Sewing & Catching Up

My sewing machine was gone, came back and now is back in the repair shop, but I did manage do get a project done this past weekend.

Caught a Bug

I caught a cold bug. That has me down for the count. I have had the opportunity to read between sleeping though and finished Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. I read the prologue and then the first chapter and was so shocked. It was a good book. One thing I really like about Jodi Picoult books is that they make you think about what you would do if you were in one of the characters situation. The characters have to make tough choices about others and their own lives. I'd definitely recommend this book.

A Long Weekend

It was mostly a nice long weekend except the cold that swept our apartment. Erik has been battling it most of the weekend and I seem to be slowly getting more symptoms of it.

Friday was field trip day. My parents, Katie, Erik and I went to the Science Museum to see the Water exhibit. It was cool. A lot of things I was already familiar with since I work with water, but it was a good display. A lot of things crossed over between the Minnesota exhibit and the water one - which makes a lot of sense since Minnesota has so much water compared to some other states. It was fun playing around in the museum. We went to the Great Waters restaurant in St. Paul. It was very nice. My Dad brought flowers over too! That was very nice. I can always count on my Dad for flowers on Valentine's Day. My Dad is very thoughtful.

Saturday I got up and swam. I need to start keeping track of my laps... I start thinking of other things and lose track. :) Funny. It was pretty busy in the pool. Then I ran to the store. Why you ask? That's because I didn't think that Valentine's was so soon - like Saturday and I hadn't bought Erik a card yet, but I got him a card, Naked juice: Mighty Mango, and a blueberry muffin.

We enjoyed our juice and muffins and exchanged cards and then headed up to the Y where we met up with my grandparents. I did a Body Vive class with my grandma, while Erik went to a flyfishing store. I really liked that class. It was nice. It made me wish I had a Y membership. I'm just not ready to pay for it. Then we had lunch over at my grandparents and headed down to Erik's parents. We stopped in and then went to go get groceries for dinner.

We had a very nice valentine's dinner: crab legs, asparagus, salad and breadsticks. It was a nice night. We just hung out and watched tv for the night. Nothing too exciting but that is okay with me.

The last two days were pretty low key. Erik worked Sunday. I went and visited a friend and her little one and stopped in at my parents to get a little furry love from Bo and Cricket.

I've done some reading and sleeping. I ordered some audiobooks to be transferred to our library close by. I'm excited for them. I also made a bit of a reading wishlist - we'll see how long a couple of books take me to read. I don't get a lot of time to read, just a bit before bed usually. Maybe I should make more time.

Erik and I both had today off which was nice. Happy President's Day! Actually, we had Friday, Saturday and today together. It was nice seeing each other and hanging out playing MarioParty.

I made chicken wild rice soup last night. It was very good and a good thing to have when you are under the weather. Tonight Erik is making pasta with a homemade sauce with tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onion, and whatever else we have hanging out in our fridge. It smells good!

Arctic Homestead

I finished a good read this morning. I got this book for Christmas and hadn't spent too much time at once to sit down and read it, just here and there before bed. This weekend I had the opportunity to sit and read. It was a good book about a true story of homesteaders in Alaska and the various adventures and hardships they had while trying to accomplish there dream of making it in the bush. I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to those who enjoy true stories of adventure.

I'm working on...

patience

1.	the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.

2.	an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.

3.	quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience.

I'd like to be a more patient person. I have the patience for somethings in my life, such as make a quilt, bake cookies or enjoy a bike ride or other things like that. I don't have patience for bigger picture things. I'd like those things to come now, such as own a home or have a dog. So I will work on being content and happy with what I have in life and having patience that someday those things will come.

January Catch Up

It seems I let the month go by without blogging, but here is my summary of sorts...

Erik's truck got broken into, but they simply did damage and didn't take anything - Thankfully. Pretty crummy thing to have happen and since it didn't lock we had to quickly get it fixed.


After a few different iterations with handles, the dresser/tv stand is done. It is nice to have it completed. It looks nice too. Different than I originally imagined but I like it. I like how rich the color is particularly.

The other day I was headed to work and I wanted to stop because it was so beautiful out! We had a bunch of fog that made frost on all the trees, so they glistened and the sun was just peaking out making the sky appear pink and yellow. It was a beautiful morning. Unfortunately I could not stop and had to go to work, but I did enjoy it for a little bit. I called Erik and told him to go take some pictures for me. Although it was a little later in the morning, it was still beautiful. Erik went for a run too and ended up with some of that frost on him too. :)


I've been making a healthier start in 2009 and here is one of them... smoothies. I love them. Yogurt, frozen fruit, ice and a bit of milk. They are a great breakfast.

Okay, so I know, cookies are not exactly healthy, but I made them for a good cause. Erik's truck needed some work done on it and he had a friend help him and it ended up saving us a couple hundred dollars, so I thought cookies were a good way to let him know how much we appreciated his help. These cookies are Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from VeryBestBaking.com.


Erik and I have been making a better effort to leave the tv off and stay off the computer a bit more. Erik has been tying flies.


Yesterday, it was like spring here: 42 degrees! Almost unbelievable. I made sure to go out and enjoy it. I took a nice run about 3 miles. I almost didn't want to stop, but I think my legs did.


Erik got me some planted tulips about 2 weeks ago and they just began to bloom.


We also got our Sandhill Crane poster framed... now we just have to get it on the wall. It turned out really nice.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year! Erik and I stayed home New Years Eve, played some Wii and had some sparkling wine. It was a nice relaxing night. We were keeping it low key because then on the 1st we ran in the Polar Dash 5K. Thankfully it was a bit warmer than the day before. It was about 20 when we ran at 11 am.

Erik's parents came to see us take off and got a picture of Erik coming into the gates. It was very cold and windy if you were not moving. We started off the race under the Guthrie overhang along the Mississippi River and headed down hill with the wind, turned around half way and the last half a mile was up a long hill against the wind.

I was pretty slow, but I'm glad I did it and felt great afterwards. My goal is to be around 10 minute mile this summer. I can do it! :)



I was definitely overdressed... I took off my hat, mittens, neckwarmer and had my fleece open by the time I crossed the finish, but I was happily warm for the 20 minutes we waited outside before the race. Katie and I also had toe warmers in and I'm glad I had those. I put them on the top of my toes and they definitely helped.


Erik is speedy. He came in around 24 minutes.