Today is a NEW day

Our dear neighbor and friend, Roy, passed away on Tuesday morning after two days on life support at 5:30 in the morning. We miss him, we love him, and we are grateful for the thirteen years that we got to spend as neighbors. I will forever cherish the memories of Andres and I playing basketball in our driveway with our dads for hours, dribbling the soccer ball in Roy's backyard, spending hours imitating his Spanish accent, and just having a friendly neighbor to wave "Hello" to and chat mornings and afternoons. He was a truly unique and wonderful person.

Death can have a weird effect on people and for me, the past few days have been really strange. It has been absolutely beautiful here in Minnesota. The weather is turning hot but it is a warm welcome after a couple of weeks of cold rain. The sun honestly makes me feel better. Luckily, I also spend my days with an adorable little girl who giggles for absolutely no reason and in the process, warms my heart.

GRACIE!

 

Dusty sometimes stops over at the house after work and recently shaved his head. We had some "playtime" today giving Grace the chance to feel his fresh buzz and she was LOVING it! I think the texture was very different from anything she's ever felt and she would just GIGGLE anytime he rubbed his head against her palm. It was pretty adorable.

Carefully inspecting the strange phenomenon of a fresh haircut.

We also celebrated my little brother Beau's 16th birthday today. I can not wrap my head around the fact that my BABY bro is 16! I feel like I was just there myself yesterday. Where does the time go?

Beau went from this....

To this...

And somehow jumped to THIS...

He has a deep voice, curly hair, a love for Italian food (as evidenced by the picture above) and of course... he is taller than me. Slow down, would ya? I'm not ready for you to drive, or outgrow me, or (struggling to say it) take an interest in WOMEN... (Sometimes when he doesn't know it, I catch Beau texting a girl or two, I think he is getting quite popular with the ladies)

I have been trying to stay busy and it hasn't been hard to do so. I addressed 200 wedding invitations in less than a day and now am just waiting on our invitations to get back from the printer so we can ship those babies out to friends and family! I am also gearing up for what I'm sure will be an insane weekend. It goes as follows:

Friday:

8-11 am: Work

11-3 pm: Funeral

3-5 pm: NAP

5-9 pm: West Side Story production at Mounds View High School (Dusty's cousin has a bit part)

9-Midnight: Try to go to bed.

Saturday:

9-Noon: My first bridal shower at church!

Noon-3 pm: Buy wedding gift and get ready

3 pm-End of night: Friend Andrea is getting married to PETER (Fun fact: I was Peter's first kiss back when I was 16... DON'T GET ANY IDEAS BEAU! Anyway, I'm sure it won't be hard to watch him whisk away his bride at the end of the night considering I am content and happy with the guy I'm marrying)

Sunday:

9-11 am: Church

11 am-2pm: Best Friend Jackie's Bridal Shower

230 pm-5 pm: Grandpa and Grandma's 90th Birthday Bash!
5 pm-End of Night: R-E-L-A-X

Too much packed into just three days. Sometimes it is good to be busy when you have a lot on your mind and a hard situation to deal with. I'm sure everything will turn out fine. Thank you for reading and thank you to those who said a prayer for Roy. The prayers were answered in a different way than what we wanted, but I happen to know a couple of people in Heaven my age that are waiting to start up a game of 2 on 2 with Andres's dad. That kind of makes my heart a little bit happy.

Prayer

This morning I quickly ran out to my car to drive downtown to church at the same time that my next-door neighbor, Roy, was getting into his car. We exchanged "hello's" and waved and went our separate ways.

Six hours later, Roy was in a fatal motorcycle accident less than two miles from our home. They don't expect him to make it through the night.

Ironically (and what I really hoped to write about on here tonight) we heard an incredible sermon this morning on the POWER of prayer and appealing to the Lord. I am praying with persistence. Praying for WHATEVER it is that God sees fit for this awful situation.

If you feel compelled to, please come alongside me with your prayers. Roy's son Andres is one of my dearest friends and our families have been close friends for years, as neighbors often are.

Thanks and the support is so appreciated.

Wise advice indeed

When I was a little kid, many of my favorite movies starred this girl:

 She was the star of many classic '90's movie. Her name is Mara Wilson. Some of her film credits include the following...

