Things our house has yours probably doesn't...

Hello everyone! It's been quite a long time since I've posted. Life is quite busy these days with the wedding only a month away and moving into a house! But, we're moved in. Not unpacked, but moved in!

The house we bought is very unique. Here are just a few things that we have discovered...Some things may disappear over our stay in this house, but some will stay!

We have a large fireplace on the main level with lots of fun shelves. However, I don't think I'll be putting breakable items up there. Luna has decided she likes to hang out up there.

There's a balcony overlooking our main living room.

We have a VERY pink bathroom....

Our backyard is the Root River. However, it get to it, we have this nice retaining wall.

Our kitchen cabinets have spaces underneath them instead of on top like most modern kitchens.

I took down a clock that the previous owners left, and this is what I found. Wow...

This is the most 60s looking thing in the house. It's quite filthy as well. High priority on the replacement list.

Tony is VERY excited about this. We have intercoms/radios around the entire house including the outside.

Once we are finished unpacking, I will take better pictures and post them!

Pre-marital Seminar

This morning Tony and I arrived at Bethel Lutheran at 7:50 am (yes, on a Saturday...) for an 8 hour long pre-marital seminar. We had no idea what the day would entail, but I know I was excited for it!

We started off with a retired pastor talking about commitment. He was very sweet. He's in his upper 80s, and his wife passed away 22 years ago. There were several times that I had teary eyes from his very loving stories about his wife. He still had his wedding band on. I didn't know she had passed until the very end of his session.

Then, Pastor Wahl did a talk about having a church wedding and conflict resolution. We have discovered that I solve conflicts by blaming myself, and Tony solves conflicts by fixing it by himself. These will be good things to know when we have arguments throughout our marriage. Yes, I'm sure they will happen sometimes...

Next on the agenda was a licensed psychologist. She typically deals with people who are having marital troubles, but she spoke to us about our family origins. It really was interesting to have some good conversations about our family units and how similar and different they are.

We had a delicious lunch from Bread Baker.

Pastor Andy then spoke about communication. We did an activity with the Gary Chapman book The 5 Love Languages. Tony and I had already read the book and discussed it together, but it was a nice refresher. My top love language is Quality Time and Tony's is a tie between Quality Time and Physical Touch.

Pastor Anjanette came in next. (she's doing our wedding ceremony) She gave a talk about marriage and sexuality. We read from Song of Solomon. Who knew there was a romance novel within the midst of the Bible?

Our last session was with a young man from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. We talked about financial planning starting now instead of after our wedding day. Apparently 75% of divorces are caused by financial problems, so it's a really good thing to talk about now. Tony and I have spent a great deal of time preparing for our marriage, but it was still a nice session to learn more at.

Overall, I enjoyed our day. I think it's really beneficial to have something like this. There were four other couples in attendance as well, so it was good to hear other experiences and ideas. I liked that all 3 active full time pastors prepared sessions. I am starting to really feel like Bethel is my church and my congregation!

On a different note: the house is ours! We'll begin moving in soon! Watch for more updates :)

The work has begun...

Last weekend, Tony and I picked out the colors for our bedroom and upstairs living room for our new house (which is ours in 11 hours)! Cher (Tony's mom) expressed interest in helping us paint. I was thinking that we would be starting tonight, but Cher e-mailed Tony, got the keys to the house yesterday, and got to work. She was there till after dinner last night and until dark tonight. The only thing left in our bedroom is one of our closets! I stopped at Menard's tonight and picked up hardwood floor cleaner; we'll be ready to move into our bedroom in no time!

Here's Cher working hard painting above the bedroom door. What a great mother-in-law I'm going to have!

I did my share of work too. However, I did not put in the hours that Cher did...



Our first picture in the new house!

This is the view when you walk straight into the bedroom. It overlooks the Root River. 

These are in just about every room in our house. It's an intercom system, but it doesn't work. Tony things he'll get it working eventually....

While the cats away...the mice will play...

I have a long, hard day at work, and I come home to find my kitten doing this. What a naughty little thing she is!

 As soon as I walked in the door, she put her paws on the glass and did a fireman slide down the window! At this exact moment in time, she is sitting on the coffee table (a place she knows she's not supposed to be) staring at me, daring me to get her off. My kitten is picking up on my student's tendencies.....

