Maison du Schomburg

Wipeout.....

2011-02-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday didn't go as planned. We were supposed to go meet everyone for brunch, but due to the crazy snow, we decided not to make the drive. So we went to eat in Woodbury instead. On the way home we slid on the exit ramp and hit the ditch sideways then the SUV flipped onto its side into the ditch. Thankfully we are all ok, but I have to tell you it's pretty freaky with your baby hanging from his car seat in the back panicking and screaming to get out. I was also hanging from my seat belt in the air. I asked S where I should put my feet when I released my belt, he said anywhere but his face. I did my best. Thankfully there was a tow truck there within minutes and the guy was nice enough to open the back for us so we were out within minutes, and the truck was on it's side within probably 10 min. We picked up our truck this weekend and unfortunately it smells like the sour milk G spilled when we went over. It's not going to be a pleasant smell once spring comes.

Midsummer's Night Wing Event

2010-10-01T12:21:00.001-07:00

Saturday was our housewarming at the Thunderbird, and to celebrate we had a chicken wing cook-off. Surprisingly Tracey and Jeremy won first place (sorry Tracey, I did not see that one coming). Second place was taken by the late-comers of Ben & Daisy. And besides getting the honor of taking home The Golden Chicken, Tracey & Jeremy get to recreate their winning batch of wings for us on Superbowl Sunday. We'll see if lightening strikes twice.

Everyone had a great time, lots of food, lots of conversation, and it was great to see a few new smiling faces. One in particular I hope we will be seeing much more of in the future.

FMSC

2010-09-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the Feed My Starving Children event we went to on Tuesday. We spent about an hour and 1/2 of our time packing food for families that will be shipped to other countries. This is the second time we have done this, and I am sure we will be back. Pictured here is myself, Mel & Matt, Stacy, and Sarah & Ryan. Check them out, and consider donating some of your time as well. www.FMSC.org

Things we ate at the fair this year

2010-09-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

Chocolate covered bacon
Pulled pork sandwich
Fried green tomatoes
Corn fritters with honey butter
Deep fried pickles
Pistachio gelato
Cranberry & Bree Crepe
Nutella Crepe
Lamb on a stick
Lavender cupcake
Deep fried risotto
Frozen grapes (had to have something healthy)
My stomach is still churning.

Staycation

2010-07-30T06:50:00.001-07:00

Time for a little "Staycation" for us. What a lame word. They invented the term to make it sound uber-cool to stay in a hotel in town for a night or two. Instead of the actuality of the situation that most people are too poor right now to actually go somewhere cool. So watch out city of Bloomington, here we come!

Is it to be, or not to be?

2010-07-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

Hmm..should I hook them up together or not? Scott says no, but he says no about everything. They’d be cute. He’s charming and sincere, she’s a fiery red-head with a winning personality for once. Barely able to talk at the party, but I could tell she had a lasting impression. Well, they’ll both be at the housewarming, so maybe I’ll make sure that both of their drinks are always full, and let nature take its course.

We're on the move

2010-05-28T14:03:00.001-07:00

So great news for us, we have signed a lease on an amazing rental house in Afton, which is about a million light years closer to our family & friends. We have decided to combine households with a good friend of ours, to save everyone some money. Thankfully the place is quite large, so we may never even run into each other. We get the keys in two weeks, so keep an eye out for details on a housewarming party soon.

We're back

2010-05-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

WDW was great. We're all a little too tired, tanned and testy. Great times, great food and great company. If I ever get around to it, I will post pics. But I never posted pics from our trip from last year...so don't count on anything too soon.

In Memoriam

2010-05-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

Brian John Jacobson, age 34, of Lake City, died tragically as a result of an automobile accident on Monday, May 3, in Hastings.

In Memoriam

2010-04-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

Takeko Simpson

April 24, 2010 Of Cottage Grove Survived by husband Robert; children Robert and David (Triah); 5 grandchildren; 3 brothers and a sister. Visitation 4-7 PM with a 7 PM Funeral Service Thursday at KOK FUNERAL HOME, 1201 Portland Avenue, St. Paul Park.

Death Pool

2010-04-26T14:01:00.000-07:00

Is any one else on pins & needles waiting to see if Bret Michaels makes it through this week?

Get out of Dodge

2010-04-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a super stressful year for us, and though I know it's far from the best idea I have ever had, we are taking a vacation to The Happiest Place on earth. Because let me tell you, with as hard as I worked last year, if I don't, I will literally snap. Just let us have some fun before the rest of my year totally collapses in on me.

