Missouri - Part IV: The Inbetween

There are a few other things worth mentioning about my trip, but I'm trying not to blog a million blogs about this trip, so I'm going to cram it all into one :)

A few quick notes:
First, I'm convinced that people in Missouri are hiding dinosaur eggs away from the rest of the world... I think they are plotting a real life Jurassic Park.  It wasn't only the picture below that makes me think this, but I'm doing further investigations before I can talk about it too much!

Second, there was some thing flying through the air while we were at the gas station... it was a Praying Mantis!  Have you ever seen one of those?  I hadn't and was damn excited to be seeing one:

Third, I had some obnoxious pain (pretty sure it was a pinched nerve) in my back, just under my shoulder blade the entire drive down and made for a very interesting first night sleep... I went to the Chiropractor on Friday and he did some very interesting things to me... and I felt better throughout the day.  I'm still weirded out by what happened in that office!

Fourth, I found a fork!  This fork stand 35 feet high... I'm thinking a full set of utensils through photography.  MN has The Spoonbridge, MO has a Fork... now to find a knife!

Last and most important to me is Renee and her family.  She has a wonderful husband, Phillip, and 3 lovely kids, Jacob, Kaitlyn, and Tyler.
Jacob is the oldest and I found myself often forgetting he is only 13 and speaking with him like he is an adult.  He is such a stud and will no doubt be a heart breaker once he gets to that point in his life.  He is such a good kid and stays out of trouble.. unlike most 13 year olds.  I had a lot of fun trying to make him blush as often as possible!

Kaitlyn is the middle child and, while she craves attention like most little girls, she isn't all middle child about it.  By that I mean she doesn't get jealous when the attention is focused on someone else.... at least that is what I noticed.  She speaks like no child I have ever met, takes the time to enunciate all of her words, and puts such thought and emotion into what she is saying.  I fell in love with her the first time I met her in a Vegas hotel room last fall... that love only grows with each moment I spend with her.

Tyler is a little spitfire!  I don't know how Renee does it... he is a handful and I imagine he will only be more of a handful each day older he gets.  He likes to test people and see what he can get away with.  It cracks me up!  He also has the cutest little speech impediment, he says his K's like a T.  He doesnt like to be teased about it, as any person wouldn't, but it just makes me want to grab him and pull him close!  He also says the word "Willn't" instead of "Won't" - which if you think about it makes a whole lot more sense!

Phillip and Renee have an amazing family and I feel so lucky that they have welcomed me into their home many times over.  I love observing them and how they work... they have it down!  I want to thank them so much for everything they did for me this weekend and everything they have offered me over the past year.  I'm truly blessed to have people like this in my life, I only wish they were just around the corner!  I miss them all so much already.

Missouri - Part III: Silver Dollar City & Marvel Cave

My weekend was full of first; first walnut tree, first scrapbook page, first this, first that... Another first, and a pretty damn exciting one, is my first trip inside a cave!  

On Sunday we took a day trip to Branson, MO to visit Silver Dollar City.  It's hard to explain what SDC is exactly, but they have rides, shops, glass blowing, food... those types of things.  I have tons of pictures from that day - some of which I will be posting here.  

Jacob, Phillip and myself went on 3 roller coasters that day, I LOVE roller coasters more than anything and I jump at the chance to go on one!  

They give cave tours which last roughly 45-55 minutes, so we decided to go on one... cause I wanted to go in a cave pretty badly!  There is roughly 600 stairs and we ended up about 500 feet below ground!  WOW!  It's a wet limestone cave and has some of the most amazing formations I've ever seen (not that I've ever seen anything a cave has to offer).  It was breathtaking.  It was also very dark in the cave, so getting a photo to turn out with my little point and shoot camera was quite hard.  I was able to get some:

It was pretty neat stuff, but one of those things that you really must see for yourself.  Photographs just don't show how awesome it is!


Here are some more of me in the cave:

While in Silver Dollar City we also watched some glass blowing, we walked a TON, and we colored some candles:

'Round about the end of the day I was getting tired... a lot because I had been running around with Phillip and Jacob after going on coasters!  Anyhow, we had to return the stroller we got for the kiddos, but before we did I had to pose for a picture, only to have my feet picked up by the kids and pushed/pulled around SDC!!

