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.

Happy St Patricks Day!

Yup, today really IS St Patrick's Day. Well, kind of. If you are Catholic and celebrate Mass in honor of the Saints, the feast day for St Patrick will be held today. This of course is because of the conflict with Holy Week. Now, that doesn't mean that your favorite St Patrick's Day Festivities need to change. Only the feast day has been changed. We sill plan to celebrate green beer, beef and cabbage and everything else Irish we can think of. I am a tad bit Irish after all. I'm Irish all year, not just on March 17.

An Old Irish Blessing
May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

I am the superstar!

Sunday evening Nick and I joined a classmate of his, and her boyfriend for dinner, studying biochemistry (i think) and playing the Wii. Now, of the 4 of us, I have played the least amount of video games in general.

We played Mario Party 8. Of the limited amount of gaming I have done, virtually none of it has been Mario anything. No Super Mario Bros, no Mario Kart, or any of the other countless Mario brand spin-offs. Not to mention, the first 7 Mario parties. If I am lucky, I was allowed to play one "world" where I was successful at jumping off something to my own death, or being destroyed by the "bad guys" in whatever level/world I was in. Apparently the point was to get to some mystical castle and save a princess....I had no idea. Anyway, all that to say, I have quite limited experience with Mario and his brother Luigi.

Well, I ended up being the winner, and therefore "THE Superstar" of the game. Yup. My strategy worked. I FINALLY did get a star. But mostly I spent the whole game traipsing around the board. I did a lot of moving around, which means I collected, and therefore ate, lots of candy. Based only on the merits of my success on the board, I was second or third. But then at the end they hand out "bonus stars." I traveled the most distance. Woohoo! accepting the ride on the water slide and DK barrel shot gun thing was worth it! and "eating" candy on almost every turn paid off! Go me!

Now, please don't misinterpret my description of the game for actually UNDERSTANDING what was happening. I don't. I kept thinking it was a lot like "the Game of Life" but you can't buy insurance. Anyway, it was fun, and hopefully Nick did well on the test he was studying for.

A Decade Ago

Today is the decade anniversary of my car accident. It seems like yesterday, and a million years ago at the same time. As is typical with life changing events, I've thought about this car accident quite a bit. At church, Pastor Ben has mentioned miracles several times. This has got me thinking even more about my car accident. Ben has mentioned when "miracles" happen, we tend to overlook them. Now, there is a bit more to it than that, but its the basics. Even when we do see them, overtime they go from "that was a miracle" to "we were lucky."

Well, for me, 10 years ago I thought I was lucky. Ok, it was probably like 10 years ago next week. 10 years ago today I was high on demerol and loving it. It took a week or so to sink in. I felt pretty lucky. People told me I was lucky. Now that it is 10 years later, I know I wasn't lucky. It was a miracle. It was a miracle that I didn't fly through the windshield. It was a miracle that after hitting the dashboard at 50 mph, I walked away, with injuries that were "easily fixed."

So here were are, 10 years, 7 oral surgeries, 5 sets of teeth and countless hours in a dentist chair later, and yes, I'm positive that this was a miracle. God obviously had something important for me to do.

the food, fun and fire

Nick has a classmate Zach, that likes to have "some friends over" as his parents put it. In reality, he invites the entire U of M pharmacy class of 2011 and their significant others. He invites them to his parents place in Lakeville. They live in the middle of nowhere, in Lakeville. Yeah, I guess it seems weird, but it does exist.

Zach's mom LOVES to cook and bake for everyone. (they had a similar party in November) This time she made pasta. We had pesto, mac and cheese, seafood lasagne, beef lasagne, spaghetti with meat sauce and salad. Awesome homemade bread and... the dessert spread...oh my! There were chocolate brownies, chocolate chip cookies with AND without nuts, oatmeal cookies with and with out nuts, almond bars and chocolate chunk cookies with and without nuts. She made the BEST chocolate chunk cookies EVER!!!

Now, this isnt just mom that enjoys entertaining, dad plays a pretty good host. It was like Thanksgiving with tables set up in every room possible. I felt a tad like I was at the kids table, but that was ok. Dad made sure to bring extra bread or whatever we needed downstairs. And he made sure to bring more wood to the bonfire for us. They are so very nice and wonderful hosts. Nick and I teased we were going to get a tent or a camper for a week and just stay on their property for a weeks vacation.

