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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Weekend 9/24-25/11


So I had a pretty fun weekend!

Friday all day we (me and Alex - the girl helping me plan the baby shower) went out and went shopping for groceries, decorations, etc. for the party.  It was a successful day - the only part that made me a bit crabby was the fact that she had to cut our time short, so while we were supposed to be putting together our gift for mama-to-be, Pam, she was getting ready and leaving me at her house to do it all alone.  This is what we I made:



It's a onesie bouquet that I found on Pinterest - basically made of onesies, washcloths, socks, hats, and a few silk flowers for texture.  I honestly LOVE the way it turned out and I'm glad to say I made it!

Saturday was a pretty low key morning - I had all my stuff done for the shower, so this was my day to relax and not worry about a thing until Sunday.  Little did I expect several calls, texts, and emails on the topic of shower.  I'll spare you the details because I honestly don't care to ever read back on some of the stuff I was dealing with the day before.
That evening was planned to be a night out to support a friend of mine, Rich.  He used to be in a band... and long story short, the lead singer of this band has a baby girl who has racked up some pretty hefty medical bills; Charloette has lymphangioma.  Here are a couple of websites if you ever care to give a few dollars to help the family out with some of the expense
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/charlotte2011
Donate here: http://charlotteshope.webs.com/

So Steve and I went to this bands reunion show - where... I got to spend a little bit of time with a few blogging ladies that you probably read: Kristi and Dana (sorry girls, it got a bit blurry):
Both, Kristi and Dana went to school with Rich - so for them it was like a high school reunion with me and Steve crashing the party - or at least that is what it seemed like!  I actually know Kristi through Rich, and met her before I had a blog.  Dana, being friends with Kristi, I got to meet back in 2009 for a sushi date for Kristi's birthday!

Here is Rich, on the drums:


Anyhow- so Saturday was fun.  I found myself back in time singing along to all the songs I remembered!

Then comes SUNDAY - The baby shower day is here!
Let's just say that Pam was so happy and after a few minor hiccups, the day went off without a hitch.  Again, I don't care to have these 'hiccups' in written word to ever read back on.  Pam was happy and felt loved all day - that's what important!
My beautiful cousin, Shannon, was there and I asked if she'd be the photographer for the day, since I was likely going to be busy the whole time - and Thank God for Shannon (thank you Shannon!!!!)!  We ended up with just under 200 pictures, which is perfect!  Some of you may have seen them on facebook, if not, here are a few highlights:
Punch with rubber duckies  :) 

Shannon and I

Mother-to-be in the middle, party planners on the outside

Pam and I
Cupcakes!

Mom and Dad (to be)
Alex and Pam

Pam and Nick with the bouquet I made :)
Just me... not frazzled at all ;)

Pam and her mother

Pam and the A-Team (Ang, Alex, Abbie)

Nick and Pam with Nick's mother, Nancy
Just Pam, preggers!
So after the shower I went home and pretty much chilled... I was beat.

The End.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Winner! Winner!!

I'm not offering a chicken dinner, but I am offering some neat scrapbooking software - ready?!

The winner is.........


KimBerly said...
I'm a loyal follower. I love this idea. I will have to try it.


Congrats Kim!!

I have you email info, so you'll be hearing from me soon!  Congratulations again!


Remember, if you want your very own software - my readers can get it for $10 off PLUS a $10 coupon for the store - go here: http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software and use this code: STMMMS57536


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

My Friends and My Life

I have a lot going on as of late and a lot of it has to do with my friends.

