introducing....

Zachary! My good friends Mary (she was my matron of honor) and Nate had baby number four this past September. Since life has been a little hectic with Nick starting school, we were slackers about getting to Farmington to meet him. We finally got down there last weekend. Though, I think we played our cards right as that means he is about 2 1/2 months old now, and interacts a bit more. Anyway, he is a super kid. Here is a picture of us.

Ah, we like cheese...

I make no secret of the fact that I am not the type of person that knows titles of songs and who sings them. Nor am I great at knowing lyrics. Apparently when words have music behind them, I have a hard time understanding them. I like music, a lot, but this just isn't a gift I have. Usually, this just doesn't come up very often. I try not to sing along when other people are around unless I KNOW the words.

One occasion where this came out, I actually that I asked, because I honestly didn't know: Last Christmas season, I was probably scrapbooking and listening to my Christmas cds. I have a collection of 3 disks that has everything you can think of, and then about 30 more songs. Some, I had NEVER heard of. One of these songs, I could not figure out for the life of me. What on earth does "we like cheese" have to do with Christmas??? So, I braved the laughter and torment and asked my wonderful and very knowledgeable husband.....Whats this song? I believe the answer was a strange look and then "Huh?" So I explained...I have always thought they are singing "we like cheese." Laughter ensued. Ok, at least he didn't know the answer either. So I consulted the cd insert (no, I hadn't in the 5+ years I've owned the cd), only to learn that the song is "All we, like sheep" from Handel's "Messiah." I have never heard it other than this one disk. I'm not sure if it is just this arrangement or this choir singing it, but it really does sound like "we like cheese." Maybe I should send in the recommendation for a cheese commercial.

On a similar note...have you heard people sing "deck the halls with balls of holly" rather than boughs of holly...yeah, i DO have that one right.

Merry Christmas!

interpreting a dream...

For the past 10 years or so I've had a semi-regular recurring dream. I have it about once every 2-3 months, sometimes a tad more often. It is a dream where all my teeth fall out. In many of these dreams I try to put them back where they should be, but they keep falling out. Sometimes I'm in a car, sometimes in a room, sometimes at work, other times....I'm not sure where I am. But usually all my teeth fall out over whatever time frame this dream is. My most recent dream included the fact that some of my teeth are "restored" and the implant posts fell out along with the bridge of teeth.

What does this all mean? Well, there are many books and web sites with theories on what dreams mean. It could be a fear of being rejected, fear of my beauty fading (yeah right, like that could happen), fear of rejection, fear of losing power, putting my trust in human made things rather than God, telling lies, and my personal favorite: fear of losing my fortune (money).

Well, thats a lot of options. Apparently dreaming about teeth falling out is a pretty common dream. I, however, have a different take on the whole interpreting of this dream. About 10 years ago I was in a car accident where I lost 5 teeth and damaged others, ultimately having another 4 pulled. I now have very extensively restored teeth. Do I think MAYBE that has something to do with my dreams? I'm leaning towards that. Maybe, since I have spent so much time, energy and money thinking about and dealing with my teeth, it really is a dream that means little more than the obvious: I'm afraid to loose my teeth. Could it be that simple?

'round about 'round about goes the little mousey

Ok, I would really like to know who thought that roundabouts would be a great idea to have in MN. Apparently when the people decided the lower risk of severity of accidents with roundabouts was a great thing, they didn't consider all the extra up keep that would be required with snow falls. Things like plowing, sand and salt...maybe advising people that they should slow down a little more when turning around a circle that small....

I wasn't a big fan of the roundabout idea when it opened in the fall with good weather. I really don't like them now.

on the bright side...its snowing in December in MN. Must be a product of global warming. For me, it just isn't Christmas time with no snow. For me bare trees, brownish green grass and cold weather aren't enough to get me in the holiday spirit. My husband assures me it is perfectly normal for "Christmas to look like that." silly Florida boy!

Relocating a house

It was a sad day in Waconia. For Thanksgiving we went to visit my parents and then some other family in Carver County (that part was not sad, it was rather happy). It has been two weeks since we have been to Waconia. In that time, the house I grew up in was cut apart and moved. This first picture is from November 3rd. This is how my house has looked for the past 15 years.









Now, it looks like this.


Yup, the house and all the trees has been replaced with a big pile of dirt. It's a little sad to see this instead of the house that I called "home" for so many years. But it is nice to know it has been relocated, which means someone will "flip" it and it will go on to be home to another family. Here is another angle before and after.



Before









After

Vikings came thru

As some of my loyal readers know, I am a pretty die hard Vikings fan. However, I'm also a realistic Vikings fan. I have a NFL Mastercard. This gives me points per dollar spent that I can redeem for football related rewards. This August, Nick and I decided we would cash in points and cancel the card. We were able to get a pair of tickets to a game. We were pretty excited and picked the 11/18 game vs. the Raiders. Well, many of you know, this has been a "rebuilding" season for the Vikings (again) and were a fantastic 3-6 going into the game. With the Raiders sitting at 2-7 we were not all that excited about going anymore. But we didn't talk ourselves out of going and went, knowing we would have fun, and could always leave at half time if we wanted to. Besides, we had pretty good seats. We didn't get to see Adrian Peterson play, due to his injury, but we did get to see him when he came out for warm up. Our seats were sect 117, Row 3 seats 15 & 16. This means were were behind the goal on the "home side" the section next to where the Vikings come running out of the tunnel, in the 3rd row. It was pretty neat to be that close. The downside is there are 36 rows of seats, so we had to go down 33 rows of seats, and back up them....75 steps each way. We didn't make many trips.