Mrs. Doubtfire- Favorite line of hers in the film: "We're HIS G**Damn kids TOO!"

Matilda- Which inspired me to practice for hours on end being able to eat Cheerios from a suspended spoon in the air, to no success.

Miracle on 34th Street- All I really remember about this film is that her mom is played by Celia from Weeds, and Santa is played by the old guy in Jurassic Park.

Yea, she starred in some great movies, and then she sort of disappeared.

The other day I was reading an article on Yahoo, when she popped up. The headline under her picture read: "WHY CHILD STAR QUIT ACTING." I clicked on the link and it actually led me to HER BLOG. I did some cruising around. Her blog is pretty interesting. It turns out, she was kind of sick of the whole acting scene at a pretty young age and instead focused on school. She eventually went to NYU and now works in theater production. And she is pretty insightful. And I decided, I really like her blog.

One of the posts that really intrigued me was called "Advice from Auntie Mara" because a title like that just sounds interesting. It contains a lot of actually PRACTICAL insight from a one-time childhood star who seems like she actually has her act together. This just a couple days after I scoffed at the fact that Amanda Bynes, yes Amanda Bynes!- was arrested for DUI in LA. It's kind of refreshing to know that someone who has experienced Hollywood saw a way out and managed to keep a smart outlook on life years later. Some of my favorite snippets from "Advice":


I don’t care if you’re turning twenty-one, you need to impress your sorority/fraternity siblings who bought them for you, you listen to nothing but Ke$ha and Katy Perry and thus embrace a life philosophy of glorified self-destruction, shots of alcohol are never a good idea.

Saying “I don’t like Rap/Country/Science Fiction/Nonfiction, etc.” is a cop-out. My response is always “I don’t like people who dismiss entire genres due to their own stubborn preconceived notions of that genre.”

If you are voluntarily spending an inordinate amount of your free time doing something, consider that something. Think about yourself at end of your life, looking back on all you have done. Will you want to remember yourself doing this something, or is there something else more worthwhile you could be doing? If there is, do that something else instead. (This is why I no longer argue with people on Internet forums.)

I would recommend checking out more from Mara Wilson at her blog, Mara Wilson Writes Stuff. After reading some of what she has to say, I think it would be worth your while.

And I know it would probably annoy her, but I would LOVE to ask her about what the Trunchbull was like in REAL life.

The 5 Year Reunion- Really??

You know, there's really nothing I love more than a great idea. Unfortunately in my experience, most of my great ideas, or the great ideas of those closest to me, sound really great in theory. In practice, they almost always never turn out as expected.


Example: As a 10th grader, being at the ripe old age of 16, I thought that it would be a really great idea to get my belly button pierced. My best friend was allowed to pierce hers in 9th grade and I just didn't see why I couldn't have mine done, too. Being that I was underage and would need parental consent, I casually brought up the idea to my parents, who wasted no time laughing in my face at the thought of me even having the courage to ask. I was pretty furious with them for laughing off my great idea. At one point, my best friend's mom, who was "cool enough" in my eyes to allow her daughter to pierce her belly button, told me that I should come up with a written list of reasons why I should be allowed to do have my belly button pierced. I could then give the list to my mom and dad to try and convince them further to allow me just this one piercing. I kid you not- reason #1.... was this:

"I know that a big concern of yours is that my shirts are not long enough to cover my midriff. If I had a belly button ring, and it started to show, then I would know that my shirt was too short and inappropriate. A belly button ring would be like an indicator for whether or not my clothes are okay to wear to school."

My poor, poor mom and dad. 

Now of course, that reason alone, along with the other reasons I pathetically tried to scrounge up to get them to say yes, didn't end up working. And being that most of the time having my parents say "no" to me made me want to rebel against them even more, I took matters into my own hands. I received word from a very credible high school friend source that a new Asian nail salon down the street did body piercings WITHOUT the permission of your parents! You could be a minor and it made no difference. Now that sold me. I was going to pierce my belly button and there was nothing my parents could do to stop me. 

