card and somehow have zero responsibilities this week. We alternate family holidays so this year we'll be headed to Omaha, Nebraska for some quality time with the hubster's family. We also have a wedding this Saturday soit will be a fun weekend.

It's actually kind of amazing. I get to spend this week soaking it all in and enjoying time with loved ones. I'm feeling blessed all around!

I have a family that's always up for a good time (sometimes TOO good of a time :-))

I have a husband who supports me and pushes me to do my best.

I have my parent's amazing home on the lake, and although I didn't grow up there, it feels like home all the same! Dirt roads, pine trees, and calm waters. LOVE. Add in a funny four year old nephew and it there's nowhere I'd rather be!

I am healthy and have met a few challenges head on! I recovered from a minor surgery earlier this year and t it was a huge wake-up call. Having to take 6 weeks off of work and just slow down makes a girl check out her priorities.....big time. Running a half marathon 2 months later? Maybe not for everyone but I'm glad I did it!

Yup, not much to complain about this year.

Dare to DIY: Dare to Entertain!

2011-11-20T23:23:00.000-06:00

Kim at Newlywoodwards is at it again. Week 2 of the DIY challenge is here!

This week's challenge?

Dare to entertain.

"Show us your table! If you are not hosting Thanksgiving, take this opportunity to make your table look great. Bring out your dishes and napkins and set your table. I promise you that it will make you smile every time you walk by. Get creative and use new things. Or go true DIY and make something totally new."

We are not going to be here for Thanksgiving, but it's possible that we'll have people over for dinner sometime through this Holiday season. I skipped ahead and focused on a more wintery theme. I kept it pretty simple, but here's what I came up with.

The centerpiece is a beautiful crystal bowl that we got for our wedding. I filled it with tiny silver oranaments (great vase filler I found at Goodwill!) and have 2 small votives on each side. I didn't have a table runner that matched, so a black pashmina scarf is doing the trick!

The crystal flutes are Waterford and were an amazing wedding gift from my mother in-law. We used them for our wedding and we bust them out for special occasions. I have to say I LOVE them and it's really nice to have such a timeless piece of crystal that we can use forever!

Our china is Kate Spade's Library Lane collection in platinum. We were incredibly blessed and got many sets as wedding gifts. We love love love to use it and I'm glad we chose a timeless look. We can always update it with linens or chargers, but I don't think I'll ever get sick of the classy look of white and platinum. It's similar to a set that my grandma has and I love to admire her collection! I also have red chargers underneath (another great post-Xmas sale from last year!)

We're headed to Omaha, NE to spend Thanksgiving with the hubster's family so some night soon we need to break this out again! Then back into the cabinet it will go! Head over to Kim's blog to see more great entertaining set-ups!

Thank you Basket

2011-11-13T23:09:00.009-06:00

One of my favorite bloggers, Kim at Newlywoodwards is hosting her awesome "Dare to DIY Party" again this year. A month's worth of fun DIY project themes that will lead right up till the holidays!

Week 1: Dare to... be thankful!

"Take some time making your own DIY Thanksgiving project. It could be a fun Thanksgiving advent calendar, homemade thank-you cards, a banner or something completely unique to share what you are thankful for."

This week I decided to go a little "above and beyond" your typical thank you note. I introduce: the box of Thanks I created for our dog/house-sitter!

Since becoming petowners, we are obviously real thankful for this little guy:

This Thanksgiving will be the first time that we've left him at home with someone while we're gone. At over $50/night for him to be at the Kennel, we were dying for a dog-sitter. I was really worried about finding someone, until a younger sorority sister reached out and said she was willing to watch him for the weekend. I was THRILLED to have someone stay at our home, and trust her to take great care of Bo.

I wanted to do something nice for her to thank her for spending her Thanksgiving Holiday at our home with the monster-dog. I started with an old shoebox and some fun wrapping paper.

I wrapped the box up and filled it with tissue paper. Then the fun part, filling it up!

I spent about $20 on miscellaneous things to throw in the basket. It includes:

- Assorted Candy

- Hot Cocoa Mix

- A candle

- Stationary

- Traveling Coffee Mug

- Bubble Bath

Then I used my punch to include little labels for each item. I wrote a small note for her on each one to thank her.

- "Because you're so sweet!" and "Because Bo loves peanut butter" on the Peanut Butter candy

- "For the cold nights" on the Hot Cocoa mix

- "Because Bo doesn't always smell like roses": scented candle

- "to say Thank you!": cute stationery

- "For the early mornings": traveling coffee mug

- "To relax after the weekend": bubble bath

The notes were all attached to the items inside along with a Thank you Card:

I used my lovely Erin Condren labels to attach a ribbon on the outside and she's all done! (A little polka-dot heavy for some but I love it!)