My best friend since 6th grade, Pam, is preggers and due Mid-November - this coming Sunday I (along with another of her friends) am throwing her a baby shower!  I'm super excited and I'm so happy for Pam.  She has ALWAYS wanted to be a mommy and she is going to be wonderful at it!  I'll be sure to post pictures (if I have time to take them) from the shower on Sunday.
I'm not excited to be planning with someone else (again - you remember my 10 year reunion planning?) - I've learned that I need to be in change too much to plan things with other people.  My own fault, I know, but that's not my point.  I'm over the top with detail and information, if I'm planning with someone I keep them filled in at all times, when I take a breath even - maybe it's annoying, but I want the other person to know what's been done, what needs to be done and whatever else comes up... I feel like I'm the only person in the world that is this way.
/rant

Another of my friends since 6th grade, Abbie, just found out she has MS.  Several years back they thought she had a stroke - and after some recent events and testing brought to light that she has MS, they are now saying it wasn't a stroke, but her first serious symptom of MS.  I can't even imagine what she is feeling right now.  Her doctor has gone through some treatment options and she is currently weighing over them to figure out what is best for her.  This is all very new news.  News that is simply shocking.  I don't know much about MS other than what I've read since finding out...
I don't want to pity her, because she is strong.  I just can't help but feel a little sad for her as no one want to find this out a month before they turn 30.

Some other fun stuff coming up:
Sept 25th - The shower mentioned above
Sept 26th (this Monday) - I'm babysitting my nieces - I miss their faces and their hugs!  I'm excited.
Sept 28th - Twins game - last home game of the season... Steve and I have gone to the last home game for the past 3 years (this being our third)
Sept 29th - we are having a girls dinner - which is myself, the 2 above mentioned friends since 6th grade, and another friend of ours (all of us being friends with her for different lengths of time, but roughly around the same), Amanda.  We get together once a month and while we used to take pictures, we really don't anymore.  I'm just glad we've kept up on the monthly thing!
Oct 16th - boudoir photo shoot!
Oct 24th - Second annual Pumpkin carving!  Last year Steve and I went to my friend Abbie's house and carved pumpkin with her, her boyfriend, and our friend Amanda.  This year we're doing it again, but Pam and her boyfriend will be joining us as they just moved within a few blocks of Abbie!  Can't wait - Steve showed me a picture yesterday of what he thinks a good pumpkin for me is.. and I can't help but agree!
Oct 29th - This year Steve and I are not going to the Anoka tent party, but making the trek up to Duluth for an annual Halloween party that we've never been able to make it to.  Blake and Steph are hosting (Blake and Steve grew up together)... and it's sure to be the happeningest thing since... last years party!

After that we enter the Holiday Months... November, December (my birthday month!), and January!  Holy cow this year is flying by!



Then of course (I'm obligated to do this for another few days) - If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, go here to do so now!

Monday, September 19, 2011

My weekend

What have I been up to this weekend?
Friday I went to the dentist - no cavities!  WOO-HOO!

Saturday - Steve and I rented a Boom Lift from Home Depot; this is not ours, but it's the exact same one (found the picture on Google Images).
and I got in that bitch... and spent the entire day up there - scraping trim, sanding trim, priming trim, painting trim.  Here is a picture of me taking a break while mid-air (I was standing in it most of the day):

We seriously painted all day.  We woke up and ate breakfast, I got a killer stomach ache, and we were out painting by like 10am, I think.  We had to return it by 8:31pm, we didn't eat again until after it was dropped off - Perkins (breakfast) was dinner.  I tried to drink a glass of wine afterwards, but it just put me to sleep.

Sunday was forecasting rain, so we planned to sleep in off the bat.  There would be no painting this day (thank God!).  Got up, ate breakfast, went to Dunn Bros. to get my first ever Pumpkin Spice Latte.  I was a bit let down - I couldn't taste the pumpkin... Steve could... so maybe my taste buds are sick.  Vikings game began and was looking good!  Then, Steve went in the kitchen to start getting our dinner ready (ribs), but we had bad meat and by bad, I mean rancid.  My smeller was obviously bad on Sunday, because I couldn't smell much; Steve wanted to vomit.  Having his heart set on ribs for dinner, he ran to the store to buy more - upon his return he had a bottle of bloody mary mix and pickles!  What a guy, right?!?!
2 bloody's later I'm feeling GOOD!  He then decides it's time to switch to margaritas - the homemade kind (freshly squeezed lime juice, agave nectar, orange bitters, tequila, ice and a salted rim!)  YUM.  We had 2 of those as well.
All this while watching the movie 300.
Ribs for dinner at about 7:00 or so... Emmy's on TV... safe to say we had a pretty darn good day!
We were off to bed at about 9:00pm... probably to sleep around 10:00pm ;)

In all, it was a good weekend - productive and lazy all wrapped into one!