2010-02-05T09:23:00.001-08:00

Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught. ~J.C. Watts

Nice.

2010-01-21T08:45:00.000-08:00

Why don't you just give him a papercut and pour lemon juice in it while you're at it?

What's in a name?

2009-11-18T08:44:00.001-08:00

Why do I suddenly hate the name Rick?

The Wizard of Oz

2009-09-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

It's the 75th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz movie release (1939). Theatres across the country were having a one night only showing last night. Our troup included Bev, Heidi, Noah, Kaia, Aaron, Tracey, Mel, me and lots and lots of candy and a $6 pop shared between us 3 ladies. We were dissappointed that we didn't see anyone wearing costumes, especially since it is so close to Halloween. However, on our way back to the car we did see a tiny little Dorothy, complete with ruby slippers and a basket with Toto being strapped into her carseat after a long evening.

Don't you forget about me

2009-08-07T09:09:00.001-07:00

If it weren't for John Hughes, we would have spent the 80's having to come up with our own one-liners.

Most awesomest picture ever!

2009-07-15T10:19:00.001-07:00

World Beard and Moustache Championships

2009-07-09T08:26:00.001-07:00

It's exactly what is sounds like.

http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/

MJ

2009-06-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize your neighborhood

Why did I love MJ so much growing up? Because he gave me the Thriller View Master. That's why.

Tumultuous

2009-06-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

–adjective
1. full of tumult or riotousness; marked by disturbance and uproar.
2. raising a great clatter and commotion; disorderly or noisy.
3. highly agitated, as the mind or emotions; distraught; turbulent.

We used to talk about the girl who started the drama, she and I, the girl who stood by me. We used to talk about the fact that we hated the drama and that she only did it for attention. Now she is the girl that starts the drama. She started it this time all by herself.

My brush with Camelot

2009-06-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with a member today at work, a very lovely, sweet, Jewish woman from New York. She was very sweet and kept commenting how nice and helpful I was being (naturally). Then out of the blue she mentioned that she used to design jewerly, and I ever so excitedly said, "Oh Really?" She said "Oh yes, I designed Jackie Kennedy's Pearls." I had to stop myself from screaming. "Oh, that's nice" I calmly say. The conversation went on about work, but she kept commenting on how helpful I was being. Then she says, "If I still had a store open on Madison Avenue, I'd steal you in a heartbeat." Egats!! Be still my heart!! But instead I literally say, "You're killing me!" How often at work do I actually get to talk to someone so interesting? Let alone want to sit on the phone and talk to her? We finished our conversation and she had to go, all I could think was "Don't go neat little old lady, don't go.....(ps-Call me back any time!)"

My new favorite website

2009-06-10T12:36:00.001-07:00

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Chocolate and Acts of Kindness: No Difference to Your Brain

2009-05-08T13:25:00.001-07:00

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/depression/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100226639

Project what?

2009-05-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

OK, so we love Project Runway on Bravo, or it used to be on Bravo. Some sort of contract negotiations sent Heidi running in her 5 inch stilettos and Brian Gunn in his $5,000 Dolce and Gabbana suit to the Lifetime channel. Though Scott is not happy, he will now be a Lifetime channel viewer. That makes me giggle.

However now to compete, Bravo has started a new show called Catwalk, or the Fashion Show or Better off Dead, or something like that. It premiered last night, and as I sat in my gray sweatpants and stained with baby puke t-shirt, I critiqued it the whole way through. What the hell is this show? Why is it on, and who are these horrible designers? I'm sorry, a garment bag stuck under my rumpus will make men swoon? I don't think so. It was a boring show with boring hosts. I thought I liked Issac, but Kelly who? She must have a book coming out. Lame premise, lame designs, lame cast. The only thing that would have made this show better was if I had opened a bottle of wine beforehand.

