before and after...

Hello Old Man Winter! 

This weekends storm was quite the welcome back to MN winters for me.  Here are photos from our home here in Apple Valley.  If you see my prior post, you will see the before and these photos are the after of the storm that hit us Friday night - Saturday night.  You can see the tips of my little evergreen trees in some of the photos and you can see them embedded into the snow after we shoveled, quite entertaining.  This was one of the biggest storms they said since 1991.

tis the season...

As many of you may know Christmas time is my favorite time of year.  Growing up, many times we had 2-3 trees in our home, each room had a theme and outside was entirely decked out as well.  I guess you can say my mom and dads love for the holiday may have rubbed off on me. 

Through the years JP and I have lived in many apartments, homes and now a townhouse.  In each of these homes we have decked the halls.  The one thing nice about this year is that we are back in MN.  It feels so much more like the holidays when you can look out your front door and see snow.  However, I don't favor the cold.

This year my parents helped us decorate the interior of the house during Thanksgiving.  My mom was also a big contributor in making the decor, the tree skirt, stockings and quilt on the back of the couch were all made by her, thanks mom. 

I wanted to take a moment and just share some pics of our home with all of you, hope you enjoy.

tagged...

Becky tagged me.

RULE #1 : People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2 : Tag 4 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If you have pets, do you see them as merely animals, or are they members of your family?
Oh, we had a precious little kitten, EVA.  She was certainly a member of the family for her short little life.  Unfortunately we lost her within two months and we don't want to go through that again at this time, so no pets for now.

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
To travel the world with my husband, having no worries, no debt or job to be concerned with.

3. What is the one thing most hated by you?
People you can't trust.  Nothing is worse that not being able to trust someone in your life.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Pay off the debt of my entire family, again travel the world and buy at least 5 vacation homes. 

5. What helps to pull you out of a bad mood?
A good glass of wine with my husband while we relax on the couch.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Depends on if you're selfish, then being loved by someone, but if you're generous loving someone.  I like to be right in the middle, both feel great.

7. What is your bedtime routine?
Crawl up the stairs, eyes half open, especially if I fell asleep on the couch, change into pajamas and pass out.

8. If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your partner? 
Oh, at a little bar called the Red Dog, when he was "the DJ" and he said hi to me.  We later started dating after exchanging numbers at the other bar he was working at, The Rendezvous.

9. If you could watch a creative person in the act of the creative process, who would it be?
Chihuly, his glass work is amazing.  Secondly, I would love to watch the florists at the Bellagio put together the holiday display in the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

10. What kinds of books do you buy?
I don't buy books, in fact I don't read books.  I do however buy magazines, not very educational I know.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
OMG, like Becky said, yikes, I'll be 40.  I need to get my life moving.  HMMM...I will hopefully have a very successful career in Real Estate.  My husband will have his dream job.  We will have started a family of two children and be living in our dream home.

12. What's your fear?
My absolute worst fear is being buried alive!

13. Would you give up all junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to visit outer space?
Heck no!  I have no urge to visit outer space.  I will gladly take chocolate chip cookies instead.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married, but poor? 
Married and poor, just as we are now, because we can only move up from here.

15. What's the first thing you do when you wake up?
Go to the bathroom and start the shower, I would be lazy all day if I don't shower right away.

16. If you could change one thing about your spouse/partner what would it be?
For him not to have a temper, especially about the simple things.

17. If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be?
McLovin!

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?
Depends on how horrible we are talking, but normally I tell myself I'll be mad forever, yet soon realize that it's not worth the stress to worry about.  I keep my guard up for a long time following a situation.

19. If you could only eat one thing for the next 6 months, what would it be?
Raspberries, I love to eat them by the handfuls. 


I'm tagging Chenoa and to anyone else who reads my blog, if you have a blog and would like to be tagged let me know, I am out of options.  Everyone else has been taken:)

giving thanks superficial style...

Thanks beanski for this fun idea.  We all know how thankful we are for everything we have in our lives, but what else are you thankful for...superficially?

1.  My new winter coat, puffy with down and fur around the collar!  Love it!
2. Good restaurants with great food, we've just started to take on the options in Minneapolis.  We have mixed reviews so far, some amazing and some not so much.
3. WINE, because it goes so well with no. 2, especially after a short or long day of work.
4. My car, it's not very often that you are able to drive a car for over 3 years and still love it.
5. Electronics, my iPhone and my laptop, giving me the ability to stay better connected with friends and informed on news, movies, sports and restaurants.
6. My christmas decorations, they make me HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!
7. Ice cream.  Dairy Queen blizzards, Coldstone Creamery, ice cream sandwiches and drumsticks.
8. My blanket on my couch.  Not a night goes by without me cuddling up with it.  I guess I could call it my blankie, but I don't think so.
9. Having the opportunity to go to the MN Vikings and Wild games, usually when we like. 
10. Living within a mile of Old Chicago, I love me some pepperoni rolls.  Especially after living away from them for 6 years. 

