December 2010 Blizzard

We survived it... it was crazy... and a "real" snowblower is now really on our list of things to get.

Cha-cha-cha-changes

So... ummm yeah. I've been sicker than sick for one full week. Awesome.

But, today I finally found some energy. I took the best warm shower of my life, put on some comfy sweats and a long sleeved tee shirt. Yep, you heard that right LONG SLEEVED :) It's being to feel like fall here and I love it.

I've opened the windows to let the crisp cool breeze carry out all these sick germs.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow...

So the cities are under a winter storm watch. We could get up to a foot of snow by Sunday...

To make it a bit more like the holidays the girls should be coming over for the weekend all three: PST, JST, and Tink. I plan to make Christmas candy this weekend and put up the tree and other decor. I'm even planning on wrapping up the presents for shipping out (oh to be ahead of the game... you think it will happen????).

I think I'll also put together some lasagna this weekend... with all the mouths we'll be feeding it will probably go quickly.

Storm August 2007

Update: We came home from Anna's to find that our power had been restored! I asked a neighbor how long it had been on since we were gone most of the day and he said only about an hour before we came home! Which would mean from Saturday at 3am until Sunday at 7pm is when we had no power. Ugh.


Holy Cats!

So Friday night we had JST over for the night. We ran to the grocery store to pick up something for dinner and walked away with $100 worth of grocery - surprise surprise. We watched a movie and just hung out until we decided to head to bed. We were asleep in our house when for some reason I awoke. It was 3am. Outside there was flashes of lighting - but no lighting bolts - just the sky was light up like daylight. I nudged Jerome and told him to move the car that was on the lawn since it looked like it was going to rain. He got up in a dash and tossed on some shorts and headed outside.

I figured I would take a look at what was outside to see if I really wanted to deal with it getting wet since we were having a Block Party Saturday afternoon. Off came the cushions of the chairs and we tossed the carpet pieces into the garage.

When that was done I went inside and turned on the TV to watch the weather channel. It stated that we were going to get some high winds (50-60 mph) and there was a sever thunderstorm warning. And then it happened... the TV cut off along with the fans, air, lights, clocks... you name it. The power was out.

It's kinda funny that JST had made the remark before heading to bed that there was a flash light in her room! Good thing as we needed it. We found the other flash light and I light some candles. I just stayed watching the rain since it's been so long since we've had some like this.

It started to rain and the winds picked up. I went downstairs to check the window/wall in the laundry room... sure enough there was a leak. A bad leak. It was spurting out of the window well. Ughhhh. I grabbed the dirty towels from the laundry and started sopping up the mess. I ran upstairs to get the mop.

Jerome woke JST up and told her that it was cooler the basement to go and sleep downstairs. Which, we all did after having a quick snack and chat. (Gotta love having an 8 month pregnant person in the house!)

I called the electric company and their machine stated that we should have power by 8am. Fine and good - we don't really need it while we sleep downstairs. We woke up at 9am or so, with no power. I called the electric company again. Now, it stated that we may not have electricity until end of day Tuesday. WHAT?!?!?!?! ugh.

There was a pretty good sized branch in the middle of the road from the tree that recently lost big branches when Monty Crew was at our house last. We had twigs and a few branches in the yard but nothing major. I figured we better check the gutters since I noticed a few of our neighbors up in theirs. Sure enough it was packed. I got to cleaning it out.

Since we had no power, we didn't dare go in the fridge for long. And, with an electric stove now we had to cook our bacon, eggs, and grits on the grill! It was kinda fun, until we realized that both of our cars were in the garage - that has an electric opener.

JST's mom and sisters came to pick her up and take her back to the land of A/C and TVs. We of course stayed in our "campsite". I called Lisa and asked if she had power. Sure enough she did, so I asked if we could bring over stuff from our deep freezer and our fridge/freezer. I packed up the two coolers and we were on our way. We hung out there until about 3 pm when we left for our Block Party, that we weren't even sure if it was still going to go on.

I set out two chairs and a table out front and brought the charcoal grill around front too. We figured we could grill up some of this chicken from the freezer for the party... and figured other people may want to too.

We hung out with Denise and her daughter and a few of the other neighbors showed up too. We ended up going to Denise's garage to "congregate" and stay dry as it decided to rain again.

