I am pretty sure Micah is a Genius

Our niece, Micah, turned 2 at the end of March. I am pretty sure she is smarter than the average 2 year old. Of course, having no children and no other nieces or nephews (yet) I have nothing to base this on. Sure, I may be a tad biased.

Over the past few months, we have made it a point to visit Micah and her parents about once a week. Every time we visit Micah runs to door excited that Ni-ko Nick is there. (she says hi to me too) From there, the "LOOK!" and show us whatever happens to have her excited starts.

Friday Nick and I were going to the Relay For Life in Woodbury. Micah lives between my work and the park it was in. So we stopped for a visit. When I got there, Ni-ko Nick was already there. I walked into Micah telling us that Chesh-er says woof woof and that Mem-itt says meow meow. Neither Chester or Emmitt were there, but she remembers being at our house and Chester and Emmitt being there. She also knows most of her colors. She does insist if she said it was blue, it is.

The stories could go on and on, but I will just leave it at, she is a genius!

Wii love it!

It's been a month. I know, I have been a very neglectful blogger. I do apologize for that. After we got back from Florida there was so much going on to blog about, and things that took priority over blogging, that it became a daunting task. Then there was so much to blog about....I felt overwhelmed. So, here we are, clean slate. Ready to blog!

Shortly after receiving the Wii for our birthday's, Nick was "allowed" to set it up. I called dibs on the first game. I played around a bit with making a Mii and the sports package that comes with it. Nick went out buy a game we agreed on and controller. $100 later he came back with Lego's Star Wars and a controller. He did let me play the first round. It didn't take too long to figure out where I was going and what I was doing. Having never before owned a game system, and played very little, it did take some practice. Nick was very patient and did not tell me what I should be doing. I finished the first level! It didn't take long for me to beat episode 1. It was with in the first few days that Nick finished about twice as much as I did. It has remained that way since.

Tonight I accomplished quite a bit of coin collecting and achieving "true Jedi" and other fun things. I do really like the game. We have 2 other games, plus the sports package. We have played the other games very little.

We have had some friends over and have played the sports a little bit. Thats about it though.

Let the celebration begin!

I have always been a fan of the theory, as soon as someone recognizes your birthday, you get to start celebrating it. Well, last night Nick and I received a birthday gift. The party has started.

Not only do we have birthdays in 1 week and then 2 weeks, but this is a "milestone" birthday for both of us. We both turn 30. Since we we will be in Florida for both of our birthdays, my parents decided to spring a gift on us early. We visited them last night to celebrate Mother's Day. And once again my mom proved she ranks right up there with the best of the best. What gift screams "my daughter and son-in-law turn 30?" Thats right, a Wii. Of course, both mom and dad said, once you get it set up, we want to come play it.

Nick has already started a list of all the games and accessories we need to get to go along with it. I did suggest maybe Nick get through finals before we set it up. Makes sense to me.

Here is to gaming fun for this milestone birthday!

THANKS MOM!!!

I love my mom

A short list of just a few of the many things I love about my mom:

1. She always has a suggestion for every "dilemma" I bring to her.
2. My mom has given so much of her time and talent to care for her parents.
3. She thinks the perfect gift is having us visit.
4. She uses "super mom powers" to know when we aren't feeling well.
5. If there is ever something we need help with, she finds a way to make it work.
6. Driving an hour to our house, just to take us to the airport and go back home....WOW!
7. She says "I was just thinking about you" when I call her.
8. She tirelessly helped with ALL my questions and concerns and issues with our wedding. That was a lot of stuff!
9. My mom tells me she prays for me.
10. Mom shares her frustrations with me, and lets me hone the skills she has instilled in me.
11. Even though mom wants me close by, she gladly loaded up my stuff and helped me move away. And then further away. And then she helped me buy a house and move even further away....
12. She can text and drive at the same time... a skill NOT reserved for the youth, but the young at heart.


Of course, I could keep going on and on, but I do have to get to church.

Happy Mothers Day Mom!

Review of Cub's "NOW" clinic

I have been battling an "upper respiratory infection" for the past week. Last Monday I woke up with a scratachy throat and feared I had Strep. It seems that I don't. Over the week my symptoms turned into a cold type bug. This weekend things were getting much better. I used the humidifier in our room during naps and at night. I was starting to taste tiny bits of my food. I thought I was on the mend. Until about 1:00 today.

I was supposed to have lunch with Mary today. Luckily she and her kids were not feeling well either. So I finished my errands and and came home. When I got home I noticed my ear felt like there was more pressure in it. I thought, I need sudafed and a nap. So I took ibuprofen, pseudoephedrine and went to sleep. I woke up 3 hours later not feeling any better. The pressure in my ear was a bit worse and I felt pretty crummy again.