I really wish I would've been smarter. What turned out to be this cool nail salon ended up being one of the most traumatic experiences I have ever had. I was taken back into this dark room of the nail salon, the smell of acetone filling my nostrils like a slow, lethal poison, by a woman who spoke barely any English, and sat down on an unsanitized massage chair (which they used for massages, of course) and promptly had a hollow needle the size of a drinking straw DRIVEN into my STOMACH! Not my belly button. MY STOMACH. This woman did no sterilizing, no numbing of the area, no explanation for what was about to take place. I mean, really. Was I that desperate? You bet. I didn't say a single word. No matter how bad it hurt, how much I knew this wasn't going to turn out, I didn't care. I was taking matters into my own hands. 

I walked out of Tiffany Nail and Spa on Larpenteur Avenue with a brand new piercing that day. But I warn you, it was not the belly button piercing I anticipated. It was a stupid, botched STOMACH piercing, meaning she missed the mark on where to actually insert the needle, and I had a horrible ring hanging from the wound that said "FLIRT" in swanky font. I was mortified. And I instantly knew what my parents would say to me when they found out... "You should have listened to us!!!"

It has been seven years since the day I decided to take matters into my own hands. The belly button ring has since been removed. In fact, it didn't last more than two days. I told my mom (who is a nurse) with embarrassment and she not only refrained from telling me off, but took me into her office to make it better! Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. I still have the scars from that dreaded needle and "FLIRT" ring. Tiffany Nail and Spa closed down not long after I went in for my "procedure." Again... what a great idea in theory. In practice? Not so much. 

I bring this up because it relates directly to the fact that about two months ago, I got an invitation on Facebook to my five year high school reunion. I wasn't aware that people did five year reunions, but apparently, the organizers from the class of 2007 decided to be different and hold one this summer for the sake of getting together, catching up, and seeing old friends. My immediate thought was "Hm. What a great idea in theory." But then when I started to think about who I was in high school (AKA the idiot who got her belly button pierced at a sketchy nail salon) I began to think otherwise. I began to reminisce about the days of old, the times in high school that have long since passed and taken the embarrassing memories with them. Is it really necessary to get together after only five years to bring up these times in the past that I'd sooner rather forget? 

I made the mistake of telling this to my good friend Lauren, who I graduated from high school with. I should have bit my tongue because Lauren told me that she was one of the organizers of the event! She also proceeded to tell me that they have received little support and lots of complaints about the event on Facebook. My favorite comment as I was scrolling through the feedback... 

Owen Patrick

this makes me want to shit blood

Oh to be that blatantly honest. I felt bad that Lauren was putting in all this effort into something that people were being kind of rude about. I started to re-think my attitude toward the reunion and it even prompted me to look back at some of my high school memories. 

Found my letter to self, a project in 9th grade Language Arts addressing yourself as a senior. I'm loving the handwriting.

Proof that I actually "did" high school.

The envelope containing my letter to self, also containing my forgotten obsession with Ashton Kutcher, Justin Timberlake, Orlando Bloom, and of course, the Real Slim Shady. I also must have had an obsession with myself since I felt the need to include my awful 9th grade yearbook photo among the ranks of hotties.

 It was actually pretty fun to peruse back on these memories and then think about the more embarrassing ones, like the belly button story. I could include the memories of when my best friend (same one from the earlier story) and I decided to take my parents van for a joyride at age 15.. and got caught. Or the story of when we TP'd my own house (yea, really). But those are for another blog post at another time. 

I continued to go through the Facebook group and was actually pretty surprised to see that lots of my classmates have gone on to do some really cool things. Lots of them live in other countries. A handful are currently in medical school. Quite a few have kids (nothing like breaking from tradition!). Quite a few are married or engaged, like me. And quite a few, as to be expected, are doing the same old thing that they were doing five years ago, living in Roseville, working the register at the local SuperAmerica. Nothing wrong with it, but it does kind of make me laugh to see how things have, and have not, changed. 

Last Monday, Dusty and I went and saw American Reunion at AMC. If you are (or maybe aren't) an American Pie fan, I would recommend the movie either way because I thought it was pretttttty funny. And it kind of lightened my outlook on high school reunions. If the classmates of East Great Falls, Class of '99 can hold a 13 year reunion out of the convenience of marketing a potential movie blockbuster, why can't the Roseville Class of '07 do the same for the more logical choice of 5 years? So my conclusion after talking with Lauren, and reminiscing, and seeing the movie, was that maybe I will give the reunion a go. What could it hurt? And maybe I will walk away from it with unknown stories similar to mine with the belly button. Who knows. Sometimes I still can't believe it's been five years. 

