Night with the Niece and Nephew

Last night Tony and I babysat Harvey and Natalie so John and Mindy could go out to dinner and run some errands. It's been a LONG time since we did that. I believe last June....

Our night consisted of wrestling around with Uncle Tony, eating a delicious supper, singing silly songs, reading books, showing off Christmas toys, playing Don't Break the Ice, french braiding hair and going to bed. It was a great night! Here are just a few photos to highlight the night:

Natalie and me.

We were playing airplane.

Uncle Tony read a lot to Harvey.

Unfortunately, those are really the only pictures that captured our night. Tony took several videos of me singing silly songs with the kiddos, but I think I'll pass on posting those to the public.....

The Big 56

Today is my mom's 56th birthday! My aunt Amy had my parents and I over for dinner tonight to help her celebrate. Tony had to work...story of our lives.

Here's a picture of me with the birthday girl.

I was on cake duty. It's not as fancy as Mindy's cakes, but I gave it my best shot.

Amy's lighting the candles. The blue thing around her neck is an aromatherapy neck warmer she gave my mom for her birthday present. We all tried it out.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Babysitting

Last night, Tony and I had the honor of babysitting Connor and Megan. Amy and Rob had a little neighborhood get together to attend, so we were more than willing to spend some quality cousin time with the kiddos. Here are the highlights of our evening together:

While I cooked supper Meg, Connor and Tony played on the Kinect. Meg loves fruit ninja! 

Connor had some quality Luna time.

We had a delicious supper: cheddar wursts, mac and cheese, baked beans and chips! Yummo!

Connor is VERY knowledgeable about the stars and constellations. Tony had the great idea to set up his telescope and head outdoors to look at the stars. Connor really gave a good educational talk about them. He even got to see the moons around Jupiter!



When Meg was taking a turn on the big telescope, Connor used his little one.

We came in doors, and I started doing the dishes. While I did that, Meg and Tony played several games of tic tac toe.

and Connor played Angry Birds on my Nook.

After I did all the dishes, we decided to dirty some more! We brought out the stove top popcorn maker that Dad got us for Christmas. The kids thought it was pretty cool to make popcorn like that!

I made the first batch...

delicious!

and Tony made the second batch.

Luna tried the popcorn too. She LOVED it! It was very difficult to keep her out of the bowl....

Yummy goodness!

Brian and Kate gave me a roaster and the ingredients to Cher's Crispix Mix as a Christmas gift. They got the idea from my obsession with the yummy goodness last summer on vacation.

Here it is cooling....

I have to sit at the table and shoo Luna away until it cools. She's very interested. She's not licking it as this angle makes it appear. 

Another shot of Luna admiring it.

This is funny. She noticed that I was taking pictures of her, so she decided to give me a good close-up! 

Some of you may be wondering how I was able to make this yummy goodness when I am supposed to be in Minneapolis for my class. Well, since you asked.....

My first alarm went off at 3:30am, and I finally rolled out of bed at 4:00am. My class started at 8:00am, but I had never been to campus. I wanted to get there nice and early to figure out parking and all that jazz.

I hit the road by 5:00. I stopped at Kwik Trip to pick up some caffeine and made it to Augsburg by 6:45am. I drove around campus and figured out where I needed to be. I then went to Bruegger's Bagels to pinterest for a while and eat a delicious onion bagel.

Around 7:30 I headed back to campus and proceeded to find my classroom. One of my classmates from Rochester campus was already in the classroom, and we visited for a while. Slowly, more and more students arrived.

By 8:03 I was getting a little nervous. There were about 20 students, but there was no instructor. We waited until about 8:15, then one of my classmates called the Augsburg weekend program office. They said they would investigate and call her back.

At 8:35 they called back and told us to sit tight. At 8:45 a lady walks in and informs us that our instructor thought class started NEXT week! So, he wasn't prepared and we were all to leave!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? This is the first time this has EVER happened to me in the 7 years that I have been attending college of some sort. I hopped in my car and drove back home. I grumbled a little here and there on my drive home.

 The positive in all of this: I got to listen to KTIS for 4 whole hours! It's my favorite radio station that cuts out around Oronoco, so I don't get it in my car.... Another positive: I made Cher's Crispix mix!

Happy Saturday everyone!

The not so friendly furnace...

Ever since we had gotten back from our honeymoon, I complained and complained and complained some more about how cold it was in our house! Tony called me a baby and threw me another blanket. Before I left for work on Wednesday, I asked him to check our furnace out. Guess what, it was shot and we needed a new one!

Luckily my dad works in the plumbing and heating business and gave us the number to a great business to call for help. It's a good thing we called when we did because he said it was very dangerous to be using this old furnace. It was emitting a lot of CO2. SCARY! They are currently at our house working away on it now. I took a half day off to let them in, and my father in law Alan will be covering the afternoon shift, so I can go back to work.

Thanks to Jon and Mindy for loaning us their space heater, and thanks to my dad for giving us some wood for our fireplace! Everything works out in the end....and now we won't have this problem for another 20 years!

Here's our corroded and gross furnace from the inside.

Here's the outside pipe. It should not be black! That's what tells us it's dangerous apparently. Good job house inspector who failed to see this! 

Luna has been enjoying lounging around by the fireplace since it has been burning night and day.



I learned how to work the fireplace....

She crawled under the ledge in front of the fireplace and fell fast asleep. 



The Honeymoon.

There are not many pictures to prove that Tony and I went on a honeymoon, but the ones I do have explain a lot of our trip.

To begin, we got set back in Sandstone. I started not feeling very well at all and had some severe pains. Tony said we needed to stop and go to the ER. I was not too happy about that. After the doctor did some tests, gave me some antibiotics and pain pills, we were back on the road!

I was not too happy about this stop....

We stayed at a resort between Tofte and Lutsen, the Chateau Laveau. It was a beautiful little place. This is our view from our patio. We did lots of movie watching, game playing and reading while we were here. I finished my first Nook book!

We did make it up to Grand Marais one of the days. We walked around the little shops and saw this beautiful sunset. We ate at Sven and Ole's and found some Ole and Lena Fortune Cookies for my dad! He always has the best Ole and Lena jokes!

New Year's Eve we switched hotels and went to Duluth. We ate a Bellisio's and went to a part at Dublin's Irish Pub. They had appetizers, fire dancers (the picture below), a magician and a dj. It was fun, but we retired early...

Here we are at the pub.

We had a fun trip, but it's nice to be back home with Luna. We played a game of Monopoly last night when we got back. Luna even joined in. She was the banker!

The Kinect

I gave Tony a Kinect for his xbox for Christmas. Here are some highlights of using the new toy:

Harvey was a fantastic fruit ninja.

Meg's giving fruit ninja a try.

Connor beat all my high scores...

Michelle tried it out too.

Tony and Kaylee had a blast playing Kinect Adventures together!