Crazy busy week/weekend!

This was the first week of classes for me at Augsburg and the first week of school for me at ZED. That in itself was crazy! Our wedding is really sneaking up on me now....So, Thursday, my cousin Hannah came and we went shopping around for wedding cake toppers. We found one as well as flower girl baskets! She also baked me a beautiful cake for my birthday!

Friday, we celebrated with Cher (Tony's mom) on her retirement. There was a wonderful reception at Mayo, and then the family headed to Daniel's in Kasson for supper. There were 3 surprise guests as well! Here are 2 of them with a very happy little cousin/nephew!

Saturday morning, Mindy had a beautiful bridal shower for me. It was an around the clock theme. What a great idea that was! I had a blast. However, I have no pictures to prove it. Tony's fabulous aunt Laur did take a bunch for us though. Hopefully I can post a few of my faves another day!

After the shower, Tony and I went to Marigold Days and made our first home furnishing purchase for our new house (which is ours next Friday!!) I'll take a picture when it's set up at our house!

Today was quite a busy day. Tony and I had our first praise team performance at Bethel Lutheran. I sang, and Tony played percussion. I could only make the first service, since I am the pre-kindergarten teacher. I have 14 little kiddos in my class! It is a very busy classroom to say the least....

After church, I picked up Natalie (our niece) and took her to the Smurfs Movie. It was smurf-tastic! (If you've seen the movie, you know how often they use the word smurf)

Here's Natalie with her Care Bear Gummy Bears. 

We made a stop at Flapdoodles after the movie. Uncle Tony joined us as well. We all shared the Cookie Monster. Some little girl was digging through and stealing all the cookie dough bits.... 

Natalie really enjoyed the ice cream. It's even in her hair!

Tonight, my mom, Tony and I stuffed, addressed, stamped, and sealed all of our addresses. My dad is putting them in the mail tomorrow! We had just enough...there were 3 left over without envelopes, but those go to Mom and Dad, Cher and Alan, and Tony and I as keepsake items. Whew, glad that step's over!

Quarter of a century...

Today is my 25th birthday! I know that it really isn't that old, but for some reason, I'm actually starting to feel like an adult. It could be that I had to wake up at 5:30, get to work, have no one know at work that it was my birthday, plan my Sunday School lesson, eat a quick supper with my family, and then head to choir practice. The day just felt like my ordinary life. This is not a bad thing! I'm not meaning this to sound like I'm complaining, but it just starts to feel different once you reach a certain age. I don't even get carded anymore!

However, I have some wonderful people in my life that made my birthday special! It was so nice to be included on the August/September Knutson/Sutter birthday cake this year! (Thank you Mindy!) My parents, brother, great aunt and fiance took me out to dinner to Olive Garden. I love my Italian foods. I had a really nice surprise at work today. I was skipping out on class for a second to take a restroom break, when I saw a familiar face walk into the school office. My cousin Matt stopped by with our friend Curt to bring me some cookies and say Happy Birthday! It was such a sweet surprise! I also got a few gifts this year:



Aunt Elinor made me this cribbage board! It's my very first that is not a travel size! She is so talented!

Apparently Will and Tony feel I need to eat more chocolate or else I eat a lot so they're helping my wallet size....Mom and Dad also got me Bananagrams. It's such a fun game!

 Laur and Jill got me this beautiful little tea set at Gold Rush. I have started collecting them, and they're helping my collection grow!

This is the box that the tea set came in. Luna really likes to play in it!

Maya Jayne Knutson

This morning, Tony and I drove to St. Peter, MN to visit the newest addition to the Knutson family, Maya Jayne. I'm not officially her aunt yet, but I sure love her like I am (along with Harvey and Natalie of course!)

Here's the beautiful girl all snuggled with me.

We stripped her down because Brian and Kate wanted her to start waking up to eat a little. Not the best angle...

Uncle Tony! She's really waking up now!

This is how we left her, all snuggled up and sleeping soundly.

We would've left St. Peter sooner; however, Tony accidentally locked my keys in my car. Good thing I have AAA! We made it back in time for Tony to get to work in a rush, and I could get to Laur and Jill's for a delicious zucchini fry! What a great Labor Day!