What did YOU do this weekend?!


Go enter my first give away and make me feel like less of a loser with the few followers I have.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Blogger Meetup?

I think it's fair to say we've all met some amazing people through the world of blogging... I think I've met 3 people in person that I met through blogging - it's pretty neat to have that story (as it turns out, not every person online is crazy!)

Anyhow, I have this new blogging friend, Kim, that we've mentioned a time or two that we'd like to get together as we have a couple of mutual friends and thought it'd be neat to meet.
Then I had the same convo with Dana, though we've met in person once, how fun would it be to do dinner/drinks again?!
The reason I know of both Dana and Kim is because of Kristi - who I met through an ex-'boyfriend'.
Then Dana tells me she wants to meet Krysten too... who, I met through blogging, then eventually met in real life and just had a weekend in Milwaukee with.

So basically I think it's time we had a dinner ladies - and this goes out to anyone else in the Twin Cities Metro area that would be interested (Laura, wanna fly up for a dinner?).

Dana and I mentioned October would work best for both of us... and I think we're leaning towards a weeknight vs a weekend - for various reasons.  So it wouldn't be anything too wild or too late of a night.  Being we're from all over, we'd try to meet somewhere that works for everyone, but that location is TBD.

At this point we're just trying to gauge interest - so who's down and let me know what works best for you from dates to times!


If you haven't entered my giveaway - what are you waiting for?  Go do it now!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

My First Giveaway



Anyone who has followed my blog for any period of time knows that I like to take photos... and I have lots of them!
Another thing my loyal followers know is that I'm not here to blow smoke and give praise to a product I don't fully believe in - I agreed to give my honest review of My Memories Suite and, while I may have received this product for free, I intend to do just that.


Have you ever used a digital scrapbooking software?  I've barely scrapbooked... but the few times I have, I enjoyed it.  I think the concept of this - especially for a blogger - is pretty cool; why not present my readers with pretty looking scrapbook pages rather than just a picture here and there?


Off the bat I noticed that their products (kits, themes, albums) are relativity inexpensive, kits as low as $.99 and some things for free!  I couldn't find anything more expensive than $9.99 - with a lot costing just a few dollars!  You can make photobooks, calendars, and so much more!


Upon installing the software, I opened it and felt VERY overwhelmed... and then I got my bearings.  So I decided, since we just got back from Milwaukee, that I'd create a page about it - to give the software a fair run and be able to show you how {un}creative I am.  I even downloaded some of the free paper backgrounds to use (just to test how easy it was).  I will tell you I had some major issues finding the paper I downloaded and had to use the sites FAQ to figure it out.  Once I found them, I was kind of on a roll.  
I tend to have a problem thinking outside the box - and that's why I like scrapbooking, it forces me to do just that.  So I'm not sure if you like the look of cluttered pages or if you like things a bit more simple... but here is the first page I came up with - which I created very easily and was able to turn it into a .jpg in about 10 seconds.
Not too bad, eh?  I think it turned out cute!
So then... I just had to do a Hawaii page - because we have no plans for travel this winter and I'm already sad about it.


You can start with a blank canvas (I began both of my pages with a blank canvas) or you can pick from a zillion layouts and insert your own pictures.  You can even say 'use these pictures' and the software will place them for you!  In my ... hour or so of playing with the software, I felt pretty comfortable with it.  I don't know much about scrapbooking but I guess that's one of the perks - you don't need to know anything, you just do what you think looks good!
They have paper/backgrounds, embellishments, shapes, wordart, you can even add music!  All of the things are customizable as well - like you can adjust the opacity of the paper backgrounds, you can make the wordart any font and any size, and you can rotate anything!