Our friend Tina has been dealing with ear infection issues for a few weeks now. What she has been dealing with does not sound fun to me. And with a trip to Florida scheduled for less than 2 weeks from now, I was a little worried. When my pharmacist student husband came home we talked about my symptoms. We decided to find a minute clinic.
Cub foods in Cottage Grove has such a place. My wonderful husband found out how late they are open and we headed out the door. (I did get dressed first)

At first it was a pretty typical "clinic" visit. I filled out a form that said I had insurance and would pay if they didn't. The nurse asked my symptoms and took my vitals. I wasn't that impressed with the nurse. The CNP came in. She said hi, then mentioned the horrible cough she heard. Yup, that was me. She asked some questions, then checked out my ears. Nick thought she was great because she let him look at my ears. She covered all kinds of questions/answers. She discussed what things I should do at home, what meds to take, side effects, allergic reactions, etc. She also asked about travel. Why yes, we do have plans to travel in less than 2 weeks. She gave me some great pointers on ways to keep my ears clear.

Overall, the experience was a very positive one. She listened to my symptoms and issues. She was knowledgeable with her answers and thorough with her explanations. She gave the proper medical advice and still had the "mom" type care and concern. Oh, and she let Nick look at my ear drums.

If I had an official rating for clinics, I would give it 4 out of 5 thermometers. (5 would have been if the nurse/assistant was awesome too)

After all these years...

I will finally get to see New Kids on the Block (or NKOTB as the cool kids call them) in concert. At least that is the plan. Yes, I was a middle schooler at the height of their popularity. Yes, my brother teased me endlessly about them. Yes, I had female cousins that fed my pre-teen (tween) obsession with all things NKOTB. Joey was my favorite. For a little while, I did like Jordan. Speaking of him, I do have the same birthday as Jordan Knight from New Kids. Oh yeah. I am cool! I think over the span of the several years I was a devoted fan, Danny was the only one that I never liked much.

So, NKOTB are playing a show in Chicago on October 4th. I just happen to have a cousin that lives very close to Chi-town. And another cousin that lives a few hours away. I am so hooked up for the show!

The sad thing is I have been sick the last few days, so I haven't really had a chance to celebrate. :( bummer.

Do you remember your Prom?

Nick and I took advantage of a gift card and went to eat at Sunsets. Apparently tonight is Prom Night for Woodbury. I spent a lot of time staring at some of the dressed girls were wearing. I don't remember quite that much skin at my prom, but maybe I need to pull out the pics and remember it a bit more accurately.

Anyway, Nick and I talked about our proms. My prom seemed to be a bit different than the way "everyone else" seemed to have it. Did anyone else have a "Grand March" or is that just my school?

The waitress said something like, don't you wish it was your prom again, or something like that. No. I don't wish it was my Prom. I would not like to go back to that time in my life I made it through the first time. That is plenty for me. Don't get me wrong, Prom was fun, but I don't want to go again.

Driving, Family, and the Lil' Red Barn

As some of you may have heard, Nick's paternal grandmother passed away last weekend. The funeral was planned for Wednesday. She lived in Elwood Nebraska. That is where the funeral was. We left early on Tuesday morning and arrived in Elwood around 3:30.

What does one do on a 9 hour road trip to Nebraska? We did listen to some ipod tunes, but we also did some reading. I am not a big fan of books on tape, but I did enjoy reading to Nick. Our small group decided to do some Old Testament studying. So I read the summaries I found for Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. I then continued on and read the entire book of Joshua. It isn't tremendously long, but certainly took a while to read. If you haven't looked at the book of Joshua for a while, I encourage you to do so. Some of the names of people and places are TOUGH! I stumbled through quite a few of them. After I finished reading we chatted about it a bit. Before we knew it, we were in Nebraska.

Our first stop...the Lil' Red Barn. I am guessing some of you may wonder, what is the Lil' Red Barn? It is in Elwood Nebraska, the options are endless. It could be a restaurant, a bar, perhaps a church? It is the local motel. It really is a red barn shaped building. There are 5 rooms. Nick and I were in room #4, which is upstairs. We got a "suite." The accommodations were decent and suited our needs.

We changed clothes and headed to the church for the Wake. The "nice" thing about funerals is getting to see family. In this case, it included meeting family. I had met a few of these relatives for Steph's wedding last June. Many of them I had not met yet. I did find out that some of these relatives are loyal readers of my blog. (Thanks!)