Anyway, there were some great plays. We sat next to a guy who lives near New Germany, small world! And the Vikings won. Its always better when we win. The cold and rain, waiting to get on the cramped light rail train is that much easier to deal with when your team wins.

This is all we got to see of Adrian Peterson. He is the one not wearing the hood.

$60,000 Necklace

On Thursday I had the opportunity to go with a friend to Wixon's "Girls Night." This is apparently an annual event. They invite all their female clients and their friends to come to the store for cheese and wine and cookies. They also offer free "gifts" and the opportunity to try on anything you want. Well, I tried on an awesome necklace. The site doesnt have a picture of it, so I cant put it up, but it is basically a "chain" made up of 1/2 carat diamonds that are 2 separate halves. There is a 3 carat emerald that connects the 2 halves of diamond chains, with some diamond chain extending lower than the emerald. Great description, I know. Anyway, it was fabulous! and a mere $60,000 (yes, that many zeros!) I also tried on an emerald and diamond ring. The emerald was HUGE! Pretty rare for an emerald to be that large and that flawless and that green, and be natural. The emerald had to be at least an inch and square. And the setting was all diamonds, not chips, but cut diamonds. Around the emerald, down the setting, around the setting, down the band, on the sides of the band....all diamonds. Did i mention not chips. Yeah, I had a ring on my hand that had a price tag of $115,000. yup. I could never wear a ring like that. but I did have it on! Its kind of neat to have that kind of bling on your person, even if just for a moment. I also got to try on several other earrings, pendants and bracelets, all much more reasonable at $5-6,000. I think one pair of earrings was only $1000. Seems like pocket change after the ring.

My recommendation, if you get the chance, try on the spendy stuff!

theAlley

So, as many of you know, Nick and I are part of a church plant. The church is called theAlley Church. We hold worship at Cottage Grove JR High. We recently found an opportunity to rent a store front. The board has looked at the space and got details. Our next step is to present it to the congregation and find out what they think. We plan to make a decision in early December. We request your prayers for support and direction as we approach this decision.

a nice 66 degrees!

Bless the guy from Rumpca that was able to restore our furnace to working condition. Turns out it was "real dirty" and impressive to be working at a mere 35 years old. Our furnace is older than we are. Hope it holds out a few more years! Oh yeah, and some thermal coupler blah blah blah...needed replacing.

The Great Update

So, its been a while since I've written much on my blog. This update may be a little long, but serves to update you, my dedicated readers (all 3 of you), on what has been happening. (This may also be a good place to check out for prayer requests....) For simplicity sake, I'm not going to try to get dates right.

on the "family health" front: my grandma has been diagnosed (the best they can) with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Currently she is scheduled for some follow up/work up testing at the Mayo in December. Its been tough especially for my mom. My mom already does almost daily care for her father who is in a nursing home with alzheimer's. She also does most of the household stuff for Grandma already. Around the same time as my Grandma's diagnosis, my dad had some health issues. He seems to have gotten things worked out and is doing well. (praise God for that!)

My parents had an additional blow right around that same time. They have been working for a year with a company that wants to buy their property and build a Walgreens. they had a new house lined up. that house fell thru, so this past weekend, Nick helped my mom move everything they could into a rental home. they will stay there while looking for a new home.

You may be asking "why did Nick help your parents move?" well, first off, he is a fabulous person! and second, i would have helped as well, except i was already signed up do a Relay For Life conference. I had a great time and learned a lot. Ive got Relay on the brain now though. As most of you know (because I hit you up for money) Nick and I participated in the first ever Cottage Grove Relay for Life in July of 07. I am part of the planning committee for the RFL 08.

In September of 07 we kicked off "the Alley Church" in Cottage Grove. This is the church plant we have been part of planning for some time now. So far we seem to be on the right track. We are seeing new faces and generating a buzz in the city. The men's group has kicked off (Nick is participating in this) and the Women's group kicks off in 2 weeks. the Kids programs are under way. So far it has been a great experience for both of us. The board has recently been talking about looking into finding a more permanent place for worship. We have a few leads.

Nick has started Pharmacy school. He has a 4.0 gpa right now. Thats right...Mr Smarty pants.

I continue to work my vet tech job, counting down until my husband is a pharmacist and i don't have to work full time anymore.

If you remember my post from some time in July when the AC went out, it was a really hot weekend...well, we currently don't have a working furnace, which is unfortunate because this week has been kind of chilly here in MN. Its also unfortunate because that certainly means a large bill to get it working. hopefully its something simple like the flux capacitor again.

A few weeks ago we had dinner with some friends. it was great because it included playing wii and preparing supper with a big flame that set off all the smoke alarms in the house. it was fun!

I think thats all I have for today's update.