If you have kids, or if you don't, maybe you just like to take photos?  Maybe you want to renew your passion for scrapbooking or maybe you want to give digital scrap-booking a shot?  Regardless of your story; this product is for anyone!  I'd recommend it!


The giveaway is for a copy of My Memories Suite - a digital scrapbooking software.



Rules for entry:
(Please leave a separate comment for each entry)
1. (Mandatory): you must be a follower of Football, Sushi, and The Pursuit of Happiness - comment and tell me your favorite item in the "dollar store" on My Memories.
2. Tweet about this giveaway, please include your Twitter handle.
3. Follow MyMemories on Twitter; leave a comment telling me you're following them.
4. "Like" MyMemories on Facebook, leave a comment telling me you've done so.
5.  Blog about this giveaway; leave the link to your post in the comments.

The winner will be decided using random.org and will be announced the morning of Monday, September 26th (because winning something on a Monday is an awesome start to anyone's week!).



Can't wait for the giveaway to end?
Get yourself $10 off My Memories Suite (which will get you the software for under $30!!) AND a $10 coupon to the MyMemories.com Store (that's a $20 value!) just use code: STMMMS57536 on this link and get started now (I will post this code again after the winner is announced). 

**I received a copy of this software in exchange for my honest feedback; all opinions and feedback are my own.  I did, however, lose many hours of productivity while playing with this softare - which is okay in my book!**

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Super Happy Fun Time (aka Milwaukee)!

Our road trip to Milwaukee began at 8:30am on Friday morning... (even though the plan was to leave at 7am).
It was an easy drive, a pretty drive, and a drive with many of Wisconsin's finest rest stops!

In all, it took us WAY less time then Google Maps said it would take - I think it was quoted at 6 hours and 12 minutes or something - so I rounded up to 7 hours because I figured in P&P breaks (poop and pee, for reference) along with some traffic and other crap you never expect.  We made it to Milwaukee in 5.5 hours, we only stopped at Rest Stops rather than exiting and using a gas station for P&P.  Wisconsin has some of the cleanest rest stops I've ever seen, probably some of the only rest stops I've ever seen too, so take that with a grain of salt.

Alright, so off the bat, I assumed Milwaukee was going to be ghetto and dirty - like Detroit.  The route we took in neither confirmed or denied this thought, so we'd have to wait and see.  Turns out we were pretty wrong.

We arrived at our hotel, got settled in, and then left right away to find some grub.  When Steve and I travel we never (EVER) eat at chain restaurants, especially ones that we'd be able to have in the greater Twin Cities area. So we walked to this placed called Cubanitas and ordered A cuban to share along with guac (served with plantain chips - YUM!!) and some ceviche.  All the food was amazing!  Steve got a beer and I had a Mojito, yum :)








We then walked across the street to Charro - Central and South American Cuisine.  We wanted margaritas and they came through for us in that department!    The bar tender was pretty amazing, offering up lots of tips and chit-chat about Milwaukee as well as just making general small talk.  We ended up with 2 margaritas each at Charro's.  Here are a few pictures of inside the place - it was pretty swanky!


The bar


We also sat and admired a Lamborghini while we sipped our second margaritas:



All this eating and drinking was just to kill time before making our way to Miller Park to catch a Brewers game.  They played the Phillies and pretty much got smoked.  Miller Park is a nice ballpark, but FAR from Target Field.  They don't really have any standing room to view the game, which Target Field offers everywhere.  In fairness, the view from the seats is pretty killer.  It's a nice park, and I'm glad I can say I've been there!  We didn't stay the whole game as I was anxious to meet up with Krysten and just to see more of Milwaukee.










