St.Patty's Day Shinanigans

St. Paul is known in Minnesota as the place to be on St. Paticks day. Mitch and I have talked about going for the past years but have never made it over there. When we found out that the BSU hockey team was going to be playing in the final five on St. Patricks day in St. Paul we took it as a sign we were meant to play hooky from work. So we took off work grabbed a couple of friends (Matt, Katie, and Jason) and spent a nice solid 13 hours celebrating (read: drinking green beer, keeping a kilt count, watching the oddest parade you have ever seen.)


The parade was really an interesting experience the extent of it was a bunch of O'Somethings or McSomeones walking down the streets holding a banner with the family name on it and chanting the letters to spell their last name, just in case the crowd wasn't able to make out the spelling on the giant banner they were carrying.



My favorite part of the parade, and any parade for that fact, is the bagpipers. My Grandpa is Scottish and my Uncle plays in a bagpipe band so pipers hold a special place in my heart.....not to mention that this really boosted up the kilt count we had going on for the day!



St. Patric's day lead to a ton on awesome people watching. Mitch and I roamed the streets for a quite a while before the parade started and I could have done it for hours more.




The bars were so packed with people that they had set up outdoor tents. It was awesome weather so being outside was the way to go for us. Oh and we got the necessary green beer taken care of!



These two have a major bromance going on right now, which is really fun for Katie and I. Kate and I have been friends for 8 years now and it is so great to know that we will be able to spend time together and the guys get along just as well as Kate and I do.





Please note the Sprite in the pregnant ladies hand.




And the iceing on the cake for an awesome day a BSU vicotry along with Mitch's first ever witnessing of a penalty shot!

All it all this St. Patrick's day might be my favotire St. Patrick's day of all time, and we already have a date with the Boell's to do it again next year, and St. Patrick's day lands on a Saturday!

Living in the Winter Months

I live in Minnesota.

It is cold here.

It snows, a lot.

I have two choices. I can sit inside for the snowy cold months (which is lots of months) or I can have some fun with it.

I choose fun.

I skate, I ski, I snowmobile.

Mitch and I drove up north to spend the weekend with them and get some times in on the snowmobiles. Katie is too busy growing a human inside herself to join us on the snowmobile trails so Mitch, Matt, and I put on the 36 layers necessary to snowmobile across a frozen lake and took off.


I realized after this picutre above was taken that I was smiling while Matt took the picture, and that I was wearing a helmet.


The weather was cold when we were crossing the lakes but once we got into the woods the weather really was perfect for snowmobiling...the 36 layers helped though.


The awesome thing about the trail system is that it leads all over the place. We were easily able to plan a route that lead us to a bar where we could get some lunch, and have the preggers lady could meet up with us.


I snowmobiling with the boys on Saturday morning and then went back to hang out with Katie while the boys went back out for on Saturday afternoon and all day on Sunday. Kate and I were so productive. We watched a lifetime movie, a whole marathon on Say Yes to the Dress,and a marathon on Sister Wives all while working on wedding invites.

More to come on the wedding invites later!

Known

Having grown up in a small town I always knew people and was always known. Even to this date I cannot walk into the grocery store when I go home to visit without running into someone I know. When I moved to the city I was anonymous. I never ran into anyone that I knew. Part of me really liked this new anonymity, I could run in and out of Target in 10 minutes flat and have a whole cart full of stuff. If I was back home it would take me 45 minutes to get a gallon of milk after I chit chatted with every person between the door and the back cooler.

Today however I feel like I have turned a bit of a corner. We have a cute little hardware store that is just around the corner from our house that we use when we are missing a piece of PVC or if we need a few more screws. Tonight was one of those nights, we needed a bit more mud to finish up the walls so off to the hardware store I went. I grabbed my mud and up to the register I went. Here is the conversation that followed:

Clerk: "That it for you?"
Me: "Yep"
Clerk "Only job worse than mudding is plumbing"
Me: "Ya this mudding sure isn't fun."
Clerk: "So did you finish up all that plumbing you were working on?"
Me: surprised he knows me "Ya we did, and I will be happy when this part is done too."
Clerk: "Well Good Luck, see you later."
Me: "See you later"

He knew me and he knew the projects we have been working on and he wasn't someone Mitch or I work with. We have started to form a community, we have started to build a network for ourselves.

I thought I loved the anonimity, I thought I was annoyed with being recognized, but tonight I realized I missed that.

I miss hearing a horn honk and waving rather than figure out who is mad at me.

I miss walking into a restaurant and ordering a bowl of soup and having them leave the green onions out because they know you don't like them.

I miss walking into the hair salon to get my hair done and see my Grandpa sitting in the chair across the shop.

