Daddy Bear and Baby Bear

Daddy Bear and Baby Bear are best friends. Let's face it, even though Mommy Bear is the one who takes care of her and spoils her all day long, Baby Bear is CRAZY about her Daddy. She totally loses it with excitement every day when he walks in the door. She follows him everywhere. AND she loves to sleep on him while he plays MLB "The Show" or corrects papers :).
This just melts my heart...

Bear

Bear is our new little puppy and she is the apple of our eyes! Every day we look at her and think how lucky we were to end up with the cutest, funniest, sweetest, craziest little dog. When we flew to California in June, we had no intention of returning to Minnesota with a dog. However, while we were there, I had the bright idea that we should go look around at some animal shelters. James and I were both ready to adopt a dog, but had been trouble finding a dog in Minnesota. Why not go look around in L.A. where there are many homeless dogs?

We found Bear at the Los Angeles County Animal Shelter in Downey. It was heartbreaking to see how many dogs were there...at least 400 I would say. James was the one who pointed out Bear and said "Wow, Babe, that one is really cute." The shelter listed Bear as "stray" chihuahua mix (we think she's perhaps a chiweenie?...or a chibeagle? Or possibly a mix of a few different breeds). We had to make sure she was light enough to take on the plane, so we asked them to weigh her and she was 8.5 pounds...perfect! After a brief getting to know you visit, we decided to adopt her. It was the best decision EVER!

Although she came down with a bad case of kennel cough that required multiple costly vet visits, she has been absolutely the greatest dog. We are convinced that adopting a shelter dog is the best way to go. Not only are these dogs the greatest, but we're not supporting pet over population. YES! :)

Wow, It's Been a While!

I cannot believe how long it has been since my last blog post. Time has been flying by and life has been great for us. Our summer was action packed...We were lucky enough to get to travel to California for a few weeks and to Montana for a week. We spent lots of time with family and good friends and we celebrated at James' mom's wedding in July.
The best thing of all about the whole summer is we moved into a house and adopted the sweetest puppy in the world. YAY for new adventures!

All the Lovely Ponds Smokers

I have to warn you, this is an angry blog post.

There is one thing that James and I both hate, and that is cigarette smoke. Recently, when the weather got nice, we were delighted to open our windows to the fresh air. However, it didn't take long for us to notice that almost every surrounding apartment has atleast one smoker. And when they decide to enjoy a cigarette on their balcony, we also "enjoy" it inside our apartment as we breathe in their second hand smoke. Trust me, it makes for a wonderful headache.
This is one con of apartment living that we never even thought about until we experienced it. YUCK! It's a riot to see what a scene Hubby makes when he has to get up and close the balcony door constantly :) He always pops his head out the door to see who is smoking, then proceeds to slam the screen door and the balcony door and make a ruckus!

There should be a law against this....or atleast a separate smoking and a non-smoking building. After all, it's our air too!!!

Mr. Herberg is FULL-TIME

James and I got amazing news this morning. He is going to be teaching social studies FULL-TIME next school year! He will be teaching half middle school and half high school classes. After being told he was not going to be offered a job next year at Rocori at all, we were pretty bummed. He applied for tons of other jobs. Then we were told he would be half-time, then 3/4 time....and now finally FULL. Mr. Herberg is glad this roller coaster ride is over. And I must say that I'm am pretty glad too....it's nice to know we'll have some financial security and quality health insurance. Good job Hubby!!!!!

Our Favorite Nephew Cohen :)

Over the past weekend, James and I got to spend a lot of time with our sweet little nephew Cohen. It had been five months since we last saw him, and wow has he grown a lot! Not only that, but he is an extremely bubbly, happy, easy-going little boy and such a delight to be around. We can't believe that he will be one year old in a couple weeks, time flies!
We got to spend Mother's Day this past weekend with Nicole and Cohen and I was lucky enough to get to do a mini, impromptu photo shoot! Here are a few of the sweetest pictures of the handsome little guy:

Doesn't he just have the prettiest blue eyes and the sweetest little lips? We just absolutely adore this little guy.

YAY Erin!