We had the cabby drop us off at this bar called AJ Bombers - which was a pretty neat bar.  A peanut bar, fully equip with shells on the floor and tracks that have bombs attached to them, they fill up a bomb with peanuts and send it down the track to your table - where it hits the target above the table and drops all the nuts into a dog food dish.  Pretty awesome.
The track heading over to our table

The bullseye it hits and drops the nuts

Krysten is there with her friend Izzy - I'm drunk by this point (thanks to the pre-bar cocktails and beer at the game)... but I order a beer anyways.  I didn't care for it (I'm not much for exploring beer, I know what I like and stick to it) so I give my beer to Steve and get a bloody mary instead.  Then comes the shots of tequila, you know, because we're there celebrating Krysten's birthday... duh!
I tell you all of this because of the picture you're about to see..  I took it from Krysten's blog... and I guess I'm going to use the excuse that I was drunk, therefore my mouth just hangs open.  I don't know.  It's not flattering (though I was screaming something awesome, I'm sure) and a good representation of who I am.
Close your mouth whore!
Seriously... I don't know what else to say.  I'm obviously in a gang.

It was clearly time to call it a night.

Saturday comes and it's time to get pumped for Six Flags!!  Get up, shower, eat a small breakfast and hit the road.  Just under an hour later and we're there!  We spent 5 hours riding roller coasters!  There was one coasters that was closed and one that was in complete darkness, so majority didn't want to chance any food coming back up; we passed on that one - much to the chagrin of Krysten, who really wanted to give it her all!
The rides were AMAZING - so much fun, so fast, so scary (wooden coasters are pretty rickety), so PERFECTLY what I had hoped for.  The staff at Six Flags was amazing too - they really get into their jobs :)
This is us at the beginning of the day:


After 6 Flags, we stopped up the road at The Shanty - which is a restaurant I found on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (Food Network).  It was pretty delish - especially since we had all been walking around going on rides all day, food was necessary!

Then the drive back was... tiresome.  I was exhausted.  I wanted sleep.

The plan was to go get cleaned up and take some time to do whatever we wanted (sleep, drink coffee, relax, etc.).  Steve and I went cheese shopping (pre-shower) and I'm now in the process of planning a wonderful date night at home fully equip with wine tasting and cheese eating.  We then met up with Krysten, Izzy, and 2 of Izzy's friends in the hotel lobby bar called xyz.  It's like just after 9pm at this point and one martini in, we decide to bar hop a bit.  In retrospect I probably should have eaten something other than fish at The Shanty because it simply wasn't substantial enough to hold me over for the entire night.  So at one of the bars Steve and I ordered a trio dip which came with tortilla chips, guac, salsa, and queso dips.  That proved to also not be enough... so by the time we hit 3 bars and I had 3 drinks, I was about ready to crash.  I felt drunk, though I mostly likely was just over-tired, and all I really wanted to do was sleep.  Lucky for me, everyone else was ready to call the night as well.
Steve and I crashed hard.
The plan was to be on the road no later than 9am, and we had to make a stop for breakfast.  We didn't set an alarm so when I woke up and seen that the time was 8:10am, I knew there was no way we'd be on the road by 9a.  No big deal, this is normal for us.
We packed up our stuff and made our way to The Comet Cafe (another from Triple D).  Having watched the video of them making the meatloaf I opted for the Meat and Eggs breakfast item.  Eggs any way and a slice of meatloaf (seriously, watch the video and see how they make meatloaf).  I'm so glad I did because it was amazing!  Meatloaf for breakfast is odd to me, but what the hell - you only live once!

Once on the road - at 10:45am - we were STUFFED - and stuffed for the rest of the drive home too!  The trip home was nothing special, another 5+ hour drive, excited to walk in the door to our home and see our kitty!

We were both exhausted all day on Sunday...

That's about it... it was a great trip and both Steve and I are anxious to get back to Milwaukee and spend some more daylight hours there!

(special thanks to Izzy for showing us a great time and to Krysten for making the journey as well and letting us chill with you guys!)

Have a Six Flags Day!

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