We headed home and went to the basement to sleep. I'm starting to feel the pains of not sleep in my bed... the floor and that couch are not cutting it. Ughhh. I awoke this morning hoping we would have electricity... not the case. So, today, we headed over to Anna's where we are BBQing up the last of the meat that we kept.

I'm sure I'll be calling into my renter's insurance this coming week. Wonder if they will cover everything????

We went around the neighborhood to find out that about 5 block south of us many large trees were down, along with power lines and electric poles snapped in half. We took pictures, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to load them here.

And by the way, I am not cracked up for this whole camping thing!

Our 10 days of Summer is here

And of course this weekend is my garage sale... guess I'll be seeing if that A/C works in the garage!

More guests in town...

This past Friday we had some guests come into town. Yup... Monty Crew visited us - well the adults did anyway! They had a little "get-a-way-from-me" weekend from the bambinos and their dog and choose to come to MN to visit us!

Friday we had plans to meet up with them at the stadium for the Twins vs. Red Socks (baseball - for those of you who don't follow that's MN vs. Boston). Jerome had a happy hour gig after work so I road the train to the stadium to meet him. As I was waiting for him to ride the train from the other way to the stadium one of the security guys walked up to me and told me that the train that was coming in next would be out of service once it reached the stadium. I told him, "I don't care as long as my boyfriend gets off the train"... WOOOOPS... (go back and re-read that sentence.... I'll wait....)
Yup... I called my husband of nine months my boyfriend. Doh! I started laughing as soon as I said it and the security guy probably thought I was crazy so I told him what I was laughing about and he chuckled himself! I was glad to see Jerome actually get off of that train and walk away from this situation.

We waited for The Monty's since they had purchased our tickets so that we could all be seated together. Finally Susha called and asked where we were... we saw them standing at the corner of the landmark that I gave them looking for us. I told Susha to turn around, keep turning, keep turning... (making a full turn around!)... then she spotted us and headed our way.

We made our way into the stadium with our tickets in hand. We also made a whole lap around the stadium... thanks to Andy's guided tour :) Tee heee! Jerome went in and found four seats - ends up there wasn't assigned seats for our section - what do you expect for $10??? The three of us went and picked up some food and drinks and then headed up.

We saw a very drunk little girl (little girl ha... she was probably 20, maybe even 21... isn't that just how old I am????) fall all the way down the steps and knock poor Jerome's beer over a bit. She'll feel that in the morning I suppose. We left at the 7th or 8th inning since The Monty's were giving us a ride back to our house and had parked in a parking ramp. Now I'm speaking from experience here... if you are going to stay all the way through some event... do not park in a parking ramp... it will take you an hour to get down from the 9th floor of the ramp (Smile Lisa!)
We headed home and I warned them ahead of time of the dumpster dives that were going on in our area to beware of crazy drivers and heaps of junk on the lawns. Well guess what we did... yup... me and Susha went out for a bit! We left the guys at the house and took some flashlights to sniff around. It's much harder in the dark but we still managed to find a few things... and Susha made the bigger haul than me :) Needless to say she said she wants to come out next year when this is going on... should be a fun time!

They stayed at our house Friday night and when we awoke on Saturday morning I thought to myself I wonder what I should make for breakfast. I went to the cupboards... hummm only enough pancake mix for two people. Went to the fridge... only four eggs... enough for two people... checked the milk - we could always just have a bowl of cereal... only enough for one person... JEEEEZE! Andy saved the day by heading over to Mickey D's for some breakfast... yummy!

I checked for when the nail shop opened - 9:30 a.m. We planned to get there shortly after they opened... and we did. Trisha and I both got pedis I couldn't wait. The guys ended up going after Trisha eBay winnings an hour north of us. Her kids better be on their best behavior... momma got them some nice things this weekend!

After our pedis we looked around Bloomington to see if we could find any dumpster treasures in the daylight... on pick up day. We didn't have much luck - I wish she could have seen it on Thursday... she would have died! We decided to go on a quick shopping trip into Target, I picked up some coals for the grill. Then I showed her The Avenue. Great store for big girls and plenty of sale items! We headed home and started getting food ready for lunch. Brats and hamburgers on the grill. I ran to the store to pick up milk, eggs, tomatoes and potato chips. This way I was set for Sunday's breakfast! After dinner they hung out for a bit and then headed over to their hotel for Saturday night after their concert. Sounds like it was pretty posh.