The perfect way to say "Thank You" to a house-sitter and our new favorite dog-sitter!

Be sure to swing over to Kim's to see everyone else's ideas! Also linking up to House of Grace's Best of 2011 party!

My dog is a jerk: Episode 2

2011-11-11T07:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I'm enjoying my "me time". Hanging on the bus, about to doze off on the way into the office. I hear the lovely little tone indicating I've got a text coming through.

Open it up and here's what I see:

Yes. He ate some pop tarts. Just a teeny bit more sugar than he's used to. Hubster had to leave for work and let's just say it's usually very clear when Bo has had something his stomach disagrees with. I'll spare you the next few texts that outline the potential mess I'm going to see when I get home.

I naturally google "My dog ate a poptart" and see that although it's not the preferred breakfast of champions, other than the ridiculous amount of sugar he's consumed he should be ok.

I headed home and was pleasantly surprised to see tha tmy laundry room wasn't completely annihalated. Don't get me wrong, homeboy was bouncing off the walls, but his insides seeemed to be relatively intact which was a win.

Instead, as the responsible pet owner, I decided to videotape his ridiculous antics for your enjoyment.

Here you go!

Just another day in my life folks....

Jamaican Wedding

2011-11-09T08:43:00.001-06:00

Sorry I've been MIA the last week. I've been somewhere VERY exciting:

Jamaica!!!!

One of my best friends and sorority sisters got married there last week.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Her dad walking her down the aisle

With all her girlfriends

I was lucky enough to go with my mom and we made a great vaction out of it!

We arrived at the reception dinner and had these adorable bags left for us.

They were in yellow/green/black bags (Jamaican flag colors) and included travel size ibuprofen, sunscreen, chapstick, and aloe "after sun" care. They were so cute!

I think I read three books and had about three fruity mixed beverages a day. Not bad for a vacation in the sun! We stayed at the Grand Palladium Resort.

Photo from their website

My favorite part of the trip? We also got massages on the last day. HEAVEN!

I'm so glad I was able to be there for her special day!

Kim & Kris: Blame Minnesota?

2011-10-31T21:58:00.000-05:00

According to TMZ, my lovely home state is to blame for the demise of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries marriage.

Uhhhhh sure.

Ga'head Kim. Come on into town and enjoy our lakes.

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Watch your tool bag of a husband throw the first pitch for our baseball team.

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And how about you get married after 2 seconds of dating. Then blow $10 Million on your wedding.

Sure Kim. It's totally Minnesota's fault.

Doubt it.

Blogger Identity Crisis

2011-10-26T21:57:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!!!

Hello?

Just checking to make sure my readers haven't shriveled up and died.

Yup. The last post here was August 2011. No biggie.

Why you might ask? I have a confession. I am going through a bit of a blogger identity crisis. I have 2 sides to my bloggy self.

First up? You have the "I love looking at people's houses and projects and babies and parties" self. The one who loves to share projects and recipes, attempt things around the house, and for some odd reason then share them with this fun little online community.

Then you've got the other side. The "Don't post photos of yourself online because creepy creepos can find where you live and chop you up into little pieces." The one who wants to stay pretty private on Facebook from certain people because it's kind of fun for them to NOT know what's going on in my life.

A few months ago, I attempted to find some balance and decided I'd *secretly* move the bloggy blog over to a new site. Don't worry. It still feels weird. Now I'm obsessed with NOT showing any personal items at all, and it's almost impossible! Should I crop our faces out of every picture? Should I not show pictures of my dog in case someone will want to dognap him?

Just in case anyone is interested. Here is his normal behavior.

What's a girl to do?

Here are my thoughts
- Nothing I put on here is taboo, offensive, or what I would consider a "career limiting move". Some blogs I see (of people I know no less) are frickin crazy. They put pictures of themselves looking like a mess, and for all they know their boss could be looking at it.
- I live 3 hours away from both sets of our parents. Both of them (and the grandparents living 6 hours away) LOVE the updates and photos on the blog. Nothing makes my day more than seeing a little email back from one of them saying they saw the update.

Why then, do I get a wierd feeling when someone I actually know asks me about my blog? It's not like this is my secret online journal that documents some goofy obsession (although some might consider my Justin Bieber fascination a bit sketchy....)

Someone give me some guidance here. I'm dying a slow death and need to find something in the middle. I don't want to keep having to worry about it. I'd rather just post what I want, when I want and let it ride. Does anyone else ever have these goofy worries?