Ladies (and gentleman) of 2007, you may be seeing me soon! Check me out, front and center. I'm reppin' the Dasani water bottle.

 

Covering all the bases!

Whenever I log onto Blogger, I always hesitate to write because it kind of seems like I'm constantly trying to come up with good material that will interest people. Well, good thing my last significant blog post was almost an entire month ago because.... A LOT has happened in that month! And what I love, and what I'm happy to report, is that it is all mostly good that has happened. Can't argue with that huh? Where to begin? Let's start with mid-March.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I recently began a new job as a nanny for good friends of Dusty and I who have an ADORABLE baby girl that is 4 months old. One of the early "perks" of nannying was that the family has an iPad, which they were adament about letting me know I could use. Who could pass up playing around with an iPad? Well... I got so attached that I decided to BUY MY OWN. And I almost feel like that is what has kept me from all that writing... It even feels weird right now typing on a keyboard! So yes, I am now an iPad owner. It has kind of changed my life. Like right now... I have my laptop in hand, and the iPad set up with last weeks episode of Dancing With the Stars to get me through. Amazing (unless you aren't a DWTS fan... which most likely, you aren't.)

Moving on.. Another thing that has kept me away from the internet was a fantastic vacation to Phoenix and... LAS VEGAS! To be honest, I don't even really know where to start. I had my reservations about Vegas before we left... "Sin City" "Gambling capital of the world"... I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to like it and that the city was just going to be way too busy for me. Well, I was all wrong. I had an absolute blast in Las Vegas and know that it was mostly because of the company we kept while visiting. We are super lucky to have great friends, Steph and Danny, from Bethel, who now live in LA (which is MUCH too far for my liking) but we have now established an annual Easter get together since we had great times with them last year spending Easter in Arizona. I was the only one of the bunch who had never before experienced Las Vegas and we had some good times. It was more of a "take in everything you can" in three days type trip, but it did not disappoint. Some of the highlights in picture form...

The guys at Caesar's Palace

And the girls!

Vegas by night

Danny, Steph, and Danny's Pencil 'Stache

After winning $20 on slots, I felt like the queen of Vegas. Later that night, however, I felt like a Vegas fool, when I not only lost those winnings, but also gave up $20 more. No more slots for me. 

We'll be back!

We are so happy to have good friends that we are always guaranteed a good time with. LA next year? Why not?

Last Sunday was our last day in Vegas, and we were all pretty bummed out to be heading out and saying goodbye. After a stop at Yogurtland just outside of the Strip, Danny gave a marvelous suggestion- why not head back to Arizona, all four of us?! How could we pass that up? So they drove the 4+ hours back to Surprise, AZ and spent Sunday night and all of Monday with us in the sun. It was great! We even got to introduce them to Cayden and Micah, Dusty's nephews, who I think were pretty excited to have another couple of "big kids" around to entertain them.

This was also the day I decided not to wear sunscreen for an hour in the sun- I am still paying for that mistake. I woke up this morning just shedding like a snake. SPF is always best, lesson learned. 

Danny writes an AMAZING blog and I am hoping he conjures up a recap of his own soon, because I know it will be far more hysterical and entertaining than my attempt. Get to writing Danny, I am more than happy to help you boost your blog credit with AdSense!!! Since Danny is a groomsmen in our wedding, we are pretty excited to spend some more time with these two in June!

Alright, so, I can cross the Vegas recap off my list. What's next you ask? Well how about a little update on our honeymoon?

I am pretty happy to report that Dusty and I have officially figured out two very important aspects to our upcoming marriage:
1~ APARTMENT!
2~ HONEYMOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

