Baby Josie

8/26/08

Josephine Marie

9 lbs, 20.5 in.

I may be biased, but she's pretty darn cute.

And she has pretty dark hair, just like her mom!

Things have been interesting at work this week. I have a prime spot for watching them set up for the RNC. This morning we've been watching them haul equipment into the History Center for that show with Jon Stewart. There are fences with barbed wire by the freeway and helicopters have been flying around all morning. Soon there will be portable toilets in front of the Capitol (classy!). I am one of the few (the brave!) planning on coming in to work next week. It should be really interesting. I'm in a prime spot for watching the marches/parades/protests - they will be going right in front of our building. I'm not sure what it's going to be like next week - it could be really fun, it could be a huge pain in the butt and it could be a little scary (probably nothing to worry about, but we've been hearing about all the emergency plans/procedures for our building - you never know exactly what's going to happen when you've got 10,000 protesters right in front of a clearly marked government building). I just hope I'll be able to get in and out of our parking ramp and downtown!

Pictures - Duluth and Sammy

Click on any pic to see them all. (hey, I never said they were good pictures! :) )

From August 2008

From August 2008

From August 2008

This past year has gone really fast - and really slow all at the same time. My cousin and her boys have been here for a year (I'm not going to go into why here; I don't want to think about it right now). They're going back to Germany this weekend. My cousin moved to Germany when she was pregnant the first time and they've lived there ever since (I can't believe it's 7 years! Trevor will be 7 in two months!). I've only really seen her kids when they have been here for a visit or when I have been there for a visit, which probably works out to about once a year. So I feel very lucky to have gotten to spend a whole year with them. But now I don't know what I'm going to do without them! No one else gets all excited to see me or wants to sit next to me or hold my hand or play Indiana Jones with me. To fill that gap I will be taking applications for new members of my fan club, if any one's interested. ;)

At least Trevor learned how to read this year at school (1st grade) so I can send him emails about Indy and Lego Indy. I tend to get a little obsessed with stuff and it's been nice to have someone else to talk to who is obsessed with the same thing. Trevor is also really into Star Wars so I told him that Indiana Jones and Han Solo are played by the same guy. He seemed pretty surprised by this. Then he asked "How did you know that?" He seemed to really like the idea that there is a link between Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Last weekend we played with his action figures. Our team of good guys consisted of Indiana Jones, Desert Indiana Jones, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Marion, Young Indy (played by an army guy - "he's like Young Indy because he doesn't have a gun or a whip and he's wearing green") and Young Indy's boyscout friend (played by a small figure of Diego from Dora the Explorer). I wasn't quite sure what our good guys were trying to do, but I think we were trying to destroy the Death Star.

Alexandria, June 2008

A few pics from our week on Lake Ida in Alexandria.

All I can say is that I'm glad SOMEONE was serious about driving the boat.

Pictures

I'll get the toolbox!

This is why I call him Snugglebutt.

Trevor and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Unfortunately we picked an afternoon with storms - in the middle of the movie we had to spent 45 minutes sitting in the hallway under the stadium seating waiting for a tornado to pass! (but we still think Indy still rocks! I don't know what I'm going to do when Trevor goes back home - who's going to be Indy-obsessed with me? I'll have to find a new best friend.)

We have been having too much weather lately. This is lightening from the first of today's storms. I really love having a window cube at work. :)

At The Park

Pics from the Minnesota State Fair

Pics from Sammy's First Birthday Party

Lake Miltona

A few weekends ago my family went up to Lake Miltona near Alexandria. We were all ready for a fun weekend playing on the lake. But it rained pretty much all weekend. We were a little disappointed. oh well - there's always next year, right?

It's hard to see in this picture since the camera flash
highlighted the shiny gold clock hands, but we were all
confused by this clock. Everyone kept saying "It's
twenty to two? I thought it was much later!"
(or earlier as the case may be!)


This is why you should make sure the camera timer
is on the correct setting - 10 seconds vs. 2 seconds.
oops.

Finally! Sucess!

Father's Day

I was over at my parents' house last weekend and we kind of celebrated Father's Day. We ate and I gave him a coffee shop gift card. Unfortunately my budget does not stretch to $800 tree trimming things like he wanted.

And then my dad worked on my car. Do I have a cool dad or what? :)

Checking out the front brakes

The old (bottom) and new brake pads. You can see the old one is really thin compared to the new one!

Putting it all back together

Hanging out with Sam

At the park with Erin and Tucker

We checked out a new park this week. It had a cute little lake and a big play area. All three of us had a good time climbing all over big ship-shaped playground equipment. (yes, all three of us. Even those of us who are probably too old and/or big to be on the playground. :) )

Finally - spring weather!

We had really nice weather last night for my weekly walk with my friends Erin and Tucker. We've been going for a walk almost every week for about a year. It's nice - we get some exercise and chat and often eat dinner together. (Well, I should say "...and Erin often makes me dinner!" :) ) I think all three of us have been getting tired of walking inside since that means we go to a mall (or Ikea!) and spend money and eat fast food. Kind of goes against the whole point of going for a walk!

Anyway, we went to Como park and walked around the lake. There were a lot of people out walking yesterday. I think we're all tired of cold, wet and SNOWY weather. So we walked, I took a few (bad, boring) pictures for this community ed photography class I'm taking, and we played on the grass for a little bit. And then we went to Target and made pizza. It was a nice evening.

Tucker jumps!


Tucker plays his "guitar".

Easter Weekend 2007

We had Easter at my parents' house on Saturday. It was nice because we had extra company - my cousin Kathy was here with her family.

Annie & Sam

Nate, Viv, Dave, Kathy & Annie

Click here for all the pics!

Sam likes to bounce!









And chat with Grandma!

I just can't stay away - Ikea. Again.

Fajitas. Strawberries. Chocolate.

Dancing in the kitchen.

It was a good night.

I swear, the Internet had some kind of personal vendetta against me this weekend. It wouldn't let me send pictures anywhere! no printing, no emailing, no blogging. grrr.

It took me a while, but I finally put up pics from a few weekends ago.

Sept. 23, 2006

Sep 23, 2006 - 7 Photos

(click on the photo to check them out!)

Dinner with Tucker

The fun part...

and the not so fun part.

I've been so busy this week it's been crazy. But it's been really fun! I've seen so many small children I've lost count! And I KEEP FORGETTING MY CAMERA!!! I know I missed some really cute shots, too. I did take pics of Thor and Tait at my parents' house - pics are in my web album.

I've been taking some cold medicine today and it's made me kind of goofy. I'm in a really weird mood because of it (sound familiar anyone? ;) I bought the cold medicine at Wal-Mart yesterday and it was the first time I had to have my ID checked to buy it. This stuff is making me feel a little off - almost drunk! - and really tired, so I am considering going back to buy a different type of cold medicine. But I'm afraid the police are going to come raid my house looking for a meth lab if I go on record as buying two packages of cold medicine in two days.

I saw the pirate movie! It was a lot of fun. I have an even bigger crush on Captain Jack now, if that's possible. :)

Trevor told me I'd be a "cutie-patootie - a fancy cutie-patootie" if I had some flowered pants from GapKids. I'll have to stop by and pick up some. Maybe I could wear them to work.

I guess I'm not the only one who likes Sven the weather guy. There's a whole "Svenomenon" even! (Thanks Erin for sending me that!) So now I have to ask - Mom, have you been sending Sven certain fan emails? lol