Jerome and I headed to Anna's to take her the twin bed that we use to have in our 2nd bedroom in the apartment. It was originally hers and she let us borrow it for when we had guest or the girls over night. Jerome helped her switch the locks on the bedroom doors (one had a lock and one didn't) and Chris made himself at home in his new bed. We watched Firehouse Dog and then left out.

We headed home and I started cleaning up the kitchen to prep for Sunday's breakfast with The Monty's. We made plans to have omelets in the morning. They were bringing the bacon and juice, I was supplying the eggs and veggies. I chopped up the veggies and shredded the cheese. I also set the table and got the coffee pot ready. I headed to bed around 2 a.m.

I woke up Sunday morning and was brushing my teeth as they called to find out if we were up yet or not. But of course! The headed over and breakfast started. The winds started to pick up while we sat at the kitchen table chatting and while Jerome was eating since he was the last to have his omelet made. It sounded like the house was shifting from the wind, the lites even flickered a few times (I'm sure it had nothing to do with cutting limbs down last weekend... wink wink!).

At one point I got up and walked into the living room... and then I noticed... two huge limbs from the tree that is between our house and our neighbors had broken off and were sitting in our driveway. Oh boy! Well at least The Monty's had pulled their van up to our garage... imagine if they had just left it near our front door vs. our back door... well I'd be writing a totally different post! The guys got up and hauled the branches to our backyard. And the Monty's left out of town while they could. Jerome went back to eating his omelet and I went a picked up other sticks that had fallen from all of our trees.



I told Jerome they should have just put it between our houses instead of our backyard... what were we going to do with it... we couldn't cut it up! So he and I hauled it to the grass between our houses and told the neighbors son about it. He came right out with his chainsaw and chopped it up. We picked up the rest of the yard and Jerome told me he was heading to St. Paul to pick up JST.

I stayed home and chatted with the neighbors since it seemed like everyone was out picking up their yard. To bad the dumpster crew picked up on Saturday - lots of people had tons of sticks and limbs to go out!

JST came to our house and hung out for a good bit. She and I chatted while Jerome mowed the lawn. For those of you who have been wondering.... JST is the mommy to be. Yup, I'll be a grandma before I'm a real momma! We caught up about things going on in her life, how she's feeling and we even took some belly pics. The photo is manipulated to protect her privacy. She's five months and is due Sept. 25th. She seems very happy... I hope she stays that way.

She looked at our wedding pictures that I had out on the table since we are going to be ordering them in two weeks. She asked why some were glossy vs. matte. WHAT?!?!?! Oh good lord. Here I or Jerome had mixed up the original pictures with some that we had reprinted. Big no no since we needed to bring the originals to the shop to order. We figured everything out... thank goodness but without JST looking at the photos we could have had some big issues with the photography people (not that we haven't already!)

All in all it was a pretty good weekend. I even managed to cut some lilacs for inside the house and plant the rest of my peas in my garden.

Oh shooot... that's another thing. When my parents were in town last weekend we tried to help one of my purple lilac trees from growing into the while lilac bush. Well perhaps we shouldn't have helped it by tying it to the fence... one of the limbs busted in the wind storm. I don't know if lilacs will "regrow" or not... but I stuck it in the ground in hopes that it would... we will see!

Monty's Weekend Get-A-WAY

Check out the Monty Crew's blog to see their fun filled weekend at our house :)

I will be posting our version soon... but incase you can't wait check them out!

Last Two Weeks at a Glance

Wednesday was Administrative Professionals Day... did you get your admin anything? I did. Leslie actually use to be my boss, and being that I use to be an admin I tend to show a lot of love to good admins.... she's the best. Unfortunately I couldn't find any chocolate fried pies for her, her favorite, but the search is on. Instead she got a Sam's Club chocolate bunt cake and some flowers. Needless to say, she felt the love.

