summer SUMMER summer

i suppose it is about time that i jot down a few updates! summer is quickly fading (ironically, it is just now that we are finally started to experience hot summer weather!) and school is just around the corner.

since our part time summer school jobs ended over a month ago, there have been several projects to keep us busy around the house. our backyard now proudly boasts a 12 x 20 "barn style" shed and our garden has finally started to produce green beans, scallions, sweet corn, carrots, and pumpkins. Hopefully this week's summer heat will ripen our five tomato plants...we've been staring at hundreds of little greenies for what seems like forever!

inside the house, i did a little work on a spare basement bedroom. it was the last room in our house that remained unpainted since moving in, and it was in desperate need of a facelift. so, i dug out my left over paint cans and after changing my mind five times (is anyone suprised, really?) decided to paint one blue accent wall, surrounded by my all time favorite color--"ostrich feather" (a super light and fresh grey). after getting everything cleaned up, j and i decided to move all of our office furniture downstairs and create a new office for ourselves. it ended up working out really well, and now all of his chicago bear memorabilia has a home. perhaps i'll post a photo later! right now, though, i'm too busy playing around on our new internet connection! it is so much nicer than the spotty reception we were, ahem, borrowing earlier.

aside from all of this, the best part of the summer so far, has been the ability to come and go as i please! honestly, no one has it better than me when it comes to june, july and august! i cannot ever remember feeling as relaxed and at peace as i am right now...

it is bliss!

oh, and i cannot forget the enjoyable moments we have spent with friends and family over the past few weeks. a wedding in sioux falls, a day trip to the waterpark with our adorable nephew, a delicious breakfast at the orchard, garage saling with mom and dad, wii bowling with the inlaws, dinners with friends on the deck, and, more than anything, the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time together. i am grateful for this, because now that football is underway, those times are going to become fewer and far between.

















what has been the best part of your summer?

paps...please!

{published in the chetek alert, july 2009}

anniversary alfresco

j and i celebrated our anniversary on tuesday, june 16. this picture was taken on our deck, right before i stood up too quickly and nearly dropped the entire cake! if you look closely, you can see two candles placed on the top of our sam's club carrot cake (pink for me, blue for him), in celebration of two years of marriage. i know, i'm a dork like that. more than anything i think i was just excited to find them in my kitchen drawer and thought i would put them to good use! can't remember what dinner consisted of this year (so far we've always just celebrated at home)...but what was exciting was the chance to eat outside on our new patio set. it's quickly becoming one of my favorite places to be!

a quick pic...

...from a bad blogger! here is brooke and I at a shower for our friend, angie {taken in white bear lake, at the end of june}.

it's hard to believe we have been friends for over TWENTY YEARS. yes, you read that right. twenty years, folks. we're growing up!

life is beautiful. and i wouldn't have it any other way...

do it now

"Don't waste your effort worrying about what you have not done.
Spend your time working on what you now can do.
It's amazing how much you can accomplish when your heart is in it.
Drop the doubts, self-criticisms, and anxieties, and positively put your heart into what you're doing.
Enjoy the delicious feeling of making real progress based on your own focused efforts.
Have fun watching yourself accomplish as you complete each task.
Taking effective, meaningful action will put you in a positive frame of mind.
And that will open the door to many great new possibilities.
Go beyond wondering about it, or thinking it through, or planning for it.
Just go ahead and get it done.
Choose your destiny and delight in the fulfilling effort that makes it happen.
You can do it, and now is when."

- Ralph Marston

we're gonna win twins

jena and me
metrodome
may 2009

barefoot in the backyard

{looks like someone's got some weeding to do}