I miss getting pulled over and having the cop threaten to call my dad on me.
OK maybe not this last one, but it was kind of funny...

I miss my little town but the awesome part is I get to go home whenever I need a little piece of that back and I am lucky enough to have a hardware store right around the corner where, not everyone knows my name but at least someone does, or at least knows I am done working on plumbing.

Fumbling through Photos

Today I spent some time looking through pictures of the past year trying to pick out pictures for our Christmas card and have really enjoying looking at all the fun we had in the last year.

As I was searching through folders of pictures I stumbled upon this little beauty...

This picture was from an awesome weekend up on the North Shore of Lake Superior. We were up on the North Shore for the wedding of our good friends Megan and Adam. Mitch and Adam met when they were placed together to be roommates their freshman year of college. Now 8 years later Mitch was stoked to be asked to be a groomsman in Adam's wedding.

Adam has a contagious personality. He sees the good in all people and can make friends with a stranger walking down the street. He has more energy than anyone I know, Adam is the kind of guy who is doing back flips off the back off the boat while the rest of us are sitting in the boat being entertained by his seize the moment attitude. I truly feel that my life has benefited from Mitch being friends with such a good person.

Looking through theses pictures of the fun we had this summer was the perfect way for me to spend a gray and raining Sunday.

Welcome to the World Brink!

Today I had the privilege of meeting Brink Warren Baldwin. He was 15 hours young when I got to hold him for the first time. He is the first born of my best friend Tricia. Tricia and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact I don't have any memories before the time when Tricia was in my life. We stood next to each other at pre-school graduation. We skated next to each other wearing one hideous costume after another growing up. I stood next to her on the day she got married, and now today I got to stand next to her while she held her very first baby. Tricia has always been my friend and will always be my friend. I heard once that only the very lucky have a "Womb to Tomb" friend meaning that this friend has been with you since the womb and will be with you till the tomb, I am blessed to name Tricia as my "Womb to Tomber." I love her and I am excited to love this sweet baby boy.


He has his Mama's lips and his Daddy's eyebrow ridge.



I can hardly stand little baby fingers and toes.




Look at how teeny tiny they are.




It is hard to believe that some day these itty bitties will be stuffed into a smelly hockey skate.




I love him already, and can hardly wait to see him again in two weeks. It is sad to know that I will never see him again at this tiny size.




Grandma Sharon seemed so relaxed and excited for Tricia and Chad.




Papa was so excited when he got to hold Brink, he just kept planting kisses all over his cheeks.




Auntie Sam spent most of her time taking pictures and documenting everyone holding the baby but she also took her own turn with him.




Brink wasn't the only little boy I got to see yesterday. I got to spend some time with Carson who is growing like crazy. I remember when he was the size of Brink and now he is at the stage where we talk about clocks and numbers and letters.




One last look at these sweet baby face.

7 years

7 years ago I left home and headed off to college.

The first night in the dorms I met this crazy cat....


At my first floor meeting I met this sweet dude...


The crazy cat introduced to to a teammate of hers on the basketball team and my friendship started with this wacky one....



The girls moved in together for sophomore year and added Bobby to the bunch for the last two years.

Now almost exactly 7 years later we all got together again to watch Kristen get married. I love all of them, and can't believe that the friendships I made within the first 72 hours away at college are some of the nearest and dearest people in my life.


The bride and me....she looked gorgeous and was smiling all night!



We may not have rhythm but we still love to dance!



The ladies, the both looked awesome!




Maggie, Bobby, and I.....so glad Bobby made it to the wedding!


My cute date....Mitch! No one else I would rather have be my date for all the weddings we have been to the last few years!


Mitch and Bobby, perfect match, they both love beer and talking about sports.



Back together with my roommates, you are all awesome....I love you!

Torchlight

For our second 5K my mom and I decided to run in the Lifetime Fitness Torchlight run and my friend Kristen decided to join us. This run started by the Basilica in Minneapolis and ended on Nicollett Island. It was a fun route and we had good weather for running. The race had about a kazillion people run in it. When we ran in the last race the runners really spread out after the first mile and you had lots of room to run but in this run we ran in a huge pack of people the whole 3.1 miles dodging and weaving in and out of groups.


See if you can find us in this pack of runners....this is kinda like Where's Waldo.



After the race...a little sweaty but totally happy with our performance. My mom and I knocked off 2 minutes off of our last 5K time.


This was a fun race to participate in because it was in the evening and after you were done running they had a beer tent and live music. We found a comfy spot in the grass and hung out for a while.