Something cool

2009-02-20T08:25:00.001-08:00

I've added a Gadget to my Blog which lets me see where in the world people are from that view my Blog. I am sure most people just stubmle on it by accident and aren't truly searching for interesting facts about my life. If you're interested to see where other people are from click on the map on the side of the page. That will take you to the listing of all the countries. Currently the viewer tallys are as such:

United States (US) 41
United Kingdom (GB) 1
France (FR) 1
Romania (RO) 1
Bolivia (BO) 1
Austria (AT) 1

A Hairy Situation

2009-02-17T07:22:00.000-08:00

Oh...my...God......Scott decided to cut his hair, by himself, without a mirror. I am not joking when I say it is the absolute worst haircut I have ever seen. There are bald patches, and patches in the middle of his head that are still 3 inches long, and that's even after he thought he was done. He had no neck, now it just goes from shoulder into skull. He thought that he needed to shave the hair on the back of his neck like they do in the barber shop, so he tried that and shave what's actually his head so short, he now has no neck, it's just one giant shape on his shoulders. But then on top of it, the hair on his neck is still long; he missed that part. He cut the hair on the top of his head so short and still wanted to have his faux hawk that now he has this giant egg shaped head that points at the top. You could not have cut a worse cut if you tried. It's like a comedy movie when they try to make a guy look really goofy, or retarded, but it's worse then that. OH! And on top of it, Grayden had no idea who he was and it made him cry. His new haircut made a baby cry! For the love of God! He just clung to me scared at the stranger in his house. I had to tell him it has his uncle. Now I feel bad that I had to leave him home today with a complete stranger. I hope they get along. I took some pictures, that Scott looked at and at first he said it wasn't that bad, but then later he begged me to even it out for him. Are you kidding me? I'm sorry, Pompeii is destroyed, there's no going back.

More Christmas pics

2009-01-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you can see past the bottles of wine on the table, but for Christmas dinner we had a wonderful crown roast stuffed with cornbread and apple stuffing, haricots vert with bacon, garlic mashed potatos and of course burnt biscuits. It was great.

Christmas

2009-01-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

Here Scott is hanging with Miss K. Doesn't she look lovely in her red velvet gown? At least one of them makes the pictures look good. By the way, what the heck is she doing with her tongue? That's like freak show stuff.

Normal

2009-01-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

On Scott's insistence, I had to post this picture. He wanted to prove that he really doesn't look as creepy as did in the last picture I posted of him.

Admission of guilt

2009-01-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

I just needed to get this off my chest. My MIL Bev (that's mother in-law for those of you not in the know) gave me a few containers full of Christmas cookies to take to work with me to share with, i.e. dump off on, my co-workers. I just passed through the kitchen and saw the empty containers and realized that I never took them to work. Scott and I finished them all. So much for the resolutions.

2009-01-13T11:09:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving

2009-01-13T10:56:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving included friendly faces and lots and lots of wine.

The Tree

2008-12-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

Daddy and Grayden enjoying their trip to get Grayden's first Christmas tree. Also, Daddy and Grandpa helping the guy with the crazy foreign accent tie up the tree.

Which famous Queen were you in a past life?

2008-12-18T07:40:00.001-08:00

I was Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (of course)

http://www.quizilla.com/quizzes/8409126/which-famous-queen-were-you-in-a-past-life

Quiz: What Christmas Cookie Are You?

2008-12-18T07:39:00.001-08:00

I am a Sugar Cookie.

http://www.quizilla.com/quizzes/8404466/what-christmas-cookie-are-you

Colder and Colder

2008-12-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

Every day gets colder and colder. I guess that really wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to scrape my car, but alas, as there seems to be too much stuff in my garage, I cannot get my car in there. However, every morning when I get in to work, I spend about 2 hours dreaming about taking a vacation to Disney World. I love Disney World and thankfully so does Scott. We dream about someday buying into the DVC program (Disney Vacation Club for those of you not in the know). But until then, I guess I will have to be content with just sitting here in my cube, staring at my Disney pins and dreaming away.

O Tannenbaum

2008-12-09T07:09:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas tree is up. Thank you to Scott's parents for buying it for us. This is our first real tree in years, and it really is lovely. I always had a real tree growing up, and so I wanted to start that tradition again now that I have my own child. I was a bit worried that the cats would go crazy over it and scratch the heck out of the trunk and possibly even tip it over. Due to that fear, I decided not to hang any of my glass ornaments, and only use unbreakable ones. Thankfully, I have a lot that are not glass, so unless you're crazy anal like me, you'd never notice it was missing a few. Besides, this year I added a few extra touches such as a pretty paper ring garland and a hand strung cranberry garland. Which, believe me, is a heck of a lot more charming sounding than it actually is. It was a pain to string together, and now I realize that I have hung tiny red berries on my tree that will continue to rot and probably drop off until I take the tree down in January. Oh, to Tradition!

The Happiest Place on earth

2008-11-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

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