"Time to Spank the Taste buds"

FYI: I overheard a woman screaming "time to spank the taste buds" at the top of her lungs when I started my first trip around the Madison capitol square to find my first food items. It was priceless.

In case you do not know, the Taste of Madison is this enormous festival that fills the ENTIRE capitol square. The Madison area restaurants bring their best dishes and drinks. It is a fabulous event. This is my third year attending.

My first taste test: deep fried boudain balls. It was interesting. The inside is a Cajun sausage with rice and other good stuff. Not my favorite, but it was delicious.

Raegan chose Root beer Float ice cream from the Sassy Cow as her first choice. She really enjoyed it!

Next, Heidi and I tried Reuben Rolls! By far my favorite NEW item that I tried this year! Fantastic!

This little treat is the reason I come to the Taste of Madison. Bluefie's cookie dough egg roll. Inside this seemingly Asian roll up, is actually hot and gooey chocolate chip cookie dough. WONDERFUL!

Then we had a blue corn tostada with guacamole. It was ok, but not fantastic.

We took a break where Raegan played with bubbles while Heidi and I sipped our wines and tried to stay warm.

Snuggle time with Raegan and mommy.

Raegan needed to use the bathroom, so while we were inside the capitol, we decided to go all the way up to the observatory. What a beautiful view. Can you see the lake in the background? There's also 1 of 4 musical stages that were positioned around the square.

This was my last treat from the taste. I had jerk chicken nachos from Bluefies. It was great! However, I needed to pull over on my way back to Minnesota to get some Tums. 

When I was driving home, I stopped in West Salem to see my aunt Christa, uncle Mark, cousins and Christa's entire family. They all have permanent camp sites in Nashonic. It is a wonderful campground! Christa and Kaylee took me on a tour with their golf cart. I did lots of watching Morgyn doing tricks. I used to babysit her (my aunt Christa's niece). I also did lots of snuggling with Mason. He is Morgyn's brand new baby brother. What a little sweetheart he is!

Tomorrow morning, Tony and I are driving to St. Peter, MN to visit the newest addition to the Knutson family: Maya Jayne. We're SO excited to meet her!

Average day in Madison

This weekend was the 3rd Annual Birthday Extravaganza weekend. I head to Madison to spend my birthday weekend with Heidi, Raegan and Mike. Heidi and Raegan usually have wonderful things planned for us! Here's what we did this year (keeping in mind that the Taste of Madison is today, but I will reserve an entire blog post for the different foods we try).

This was our supper on Friday night when I arrived in Madison. I had a s'more cupcake, Heidi had a banana split, and Raegan had a princess cupcake. They were delicious! What a healthy dinner!



Normally, I request to go to the downtown farmer's market on Saturday morning. It's a fantastic place full of goodies. However, it was pouring. So, we went to Stella's Bakery instead. This is the home place of the spicy cheese bread. Many of you have heard me go on and on about how wonderful spicy cheese bread is. I bought 2 loaves.

Raegan got a giant cookie for breakfast. Heidi and I had empanadas, and Mike had a breakfast sandwich. Best bakery in town!

Then we went to the National Mustard Museum. It was fantastic!

Here's Raegan with the mascot.

These are the different mustard bottles from the US. They had different cases for other countries. 

These are the three that I picked out to try. I tried about 10 all together. I ended up buying the Honey Maple one. Delicious!

Then we took a ferry ride to get across Lake Madison. It was a new experience for me. I was shocked that it didn't sink when we all drove our cars on it!

Then we went to Sky Hi Apple Orchard. It was a beautiful place. It was high up in the bluffs overlooking Devil's Lake. I had to try a caramel apple. 

Then we headed to the Capitol Brewery. They have delicious beers! They are currently celebrating their 25th year, so I thought it was fitting that I celebrate with them. Cheers to 25 years!

Raegan tagged along to all the day's activities, but she stayed home with a babysitter for dinner and drinks. I tried Falafel for the first time! Delicious! We ate at Bunky's. They serve Mediterranean and Italian food.  I also had the Pesto Fettuccine Alfredo.

After dinner we headed to a few other establishments to have some after dinner drinks. There are no pictures to prove this however...Later today I will post the delicious treats we try at the Taste of Madison. Maybe then I'll have a few pictures of Mike and Heidi as well. They were cleverly avoiding the camera!