Renee's father is a dope photographer, so he was snapping pictures all day long... We ended up with this beautiful picture of Renee's daughter, I just happen to be in it:

The picture I posted in this blog was also taken and edited by Renee's father, he was such a treat to get to know!

I had a blast at SDC and going inside the cave is something I won't soon forget.  It's amazing to see places outside of Minnesota... flat ol' Minnesota!

Missouri - Part II: The Crafts

Settle down, I'm not talking about witch craft!

Renee had asked me many weeks before my arrival if I wanted to take a basket weaving class with her.  I had seen some of her pictures on myspace and I was all about it!  I'm generally not one to seek out new crafts, but it seems the older I get, the more money I find myself investing in crafty type things.  I've taken up knitting in the past year, I have TONS of projects in my brain just waiting for me to act on (most involve photos and/or wine), and I love photography as a whole.  

Here are a few pictures of us weaving baskets, (actually... it's just me in these pictures because Renee is a butthead and willn't ever let me take her picture):

The baskets are oil and vinegar baskets, so the point is to get oil and vinegar bottles, fill them and place them inside.  Of course we had to stop at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up our bottles... and of course we had to paint them:

Last but certainly not least, Renee has a room FULL of scrap book supplies.  I can't even begin to tell you what any of it is (besides paper) but it's FULL!  OH!!!  She also has a cricut!  She was quite anxious to get me going on a page (or book) of my own... so I gave in and let her get me going.

Here is a photo of my (almost) finished page.  I have to still print the photo (which is going to be a group shot from the Oct. 12th Vikings game), so the white space you see now will be that photo (and I will post pictures of it complete as well):

Renee is pretty well the bomb and she also hooked me up with tons of paper to get me started on a book.  I will be posting my progress as I get it finished and as I'm working.

Turns out I might be a scrapbooker!  :)

More blogs to come... for now I must sleep.

Missouri - Part I: The Walnuts

I was staying in Wilard, MO, which is pretty well a small little town minutes from Springfield.  Up the Farm Road you will run into Walnut Grove, which is the town Renee grew up in.  They kind of have a lot of Walnut Trees in Walnut Grove.  

Come to find out that it's a pretty serious thing down there.  

Turns out it was harvest season while I was there, so most of the tree

s were bare.  In the area during harvest you can pick up walnuts and put them in a sack and sell them for cash!  We encountered a young gentleman in a orange jumpsuit who had the road blocked off to collect walnuts - he had several sacks in the back of his pickup truck.  It was quite the interesting experience for me, I wish I had taken a photo of him (I'm quite certain he was a jailbird, orange jumpsuit and all).

Once we made our way through Walnut Grove and seeing all of this I became a wee bit obsessed.  I needed to have a photo of a walnut tree, I needed to blog about walnuts, I needed to stage a photo shoot.  I had big plans!

First let me show you a walnut tree.  You will notice little green ball looking things on the tree (there are only a few, click the photo to make it larger), those are walnuts:

Since all the locals had pretty well picked through all the fallen walnuts we kind of had to go on a walnut hunt.  Renee snapped a shot of me on the hunt (although I many not look to be hunting for walnuts, I was in fact hunting for walnut trees near by to hunt near):

Once we finally found some I was absolutely blown away that walnuts don't just grow on a tree as you buy them in a store.  They are in a soft green hull, with a very dark inner core holding the actual walnut.  Here is what it looks like after it falls off the tree:

Once it falls off the tree the hull starts to darken, which is why you see some black in some of these photos.  I stepped on one with my shoe because Renee told me the inside will stain your hands very badly.  Here is what the inside of it looks like (that is the walnut you see there):

Here is a small group of them we were able to collect, notice how they are changing colors:

We staged a photo shoot in honor of Terri, who was not able to join us on the trip but LOVES to stage photo shoots:

Last, because I was so excited to have found some walnuts to photograph, I had to have my picture taken with one.  Can you say you've ever had your picture taken with a walnut?