So, the younger, more "thrill seeking" kids spent a few hours sledding down the driveway hill onto and over "jumps" that were made by Zach. Nick and I prefered to keep our aging bodies toasty by the fire.

It was quite an evening that left us pretty tired by the time we got home at 10:30-a full hour past our regular bedtime.

On the schedule for today: legoland, dinner and golf at MOA.

Who doesn't love a day full of puppies and babies?

Sundays are usually church, football, (homework for Nick) and lazing about. Football is over. Now what am I going to do? Well, I decided we would hit up the "PetExpo" at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I like pets. Lets go! We spent about 2 1/2 hours there. It was pretty much what I expected. Lots of pet food vendors claiming their "all natural" food was the best there is. Everyone should feed all natural. Its the best thing for your dog.

I don't buy into the claim (for people or pets) that "all natural" means "all good" things. Arsenic is natural. It can very easily kill you. Bacteria are natural. Many of them will kill you. Anyway, my point is, "all natural" does NOT equal "good"

So I listened to a few spcheals about why their food was the best. Partly because I wanted some information on foods our clients see and will feed, partly because I wanted the free sample.

The Expo also had a large number of breed rescue groups. We got to see all shapes and sizes of dogs, fuzzy, and not. We also got to see 3 separate Greyhound booths. We got our Greyhound fix. We did go back a few times. If it weren't for our 12 hours away from home schedule right now, we would have gotten a Greyhound. Maybe a rottie. Nick got to see (in person, some for the first time) Great Danes and Pyrenees, pugs and shih tzu, Australian Cattle dogs, an English Springer and lots of Golden Retrievers.

So 2 hours of being submerged in all things pets/dogs was pretty fun. Nick doesn't work at a vet clinic, so he doesn't get to see all the different dogs like I do. I take that for granted I guess. I think he enjoyed that part too. We watched some "Frisbee dogs" and a little bit of "jumping into the water after a ball" dogs. Fun times.

We came home for a little bit and were invited to my in-laws for supper. A chance to visit our niece Micah, of course! At almost 23 months she is a little chatter box, and cute as can be. I loved that when we walked in and she was tantruming about something, she was excited to see us. She wanted me to hold her. She didn't want a book or a baby or her bunny, she just wanted to be held. So I did. We were talking about her day, and our day, and mentioned we got to see puppies, her face lit up. It may have been the puppy sounds Uncle Nicholas was making. While we were waiting to eat she brought over "Elmo book" and proceeded to climb up the couch and sit right between me and Nick. She went through the whole book. Then got another. and another. It never did get old.

We make a point to see her as often as we can. She has learned something new EVERY time we see her. She now says Sammy (the cat) instead of "Mimi." Buckley is still Bucbuc or baba. She picked up on puppy. Her most recent cute thing is her response to thank you. If you say thank you, to her or not, her response is "imelcome" or "mymelcome." As an almost 2 year old, NO or "MO" as she says it, is a favorite response. I don't think she knows what that means. When we ask for a hug and kiss when we leave, she almost always says mo, but we get them anyway.

Its amazing how a wonderful little niece and her entertaining antics can make an average day great. What a special little treasure she is.

And since I would hate to brag about her this much, and not put a recent picture up, here is one from December, the most recent we have.

Ode to the fish fry...

Friday night we decided to head out for some local pizza. The first place we were going to go was a take out place only, so we headed to the next one on the list. We came upon the "Red Barn." That is the VFW for those of you that aren't from around here. They do a fish fry every Friday. We decided to go.

We were a little uncertain how it all worked, but we asked a few questions and figured it out. It was pretty tasty stuff, but not quite like the fish frys of my youth. These were large breaded and fried cod filets rather than sunnies, but it was pretty good. And they had yummy tartar sauce. Likely homemade, with full fat mayo. Mmmm. They also offered baked fish, I don't recommend that.

So now we can cross fish fry at the Red Barn off the list. It was a neat experience.