Summer in Minnesota = Heaven

2011-08-06T22:24:00.001-05:00

Summer in MN = Priceless

So you've probably noticed that the posting has been limited around these parts. Let me clarify something for you. It's no secret that I reside in Minnesota. We have approximately 3 months of the year where the weather is AMAZING. We're talking 90+ degrees and within 20 minutes you can be lake-side.

I'm going to do a quick brain/photo dump of my last few weeks/months.

Realized I never added this one. In April we went to NYC for a charity event. Saw Carrie Underwood in concert. Wore a real cute dress. Sat by a real cute guy. End of story.

Wedding in San Fran. With my big sis and love of my life. Sup jenn-ay.

June: Headed to AZ for a convention. Representing as an alumnae advisor in Tuscon for a few days.

I know it's small but trust. That is me. Wakeboarding. It's from far away so you can't be jealous of my six-pack.

Relaxing on the boat. Licorice is the snack of choice!

The reason I won't be blogging much this summer. Because I'm outside enjoying this!

Garden Update: July

2011-07-23T19:16:00.000-05:00

Just over a month ago, we entered the gardening world head-on. Looking back, here's what we started with:

Now, just over 4 weeks later here's what we're working with.

It's.......ALIVE!!!!!!!

Nevermind the weeds towards the right, I've been working on those this week. It's been six weeks now and I've been shockingly impressed with my little green thumb. Let's do a little recap shall we?

Green Peppers

Onions

Cucumbers

And the biggest beast of all: The Pumpkin!

Peas

We've even got some little tomatoes coming up.

So I think we might actually have a chance with eating some of these goods pretty soon, but I have to be honest. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing :-) Anyone have some words of wisdom?

With the onions; how do I know they're done? I'm not sure they're far enough under the soil actually because there are little bulbs closer up to the top. Today I scooped quite a bit more dirt over them so hopefully they'll start improving.

Also, with the peas/beans I'm not seeing too much progress. It has only been 6 weeks but I'm not sure what I should expect.

Any insight into either of those things would be greatly appreciated!

True Life: Save the Turtles

2011-07-19T23:49:00.003-05:00

Oh the scenes from my marriage..........

Literally there are times where I feel like Ashton is going to pop out behind the curtains; cameras in my face telling me I've been punked. The nonsense that happens to me is too random for words. (It also makes it easier to picture Ashton Kutcher standing in my home.......I'm sure you understand :-)

Moving on. Here's another episode from: "Signs your Marriage is ridiculous" hosted by Mr & Mrs. Housewife.

Tonight dude-man came blasting in the house. He was going a mile a minute and I could barely understand him. Here is a glimpse into our 5 second conversation.

Hubster: "You have to come out to the car. We have to go. Like right now. Hurry"

Me: "Is everything ok? What's going on?"

Hubster: "There's a turtle. In the road. It's huge. And really old. And you have to save it"

Me: "I have to save it? Just pick it up and move it"

Hubster: "I can't do it. You have to do it. Hurry"

Ok. I seriously had no idea what to do. Although I have been known to help a few turtles cross the road in my day, I failed to realize that my husband immediately thinks of his wife as the frickin savior of all tortoises. Right up there with typing a high wpm, speaking french, and doing handstands. I can also rescue turtles.

I expected to drive up to a galapagos island style massive tortoise that would potentially require a forklift to transport. Instead, I find a nice size (but manageable) turtle parked in the middle of the road. After literally stopping traffic (pointing obnoxsiously at this dark spot on the road.....praying I didn't get blasted by some inattentive driver) I grabbed him up and stuck him in the car for the 4-block ride home.

Meanwhile husband continues to act like the turtle was headless, diseased, bleeding, and possibly had 7 heads. Here are some good quotes that somehow came out of his mouth:

"I cannot believe there is a turtle sitting on the floor of my car right now. "

"What is it doing? Tell me what it's doing? It cannot get lost in my car."

After a few minutes of his rambling, we finally got home. I decided that the pond across the street was going to be the perfect little release spot.

Once I picked Mr. Turtle up again, he actually got pretty strong! His tail started going crazy and his arms/legs were grabbing like wild. Then I noticed crazy sharp, longer than I'd imagined claws sticking out and decided to make a beeline for it. Gardening gloves were enlisted and I flipped that sucker upside down for transportation.

Turtle. Upside down. Hoping we don't have brain damage here.

**Nevermind the grossness that is my sweatpants, headband, trashy tank-top ensemble above. It's been over 100 this week in MN and all style has gone OUT the window!

Turtle made it across the street and we set him loose near the pond. Where is the husbster during all this? He was so scared he wet himself.