What I have failed to mention up until this point is that I made Renee drive around for quite some time (and by that I mean at least an hour) trying to find a walnut tree with many walnuts still on it; these were the best we could find.  Turns out people jump at the chance to make a few bucks selling their walnuts!  Strange things you find in other places... 

I had a great time hunting for walnuts while in Missouri!

Random - Vol. 8.17

So, I got home last night to find my Internet wasn't working and I didn't have the patience to try and figure anything out.  So I will be posting about my trip hopefully tonight... I still have to get my pictures off my camera.  

I need technology!  I didn't check myspace and facebook but once this weekend and I think that was on Friday... aside from checking from my phone to poke those that have poked me.  I didn't really pay any attention to my email on my blackberry.  I'm really only posting this blog because I feel like I need a good solid dose of technology!

So, as mentioned, I will be posting blogs about my trip soon... and I think I'm going to have to split them up in sections cause I have a lot to say and a lot of pictures to share.  Though, I may be able to get it all into one or two.  

A few highlights I will be touching on: 

• I scrapped my first scrapbook page this weekend!  I just have to print the picture and glue it down :)  I'm excited to post a picture for everyone to see.  Renee set me up with supplies to finish my little accordion book - it's going to be a 2008 scrap book... (don't tell her, but I'm pretty excited to be doing this!).  
  
• I got EXCELLENT gas mileage - one of the tanks I got 39 MPG!!  
• I seen my first ever Walnut tree and walnuts in their 'shells'.
• I went into a cave for the first time ever.
• Basket Weaving
• Dinosaur Eggs
• I love Renee and her family!

Stay tuned for those blogs...  on to my random thoughts.

Have you ever seen a Bald Eagle in real life?  The other week I was driving home from work and looked up to see 2 Bald Eagles flying together... just soaring along in the sky.  I truly feel 'they' (whoever they are..) picked an amazing creature for our nations bird.  They are absolutely beautiful!  

Back in August I was up north at a friends cabin and we were all out in the boat.. someone caught a fish, let it go.. and it died.  It floated away and all of the sudden we see this Bald Eagle circling overhead looking, obviously, at this dead fish floating away.  We continue to watch and then we see it start to get lower and lower... long flight down made short... he swoops down no more than 50 yards away from our boat and picks up the fish.  It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen!  Pictures don't even come close to showing a person just how amazing they are.  If you ever see one in real life, take the time to observe it, you will be blown away!

Being alone in a car with just my thoughts... is sometimes a dangerous thing.

I had about 50 million random thoughts I wanted to blog about - and I can't remember a one of them!

According to my dear friend Steve, Eminem has leaked a song off his new album set to drop this year... I have it sitting in my email inbox, but have yet to listen because of the lack of Internet at my house :(  I can't wait to hear it.

My job is so busy right now... it's job security, so that's good.  We normally have about 10-11 people working here; we are at a total of 18 people now.  We are making 950 Kiosks for a company, not only are we forming the parts (which is like 7-8 different parts) but we are also assembling them all, which takes about 15-20 minutes per kiosk.  It's a CRAZY project.  I'm in charge of keeping track and documenting time for each person... it's one of the biggest headaches at my job (and another reason I am writing this blog... sometimes mental breaks are necessary).

Burnt coffee is nasty.

I love to rap.. and I get a lot of strange looks from people on the road as I'm doing it.  Silly Minnesotans :)

I use the personalize Google homepage, and over the weekend they made some changes... I hate changes.  I have no idea how to get it back to how I had it.  Damn you Google!

I have to get some work done, but first... Renee's father is a super dope photographer and he emailed me a picture from this weekend and I'd like to share it with you:

Thoughts for Thursday - ROAD TRIPS!!!