Why am I noticing such a theme with this list?  I guess my world revolves around food and drinks.  Maybe that's why I've been gaining weight ever since moving back to MN.

Your turn, what are you superficially thankful for?

any one out there?

I have been so terrible at keeping up with my blog.  In fact, I have to face it I was never good at keeping up with my blog.  So, now that I haven't posted anything in almost nine months, I'm just wondering is anyone out there?  Is anyone really interested in anything I have to say?  Hmmm....what is it that I have to say. 

I guess, the first thing would be is that this week begins the holiday madness, yay!  I don't know about you, but that excites me.  I don't think there is a day during the holidays that I can be sad, disappointed, or upset, because all I have to do is look around my house when it's decorated or drive around and look at other homes that are decorated and it just makes me happy.  If there is anyone out there, you can look forward to photos later this week.

My mom and dad are on their way to the cities on Wednesday to spend the holiday with JP and I.  They are going to help us put up the Christmas decorations.  I definitely get my obsession for Christmas from them.  What is your holiday obsession or tradition?  If you're out there I hope you answer.

Hope you are all going to enjoy the holidays with the ones you love, Happy Thanksgiving!

bored, but keeping busy...

I can't say I have been up to too much since making my way back to MN.  JP spends his days, nights and weekends at the restaurant and I have been searching for just the right job.  Which obviously includes a lot of time on the computer staring at posting after posting.  I'm at the point now that I've had a few interviews, they all went well, but what is the "perfect" job for me?  This has been on my mind quite a bit, since I am starting over, what is it that I really want to do?  I am hoping that within the next week I will hear from one of the companies that I interviewed with and that I really what to work for and otherwise, if I don't I think I may have to take a different approach to my career.

On the days that I have gotten fed up with staring at the computer I have been catching up with friends and making new friends.  I've taken in a couple of Wild games, gone out for birthdays, seen a couple movies and celebrated St. Patty's Day.  Here are a few of the moments captured.

Kathleen, Myself and Megan before Alice and Wonderland - in 3D of course!

Celebrating Kathleen's birthday at Aperitif.

All of us girls on St. Patty's Day.

I've been having a great time so far, but the fun is going to have to end sometime.

since Vegas...

My last day at Toby's was Feb. 5th, it ended like I was going on vacation for awhile.  I was totally oblivious to the idea that I wasn't coming back.  Emotionally I was doing fine until the band announced to the entire restaurant, how I had been there since the beginning and how Toby's was loosing me, yada yada.  It hit me "right there" and the water works started, however it still seemed like just another night on the job.  The next day was very busy!  The moving truck came at 8am and by 3pm the house was loaded and on it's way.  That evening I had a very nice going away dinner at Bradley Ogdens with my girlfriends.  Chef Todd and JP Teresi took such good care of us.  Everybody enjoyed every bite.   

 

From there we went to a local bar, Sierra Gold where many friends and coworkers came by and said goodbye.  I appreciated it more than anyone could ever know.  Unfortunately I was so exhausted from the moving and all of the emotions I ended up going to the airport earlier than expected to crash. 

Sunday morning at 7 am I flew out, and finally I made it to Minneapolis.  My husband picked me up, and  it was so nice to see him.  During the moving period JP had been living in Minneapolis and I stayed in Vegas to tie up all of the loose ends.

Just a couple day after "moving" to Minneapolis, we went on vacation, our amazing vacation to Grand Cayman that I had won on Wheel of Fortune.  We were able to wind down after the previous two crazy months and spend quality time together. 

 

A few things we did were, snorkel, visit stingray city and relax on the beach.

 

Another thing we enjoyed were wonderful dinners each night.  We found a great sushi place across from our hotel, had dinner on the deck in the harbor and we enjoyed our most amazing meal on Valentines day at Blue, a restaurant by Eric Ripert (Top Chef Judge, friend of Anthony Bourdain).  It was a beautiful, truly romantic night.  We each enjoyed a tasting menu and shared Rose' Champagne, or as I put it, "Pink Champagne for Valentines Day."

Since then we've moved into and started to get settled into our new townhome in Apple Valley, MN.

This is where I spend most of my days on the computer, looking for a fitting job for my new career in life.  JP spends everyday at the restaurant, Aperitif opened about a month ago and JP is putting everything he has into it.  If you get the chance to check it out, stop by and say hi to him.  It's in Woodbury, right off of 494.