So.. an update on housing! When Dusty and I started dating in 2008, he was living with two good friends in downtown St. Paul in the most amazing apartment building EVER! It was close to the action, but still tucked away in the quietness of downtown St. Paul. When Dust had to move out, it was a sad, sad day. We were also disappointed to hear that recently, good friends of ours tried to rent an apartment there and were never contacted back by the property manager, who had a pretty poor track record with follow up. Our dream since getting engaged was to find a more modern (but affordable) condo to buy in downtown St. Paul. We were pretty bummed about a month ago when we realized that that option was not going to work out. Well, on St. Patrick's Day, we drove by the apartment building just for fun and noticed that they were advertising for renters. Dust got his phone out IMMEDIATELY and called the building to leave a voice-mail, but expecting not to hear back since obviously our friends had pretty bad luck attempting to get in touch with the property manager. We were shocked when two days later, on Monday, not only did we get a call, but were suggested an apartment on the top floor with a 180 degree view of the city skyline. We were also asked if we were interested in getting a tour. Um... yes?! We were there by that Friday, fell in LOVE with the apartment, filled out an application, and were accepted last week while we were vacationing in AZ! Not only that, but as it turns out, the old property manager is gone and we have been working with two amazingly helpful landlords who return our calls and are there to help with any questions! :) Can't argue with that! What we are really excited about is living out our dream of being in the city while still living in an affordable, comfortable living space. Definitely an answer to our prayers.

Just a little preview of where we will be living- top unit! Of course we will post more pictures as we get to move in (Dust at the beginning of June, and me obviously after) Can't wait to make it our home. 

Now for the best news of all, at least to me, we finally booked our flights to Lihue airport in Kauai, Hawaii and will be traveling there the day after we are MARRIED for a wonderful week at the time share of our sister and brother-in-law, who have so graciously allowed us to stay in their unit. Not a bad wedding present, eh? I swear, I'm more excited for the honeymoon than the wedding. Not to mention that I absolutely LOVE Kauai, it does not get much more tropical/paradise than that. We are pretty excited to have that all figured out. Not to mention that when we travel there, we are going to be officially married! So so so excited about that!

In other news, I have been keeping busy with wedding plans, reading, and looking forward to my birthday on Wednesday, and Dusty's on Thursday! It has also been great picking up some hours at EagleCrest in the main office doing reception work and hanging out with those old people :) I just love 'em. It's amazing how refreshing they can be after spending seven weeks with teenagers and all day with a four month old!

And what have I been reading, you ask? I got through the second Hunger Games book after seeing the movie (which was amazing) and I am currently on the third. After that, I plan on moving back to good ol' John Grisham since I recently bought two of his novels at Half-Price Books for less than 2 dollars.

OH! I almost forgot about the second half to our trip in Arizona- it was, in a word, RELAXING. Great to spend time with Dusty's mom and step-dad and just kick back and take in the RAYS. We played lots of Dominoes, rented a few movies (The Kids are Alright, which was actually a really good movie, and The Descendants, which I fell asleep during) and figured out a lot of small details for the wedding with Char. As always, we are beyond grateful for their hospitality all the time and can't wait for them to get up to MN as the days wind down to the big day that we have been waiting for! Our trip ended with a smooth flight home sitting behind a rather tall athletic looking man who I soon learned goes by the name of Donovan McNabb. There were two things that I was quite curious about having a former NFL quarterback (of course most recently with the Vikings) on the plane ride home... one, what is Donovan McNabb doing flying coach on Southwest Airlines, and two, what is Donovan McNabb doing flying coach on Southwest Airlines to MINNEAPOLIS?! Should we be expecting some kind of comeback move? I like Donovan McNabb about as much as the next guy, but please, say it ain't so. I felt kinda bad for the guy truthfully when we landed because he hung out by the pop machines alone trying not to be noticed and literally everyone at baggage claim was whispering, "Hey, look, it's Donovan McNabb!" Poor guy.

I think that about does it- see you again in another month for a hopefully just as interesting recap....? Kidding. I will definitely try to post updates more frequently from now on :)

From my phone

Hey people... This is my first (and most likely ONLY) blog post from the iPhone. I am writing to plead graciously to all of you to STAY TUNED... I promise to update soon with valuable information regarding the following:

-honeymoon travel plans update
-housing update!!!! (meaning dust and I have found a place to LIVE!!!)
-recap of my new job(s)
-recap of our fabulous trip to VEGAS with our good friends Steph and Danny
-recap of the second half of our trip to Arizona (which is where I am right now!)

....plus probably some other random information for all you faithful readers to digest.

I will leave you with this: my wedding is in 78 days. Ho-ly CRAP.

Comin' back atchya in just a couple days!! I promise!