I am going to post a TFT for today, but its going to be pretty short, I'm only working a half day... I do have to get something done today :)

Since I am leaving today to embark on one of my favorite things to do (Road Tripping!), I thought it would be appropriate to talk about road trips!  I'm leaving in a matter of hours to drive about 10 hours to Springfield, MO - I LOVE taking road trips!!  I've done several with friends and many alone (mostly to Chicago); there is just something about being on the open road that I love.  I don't exactly recall my first road trip, but I think it was down to Texas (Dallas area) to visit my friend Derek; he was in the Air Force and stationed down there.  I made a few trips down there to see him, I was younger then so I didn't care as much about finding things to see or do on the way or while down there.  I took a road trip with my friends, Erin and Pam, to Chicago - we stayed there for a night or two, then drove down to St. Louis to visit my friend Joey.  We then drove back to Chicago for another night and eventually made our way home.  

I've made a couple road trips to Las Vegas.  The most memorable one was leaving MN with Erin and Kristen, driving through North Dakota, Montana, the very tip top of Idaho, into Washington.  We stayed in Seattle for a night, drove down through Oregon and Northern California into San Francisco.  We stayed in San Fran (which is one of my favorite cities, btw!) for a night and then made our way into LA/Venice Beach!  Had a night or two there and drove to Vegas.  Talk about an exhausting trip!!  We made our way back to MN through Denver - but didn't really make any stops on the way home.  3 girls in a car together for a week makes for some crabby times :)

I have driven in every state South and West of Minnesota.  I think that is a neat fact.  I've seen the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, The Hollywood Sign, Muscle Beach, The Space Needle, and The Golden Gate Bridge.  I've been to Six Flags in LA (so much fun!), I've walked the strip in Las Vegas, and I've dipped my feet into the Pacific Ocean.  I'd way rather take a week and drive then fly to only one destination for the same amount of time!

This trip I will hopefully see and do some fun things while on the road.  I'm excited!  I really just can't wait to See Renee and her family.

So... Thoughts for Thursday: Have you ever taken a road trip?  Where to and what did you do?  Do you enjoy road trips?  Tell me anything and everything about the road trips you have taken!!

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Other TFT Posts today:

Dana Leigh on Tattoos and Piercings

Michelle Leigh on Plastic Surgery

Blogging and Counting...

Ok, so I installed this hit counter on my blog last week, but wanted to test it out before I decided to keep it.  After reading Michelle's Blog celebrating her 30,000th hit I've decided to keep my counter, unfortunately I didn't put it up the first day I started the blog, so it's about 2 months off.  I've added the hit counter to my blog under my picture for everyone to see.  Can you believe I've been here on blogger for 2 months?!

I really like the little community in the blogging world.  I've become a part of Thoughts For Thursday, which I'm finding to be fun and I'm always searching my mind for TFT ideas!  I'm also open to suggestions if you have one... I have an opinion on everything!

I still have a small annoyance with people coming and reading but not leaving comments.  Let me know you've been here, even if it's just a small "LOL" or "Word" or "I agree/disagree".  It is nice to know people are reading, but I don't know who you are unless you tell me, duh!  I know the comment options are there for you to post using your name (even if you don't have a blogger account)... so why not do it?  Not only that, but I know you have an opinion too or something to say!  If you found me through someone else's blog, let me know who and why you decided to click on my blog.  

I'm quite certain I've lost a lot of my loyal myspace readers... but what can you do?

There are still a few quirks I'm trying to figure out here (like why I get a different posting screen sometimes, one with a spellcheck and one without), but so far so good!  I need to take more time to play with banners... I enjoy learning new things and trying to make them in photoshop is usually fun.

All in all, I like it here.  I plan to continue to post as I feel the need and find topics to post about... Thanks to those who continue to read and welcome to those who are new.  I know my blog is not grammatically correct most of the time and I, generally, try to check my spelling... its just me and it's how I roll.

Lastly, on a separate/side note: my tattoo is starting to heal, which means it's starting to itch... which means it sucks.

The weekend...

So I had an interesting weekend, I'll skip the boring stuff and get right to the good stuff.  

