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

More pictures - Alexandria and Spike

From June 2008

From June 2008

From Spike

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. :)

You'd never guess where I am tonight!

I am in fabulous Branson, Missouri. Yes, I'm at a vacation destination known for it's shows featuring patriotic music, hillbilly humor and country music stars from the 70's. This isn't where I'd choose to vacation, but my parents offered to take me with them and things have been so horrible lately (ok, like in the last 6+ months - but hey, I'm on drugs so at any time now things should be looking better, right? Right? I'm well into my second year of these and things are only marginally better. But I guess that's better than nothing. and I'd hate so see what I would be like now with nothing. this is all probably tmi - sorry. but you know I'm good at that. ha!) that I would pretty much jump at the chance to go anywhere right now just to get away. And at least the weather is warmer here - no snow either!

I saw a show featuring1950's music tonight. It was a pretty good show and I took pictures like I always do. But I can't show them to you because the hotel we're at has their wifi all nice and secured with WPA. Which makes it pretty hard for people without a password to connect to their network. The guys behind the desk tell me that I don't actually need a password, I can just hit enter and their network will let me connect. Except that it doesn't - it just tells me I need a password to connect. (This is totally beside the fact that there really isn't much point in securing a network and then not actually having a password. but whatever. This obviously isn't their forte.)

So this is a pretty pointless blog without bad pictures of an Elvis tribute artist (not impersonator!) on stage. but I don't care! so there!

And I'm kind of thinking I should tell my parents to go on their drive without me tomorrow. For one thing, just driving around in the mountains doesn't excite me. And then there's that small issue of me getting car sick almost every time I get in a car. Pointlessly wandering around in the mountains is not car sick compatible. (I could always take some motion sickness pills, but then instead of feeling like shit I'd just be asleep. :P) And I have to admit that I want to stay here at the hotel with my computer so I can watch Andy Roddick play at Indian Wells. I'm still obsessed with this whole tennis thing and I know it's not normal but I can't help it. Andy's been doing so well the last few weeks. He's been awesome and I really hope he can keep kicking butt this week. That would be so much fun. :)

Of course, for me to be able to watch Andy play on my computer I need to have a wifi connection. Which I don't have at the hotel. Do you think they'd mind if I just camped out on the computer in the lobby for the whole match? Or they could just un-secure their wifi. In fact I could even do that for them, I can see their computer in the lobby if I lean over the front desk far enough... hmmm... (sometimes it is hard knowing all this stuff like I do. ;)

Pics from New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve 2007 Pics

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

Sam's Baptism pics

I'm trying a slide show of pics. Let me know if it doesn't work. If you want to see all the pictures, they're available here.

My Aunt DeAnn

My Aunt DeAnn was up in Minnesota this week visiting family. I think the last time I saw her was back in 2003! She is such a nice lady. It was fun to see her again.

DeAnn, Viv & Dave

Sam in Swing

Sam loves his swing!

had a hot date friday night... with my nephew.

I spent Friday evening with Dan & Sara and Sam. I didn't actually take any pictures of Sam (I forgot, ok? next time, I promise!) but he's awfully cute. He's getting big so fast. He's gotten good at controlling his hands now and he likes to grab things(including glasses!). He also likes to clap his hands. He seems to think that's pretty exciting and it makes him smile. He's still pretty wiggly. He's always kicking his legs or patting something with his hands. If you hold out your hand palm up he'll pat it. I kept saying "Give me five!" and holding out my hand. We're halfway there - he's got the action down, we just need to get him to connect the action to the words. lol He's pretty good at sitting by himself now too - except when he gets excited he starts kicking his legs and tips over. And he still likes to jump and be tossed in the air. He watches everything - he kept looking at me, just looking. Probably thinking "who's that weirdo?" I can't wait until he actually recognizes us. He's a fun baby - he's always pretty calm and happy, he smiles easily, and in general he only ever cries when he's hungry or needs a change. He sure knows what he wants though - if you interrupt his dinner to switch him from cereal to the bottle or to burp him he starts shrieking. "I'm not done yet!" He's a good eater too (which may explain why he seems to double in size every time I see him - he's eating cereal and some fruits and veggies now. And he seems to love it.)

Anyway... I had a nice time Friday night playing with Sam, checking out thier new ping pong table and laughing about The Office (they missed the best part Thursday night - when Dwight dressed up as Jim at the end. very funny.) Dan and Sara always seem to be willing to let me take goofy pictures of them.

I took more pictures of Spike this weekend too. (I take so many Spike pictures it's not even funny!) I got Spike doing the face!

Steve & Shala @ Ikea

I had a nice dinner with my cousin Steve, his girlfriend, Shala, and my parents tonight. Steve and Shala were on their way back from a short business/pleasure trip in New York City. It sounds like they had fun! I'm jealous - I've never been to NYC. Anyone want to go with me? :)

If you hadn't guessed, we ate at Ikea. (It's near the airport!) I finally ordered a half-healthy meal at Ikea - the kid's plate of meatballs and fries plus a (large!) side of mixed veggies. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but I love those yellow carrot things! And french fries.

Dan's birthday

Ok, these are a little late. but just a little. ;)