Thursday was dumpster dive nite, round one. I picked up a few things but I am now in the search for specific things. I went out by myself and met up with Holly, Sheri and Sheri's mom. We had a blast as usual. Holly ended up leaving early while I helped Sheri and her mom fit everything into Sheri's car. Now mind you I was still in search of baby things... more to come soon, I promise. We ended up splitting up again and I found a great shelf unit 3 tier and plenty of other things.

Friday I left work early for an eye appointment. I was suppose to get my eyes dilated... but I had to have them do that next time since I HAD TO go dumpster diving with Jerome! I had to be able to see... jeeze! So we went out afterwards and checked things out. We found a bassinet which was the big hit item. We went home and picked up around the house since I found out that mom and dad were coming up for the weekend once I checked my email when we got home.

Saturday was Lisa's first bridal shower. She picked me up and we headed to Walgreen's to meet up with Rod's mom and sister. They followed us to the shower. It was pretty fun and yes, we played the orange game that we played at my bridal shower that she threw with Anna for me. We drove to my house and I called Jerome on the way. He was dropping off all these wonderful baby items to the "mommy to be" and was suppose to be back by 1:00 in case mom and dad arrived a little early. He wasn't there! Ughhh... So Lisa put the petal to the metal and we made it home all of 5 to 10 minuets before my parents arrived. She had planned to go on eBay at my house to order some petals for the center pieces... while we were online she noticed that she forgot shipping charges... she's double checking prices before we order them online.

Lisa left once mom and dad arrived. Dad started pulling things off and out of the truck. The new truck, and unfortunately got new scratches in the bed of the truck from something that had been shifting on their drive into the cities. Sad! Then it started. Dad propped up the ladder in the tree. It swayed and swayed as he getting it in the air. I was sure he was going to hit the power line. He managed to get it right next to the power line, I squealed. I hate power lines, phone lines, electric lines of any sort. I told him it was nice knowing him as he climbed the ladder. Ugh it made me sick. He so stubborn, guess that's where I get it from as Jerome would say. Mom and I just looked up at him as he took a rope up the ladder to tie around the branch.

FINALLY Jerome arrived and he could help him. Whew. They cut down two big branches that, when looking up from the ground didn't look so big... but once they came shooting down from the sky were plenty big and now our neighbor will have some firewood for her fireplace.

Once that part was done we started on the front lawn. Dad yanked out the Christmas tree that was hitting the underside of the house (eaves?) Mom and I and Jerome got to hacking at the shrubs in the front also. We cleaned everything up with the blower and were going to get dinner going, or so I thought. Mom and I had gone into the garage to put the blower away and I showed her the edger that I had found while dumpster diving. She told me to bring it out to the front yard to see if it worked. Well it did. So now I guess we are keeping it!

Sunday Dad and Jerome installed our "new to us" stove... it's electric instead of gas. So they had to cap the gas line and install some sort of a plug and wire it all to the box which if you know my house is waaaaaay on the other end of the house from the kitchen. Mom and I worked on transplanting the hostas and ran to a few stores looking at plants to put in place of the Christmas tree... I'm thinking a flowering plant or bush. Anyone have anything they want to get rid of???? We started my garden - two pepper plants. Mom raked it and I put up the wire fencing that I picked up while dumpster diving this year.

We grilled out for the first time this year on Sunday as well. We ate outside on the deck and kicked back with a few beers. Jerome and I had to work on Monday and that's when Mom and Dad were leaving. Of course when it came time for me to get up and get moving I didn't want to. Plus, Mom and Dad were still at the house. So, I took a 1/2 day - took a nap in the morning and got my hair cut and then worked from home in the afternoon.

Tuesday I had a taste test in St. Paul. Funny thing is, when I got there I was told that they had ran out of testing items so they gave me my $30 check and I was on my way. Wooo hoo! Now if that wasn't the easiest $30 I ever made! I hung out with Lisa afterwards and did some wedding shopping with her. I picked up some Hickory Hut wings, okra, and Hojos. YUM-O!



Wednesday we set out our stuff for our dumpster day pick up which is this Saturday. We bundled the rest of the tree limbs together with the handy dandy rope that I picked up while dumpster diving. And that's that... your two weeks at a glance... now onto today..... and the pictures will come eventually to give you more ideas as to what this post really means!