Nick's dad's family isn't THAT big, especially compared to my dad's family, but there were still a lot of people to keep straight. Makes me realize just what an enormous feat it was for him to learn all my relatives. (Nick is awesome!) I do know that Jim and Kathy were fabulous hosts. Kathy is a cousin of Rollie's. They were such generous hosts. Kathy even packed a meal for us to load up and take on the road for our trip back. They were very kind.

We left Elwood around 3pm. I started driving back. To help keep us both awake, Nick read the book of Genesis. I have read the first several chapters. I did not realize how messed up things were way back then. I realized people were pretty bad for God to have wiped out all existence with a flood, but man, crazy things were happening in the book of Genesis. For everyone out there that says people just keep getting worse and worse, read Genesis! I also realized reading the OT through Esther is best done in order. Once we read Genesis I realized there were a lot of the same names of places, as well as how this and that came to be...and then we learned more about it in Joshua.

We got back home around 12:30am (Thursday) and both of us were up to go to work/school. It was a long couple of days, and made for tired people rest of the week, but I am glad we could go.

I will get a picture of the Lil' Red Barn up soon. I know, you are waiting anxiously.

Tithe if you love Jesus

Anyone can honk


Seriously, that is what is on the "create-a-sign" sign out front of a local church. I am not a fan of those signs to start with. That statement is just one of the plethora of reasons why. As a non-member, I find it tacky. As a Christian I think it is tacky. Maybe the person that thought it was funny ran it by a couple of parishioners and they all had a chuckle and decided it would work. I think they missed the mark. People already think church just wants my money. Now the church is admitting it. Maybe I took it wrong initially. Maybe they really are exercising truth in advertising. They want your money.

Even worse (in my opinion) than that statement being posted, is they tend to leave the sign up for weeks. Last year they had an Easter sign. I don't remember what it said, but was worded very strangely. It was up for 6 weeks. Every time I drove by it, I thought how weird it was.

Some might argue this is great, I've thought about their Church everyday. I beg to differ. I thought about "that ridiculous sign church."

For more "inspirational" messages found on church signs...click here.

The long awaited update

I know many of my loyal readers are waiting on the edge of their seats to read what I have been up to over the last two weeks that would keep me away from updating my blog. Well, rather than give a boring account of the 480 hours since I last updated, I will do a photo update. Here we go!

This is at the MSP airport. The add is for my cosmetic dentist that did all my recent work.
Everything IS bigger in Texas! The first 24 hours we spent at my cousin's camel ranch 2 hours outside of Dallas.

Gimme kiss
Camels like carrots. Notice the size difference.


Don't try this at home. Nick is feeding a camel a carrot from his mouth.
They don't USUALLY spit.


Imagine this sight as you drive down the country road...Then we headed back to the "city" to see the in-laws.

mmmm....Green beer on St Patrick's Day....er...St Nathan's Day

Making faces with Uncle "Nit"

Awesome Cajun food at Buzzard Billy's in Waco Texas


Dr Pepper Museum in Waco Texas. We were going to visit the Branch Davidian Complex, but time and directions as they were, we didn't get to. Maybe next time.
The Fort Worth Zoo. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! 75 degrees and obviously sunny.


The 3 Schutz boys checking out the Rhino.
Yup, Texas is Wild!

After the zoo we went to eat at Uncle Julio's. They serve "fine mexican food"

After a busy week of spring breaking, we came home and tried to catch up with MN life. I had a Relay For Life meeting to prepare for. We got hit with about 5 inches of snow on the same day as my meeting. No worries, most people made it.

We also had the pleasure of hanging out with our niece, Micah. She stayed at our house Thursday night until Friday after work. This picture is Thursday night after a busy day of playing with some friends. We were ready for bed.

We also watched our "nephew dog" Buckley. Chester and Buckley spent some time playing.

This is Friday (Today) Morning. Notice I did take the time to comb and style Micah's hair in pig tails. They did not stay that way. This was my first real experience getting a 2 year old ready and out the door in a time frame that will get me to work on time. It was a success in that we got out the door. Not so much on time.

I left work early today so I could watch Micah. What a beautiful MN day to take off early. almost 60 degrees and mostly sunny. It was awesome. I picked up Micah from day care and we went to the park. She climbed up the play set....

and went down the slide all by herself. Over and over a few times. In both pictures she stopped to look at the camera and say cheese. Really, she said cheese.

This is how cool she is when she wears "Sha's" Sunglasses.

In the course of the last few days, Uncle Nicholas (or Uncle Nick) went from being Nit to Nick. I went from "Asha" or something like that to Sha. I guess my name is difficult to say when you are 2 years old.

So, thats about it. There was, of course, the Twins home opener, start of pot hole season and most of the snow has melted now. Good spring things.