I have to give a TON of credit for the best "pit crew" ever to Mitch. Mitch has been the greatest help with doing these races. Before the race he drops us off right at the starting line and then searches out a parking spot, which is not an easy thing to manage. During this race he jumped on a bike and took pictures of us all along the route. And after the race he gives out hugs and high fives to support what we have done. You are the greatest Mitch...THANK YOU!!!

Saints and Fireworks

I love summer. I love warm days on the lake, I love nights by a fire, I love sleeping with a window open, I love having all kinds of time off of work, I really can't think of anything I don't like about summer, and last night was a fabulous summer night.

It was awesome out yesterday and as we were contemplating what to do with our evening I suggested to Mitch that we should go to a St. Paul Saints game and to the aquatennial fireworks, and he was all in. We convinced Kristen my college roommate and my brother Benny to come with us and off we went.




Now, I am not a huge sports fan, I really just prefer to be outside and people watching and at a Saints game you get all of that rolled into one. The Saints games are way more fun than a Twins game in my opinion because 1. you get to sit outside and 2. they have all the crazy games going on in between innings that you get to watch people act hilarious in. If you haven't been to a Saints game I highly recommend it and if you want to come with us our friend Ed from Bemidji can get us free tickets to the games because he is the equipment manager, THANKS ED FOR THE TICKETS!


Benny Kristen and I at the Saints game.



Benny and I


Kristen realized last night that it was the end of July and she had yet to have a night out drinking for the summer so last night she was on a mission to drink more than Mitch...and she did, but she regretted it later in the night!


Mitch and I at our first Saints game of the summer.....it is too bad summer is slipping away so fast because we really do love to come to these games.


The aquatennial fireworks were great! This picture doesn't do justice for the amazing show that was put on last night. We watched the fireworks with a huge crowd down by the river and listened to the music the fireworks were set to and the screaming of the massive amounts of people that came out for the event.

I hope the next month brings many more great summer nights like this!

The Arboretum

One of my very best friends and college roommates Kristen and I went for a walk tonight at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I love this place. This is a nature reserve in my middle of the cities that has great walking trails and tons and tons of flowers to look at.

Mitch and I bought a membership to the Arboretum about a year ago and have found this to be one of our favorite places in the twin cities area at any time of the year. In the fall Mitch and I used the trails as a great walking and biking area to take in the different colors of the trees. In the winter I spent every weekend skiing the trails and Mitch was willing to give my hobby a try and ended up (after quite a few rough diggers) really enjoying skiing as well. In the spring I took all the boys from my class out to the Arboretum and we tapped maple trees to make maple syrup. And in the summer I walk and enjoy the flowers with my mom and friends! Best of all it is only like 10 miles from our house so it is really easy to get to. I recommend this to anyone in the area for an afternoon that wants to get outside and enjoy the weather!

Good Laughs with Good Friends!

Tonight was a fun night for me. I got together with my college roommates Maggie and Kristen and met up with Craig who lived in the dorm room right next to ours sophomore year. We met for drinks and had a great time telling stories about the night Hildy puked in his own shoe or the day Kristen over slept her science final and Maggie took the test for her.

I realize how much I miss these people in my life on a daily basis. Going to college and living with such good friends was so much fun. We constantly had people around and something to do. I decided tonight I am going to slow down and work on enjoying all the steps life has to offer and not rush on to the next thing. I miss college and all of my college friends, but it is over and I can't go back and I only had one shot to enjoy it. I am going to focus on the now and live in each moment......(everyone has my permission to remind me of this when I start freaking out about something and planning stuff a year in advance) I wish I would have taken a picture tonight, maybe this is another goal of mine, be better at documenting these awesome times; remind me of that as well!

Wedding Bells are Ringing!

2009 is the year of weddings. This spring I was in my best friend Tricia's wedding, in September Mitch's cousin Tony is getting married as well as one of his college roommates, October will bring another one of Mitch's cousin's weddings as well as a wedding for his friend Trista that he is an usher for, my brother Jake is getting married in November and last night my friend Sara got married. We feel like we are in crazy wedding mode and we realized we feel this way because we are in crazy wedding mode.

Sara is a friend I meet through work, so we got to hang out with the Scenic Heights Elementary crew last night at the wedding reception. We danced, drank, and laughed the night away. I got to chat with the other teachers that came and Mitch joined the "husband group" and talked sports, boats, houses, and complained about living with teachers... ha ha!

One unique and fun part about this wedding was the photo booth. Instead of having a traditional guest book for guests to sign into they had a photo booth that all the guests took their picture in and mounted it onto a scrapbook page to sign as a wedding memento for Sara and Dann to keep and look back at all the people who came to support them on their special day.

All in all a fun night to get to hang out with people who I don't get to see nearly enough outside of the work setting!