Saturday, kind of last minute I made a final decision to cover a tattoo that I've had since I was 16.  I've wanted to do it for a long time but haven't had the funds, my friend Amy knows this guy who does 'em for cheap... the first one I got was in a shack in some dudes backyard, this dude can't be much worse, right?  Here is a picture of the 'dolphin' I got when I was 16 (it looks like a minnow):

Several years ago my friend Joey drew me a dolphin - it was the outline for this tattoo.  So, after many steps and lots of pictures that I won't be posting... I now have this tattoo of a dolphin:

On Saturday my mom wanted to go out and celebrate her 50th birthday, so I drove to St. Paul (the Mn Music Cafe) and hooked up with her and a group of her friends.  Here is us doing a birthday shot of Patron:

Sunday, a group of us went to the Vikings game.  I won't touch on the game or the fact that we need a new head coach... but here is a picture of us tailgating (from left to right: Jeff, Linnea, Amanda, me, Bronson, Steve):

Then Sunday night my mom and me met up with my brother and Brooke for dinner at Big Bowl.  Of course my beautiful niece was with and just melting her aunties heart!  She has this super cute smile she does... I could never get a picture of it until this weekend, and I just have to share it with you:

Isn't she just the CUTEST thing ever?!  It's unbelievable how much I love that kid!

peace out bitches :)

Some old pictures

So I was going through some pictures on my computer today... sometimes it so much fun to do that... just think back and remember.  I decided to share with you some of those pictures and memories I have from around these times.  Unfortunately I don't have exact ages or dates for many of these first few.

(Remember you can click on any of these pictures to see them larger)

This first picture is me in what used to be my favorite thing to play with.  It's my little car, I even had the gas pump to go along with it!  I figure I'm probably around 1 yr. old here:

I figure since I don't moon as an adult, I should at least show you guys what I'm working with ;)  I'm guessing this is around 2 yrs. old or so (but I'm very bad at this):

This next picture is my brother and me... cute that we are actually getting along (I think he still liked me at this point in our lives).  I'm thinking I look maybe 2 in this one as well :

I still use this look to this day:

.... and this one too (pretty clear I've been a daddy's girl my whole life, huh?).  I figure this is around 3-4 yrs. old:

My favorite Halloween costume, Freddy!!!  My dad was the shit at making our costumes - I was also, at one point, The Tin Man, Dorothy, but never the Lion because I was always brave ;)  I think I'm around 5 yrs. old:

My mom loved putting my hair in pony tails on the top of my head!  She also loved my freckles and making me pose (which explains why, to this day, I love to have my picture taken) - I look maybe 7 yrs old here?:

My dad and me (I think this was taken the same day as the one above):

This one was taken in July '91 - 9.5 yrs old here.  Again.. my mom loved doing this stuff... and she didn't have to twist my arm too hard at this point to get me to play along:

This next one is the entire reason I started looking through pictures today.  I found this in my mom's bedroom and I wanted to make sure and get it scanned and post it.  It was my trip to Glamour Shots in 1995 - I was 13.5 yrs old:

Moving along to when I was a bit older... and people wonder why we never come out of a Minneapolis Public School with an education:

This is Pam, Amanda, Abbie and myself.  I'm pretty sure I was in high school here, but not sure which year:

I like my hair (and boobs) in this picture, circa 2000:

As an 'adult', with Pam and Alex - Powerpuff girls!!  I was big into pink then... so I got to be the pink one.  Oh, this was Halloween 2001, not just some random night:

Pam, Amanda, Kelley and me.  Amanda and myself skipped most of Kelley's baby shower to go to the Vikings game, oops!  My computer says this was 2002, so I'll go with that:

Ahhh yes... this next picture was taken the night of my 23rd birthday, so it was 12/16/2004.  I'm pretty sure after this was taken Amy and I were called up to the stage at The NE Palace to sing Eminem's Superman - the events following that song are a huge blur to me and all I know is I woke up the next day with a sore tail bone; draw your own conclusion:

A few weeks later, still with a sore tail bone, before the Vikings vs Packers game on Christmas Eve 2004:

Again in 2004, Christmas day with my brother and his now wife, Brooke:

Jan 2005, with my mom, Nancy, and my Brother, Jason:

So... that's really all I've got for you today.  Just thought it was fun to look back and laugh a bit.