I'm totally kidding. He was snapping away with the iPhone making sure this rescue was well-documented. Here's the always popular "jacked up pointing at something random" picture:

Boom.

Turtle saved.

Turtle Power!

California Girls

2011-06-18T10:45:00.008-05:00

So I'm going to be MIA for a few days. We are hanging out in Napa for a friends wedding.

The weather is amazing and this vacay is just what we needed! Logging off for awhile is amazing.

The hubster is watching Rory go for some golf title and I'm lounging poolside.

This housewife is in heaven!!

Raised Garden Beds

2011-06-13T09:37:00.002-05:00

Growing up I remember thinking my grandma was awesome. Not because of her amazing homebaked snacks, not because of the insane amount of patience she has with my grandpa (sorry gramps but we know it's true.....) and not because of her amazing, giving heart. What really sealed the deal for gram was her killer garden. That's right grandma; the ticket to this girl's heart is a delicious squash. You grow one of those and you've got me dialed in.

Because I want to be just like her, I've convinced my hubster to jump on the gardening bandwagon. After hearing about Kim's green thumb over at Newlywoodwards, I figured I could attempt a little one of my own. Here in MN, my lovely little morsel of land happens to be some nasty clay. Not so good for gardening. I'd read some great things about raised garden beds and figured it would be a good place to start. Pioneer Woman has a great simple tutorial for building your own raised garden bed. I somehow suckered my husband into this operation and it ended up taking just a few hours for ~~him~~ us to put the frame together.

We headed to the store and picked up four 1x10 cedar pieces for the frame. The total size is 4' x 6' which seems pretty manageable for our first summer. It's sitting on the edge of our property where the sodded yard becomes more wooded. This area gets tons of sun during the day so I'm hoping it's a good spot for us.

Next step was to fill that guy with dirt. I first attempted to buy a bunch of bags; which was a nightmare. Tons of work and not even the greatest soil. I found a local landscaper who would deliver black dirt to our house and by the afternoon we had a frame full of nice dirt/poo mixture (sorry but it's true. Calling and ordering a bag full of poo is a whole new experience of home-ownership). We also lined the bottom of the bed with hardware cloth to hopefully deter any moles or random animals from burrowing into the roots.

After a quick phone call to my grandma (aka Dottie the gardening whiz), I headed to the store to pick up my seeds/plants. This was the fun part. We decided to go with things we could potentially freeze or use lots of this summer and ended up with a pretty good variety.

On the left we have a pumpkin plant and 4 green pepper plants. Then there is a row of peas followed by two rows of green beans. Next up is 1 row of onions and last is a cucumber plant. Everyone's already warned me that the pumpkin may be the bane of my existence. Funny enough that's actually the sprout I'm most excited about! If I can get one good pumpkin out of this entire garden we'll chalk it up as a success. The last thing was to try and protect it from the rando animals that may try to take over my little offspring. Handy-husband of the year whipped up a quick little fence that I was rather impressed with.

It's just 6 iron posts with chicken wire attached. The posts were less than $1.50 each and 1 ream of chicken wire was enough for this project. The deer haven't come up that close to the house and it's been pretty good with the rabbit-control as well. I'd love any tips/tricks you might have considering this is our first attempt at home-grown foods! Does my layout above look like a mess? Any other tips for the wascally wabbits? Do tell!

The most random post ever.....

2011-06-09T19:37:00.004-05:00

You know you're a bad blogger when you're own mom questions your posting frequency.....sorry mom. Please don't unsubscribe. You're one of only 3 people who read this that I can actually confirm are not serial killers.

Moving on. I've been MI for awhile. I've got nothing fun to post (so I think....)

This post is now the result of my randomness of a last few weeks. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago I found this lovely gem on eBay. That's a Kate Spade Library Lane serving platter. The missing link to my china collection. (Disclaimer: I don't truly believe that it's "the missing link". If I were that lame you could all stop reading now. Rather it was $50 when they're originally almost $200. STEAL of a deal. Purchased. Done. Winner)

My little brother graduated college a few weeks ago as well. This is a HUGE deal and my family was pumped. I also suckered him into having his celebratory dinner at my favorite steak-house in town. This girl put away a healthy dose of salmon and made her husband drive her the whole 2 hours back. Nice....

We headed north for Memorial Day and spent time with the hubster's family. One of the kids has a trampoline and Bosephus the wonder dog obviously thought he could play on it. Totally normal that he thinks he can get up on that trampoline.

There's lots more content swimming around in my head but one of these days I'll actually write it down. Shockingly after posts like this; my readership has gone up this week. Thank you all for your faith in my ability to entertain you :-) That's all I got.