This past Saturday, James' sister Erin graduated from the College of St. Benedict with a degree in English and teaching license. We are so very proud of her. And another wonderful thing was that Nicole and Cohen came to Minnesota to participate in the festivities! It was really nice to have them visiting and to celebrate Erin's huge accomplishment. We had a lovely dinner on Saturday night at the 400 Club, which overlooks a pretty lake.

Erin is so smart and talented and has such a big heart. Her future students will be very lucky to have her as a teacher! We know she has so many bright and beautiful experiences ahead of her and we can't wait to see where she goes in life!

Jenn & Chuck

Like I said in my previous post, I got to take engagement pictures of my mother-in-law Jenn and her fiance Chuck! Their wedding is coming up soon, on July 16th, and we're all very excited to celebrate. Love is definitely in the air being around these two. And they were total troopers and stuck in out even in the wind and cold! Here are a few of my favorites from their shoot:

Photography

So, recently I rediscovered my passion for photography and have been having so much fun! Five years ago, I took a photography class as an elective during my undergrad. I had no idea how much I would end up loving it. I have dabbled in photography since then, but never really devoted myself to it. Last summer, I took a photo workshop, but was too caught up in wedding details to devote time to practicing. Now with all my free time, I have been learning lots and lots on my own! It is amazing how much can be learned through books and the internet. I realized that I don't even need to spend loads of money for classes! James has been pretty amused to watch me prance around the apartment with my reflectors and camera, testing out different lighting scenarios near windows. And he has been such a trooper, letting me take tons of pictures of him. Last Saturday, when my new camera arrived (thanks for the bday gift mom and dad!) he even let me do a mini photoshoot of him outside! My new camera is amazing. It's a Nikon D90, and upgrade from my D70. It's been pretty easy to learn to use since it's built exactly the same and almost looks identical. I have also been working on my photoshop knowledge. It's like magic. And it's definitely an art that I'm far from mastering!
Here is my favorite photo I've captured so far....of my favorite subject: JAMES! Isn't he dreamy? I'm so glad he's my hubby :):)
Tomorrow I am lucky enough to get to test out my skills taking engagement photos of my beautiful mother in law and her fiance Chuck (as long as it doesn't rain). This is wonderful since I've been itching to get out and practice!!!!

Hubby and His Magazines

This post is devoted to James and his magazine addiction. I've never known a person, other than my mom, who gets so many magazines! Almost every day there is some new one in the mail, either Newsweek, Golf, Golf Digest, Sports Illustrated, or ESPN the magazine. How does a man acquire so many magazine subscriptions? Well, I bought him Newsweek for graduation, but I'm not sure where the rest have come from, except that he has gotten all these magazines for free somehow.
As the weeks go by, more and more of them pile up. We have the ultimate magazine library around here. They will not even fit on their dedicated shelf anymore. I guess we will have to get some sort of elaborate magazine holder. I have to say though, hubs is pretty cute flipping through those pages all the time!

"No more pictures babe!"

Stir Fry....MMM

So, James and I have a new food obsession: STIR FRYS! We have always liked stir frys and we used to buy the frozen ones and cook them up. But when we were watching Jamie Oliver's show, we realized how easy it would be make our own stir fry....and guess what....it was delicious! We changed his stir fry recipe to our liking and VOILA!

Ingredients to feed two: 2 cloves of garlic, chopped tiny, thumb sized ginger root, chopped tiny, red chili pepper (optional), steak (or meat of choice, tofu is also really good), olive oil (or canola or vegetable oil), sesame oil, soy sauce (low sodium), bell peppers sliced, bag of frozen stir fry veggies (easier than chopping everything up), bean sprouts or alfalfa sprouts, egg noodles, half a lime.

1. Boil the egg noodles in salted water, then set aside.

2. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in wok

3. Add garlic, ginger, chili pepper, and meat to wok. Cook until meat is mostly done, then in last 30 seconds add sprouts, a splash of sesame oil, a splash of soy sauce, and the juice of half a lime. Set aside in a bowl.

4. Add a bit more olive oil and cook veggies until slightly tender. Add noodles and meat and stir fry to a minute or two. Add a little more soy sauce to your liking.

5. Serve!

Good cooking idea (got this from a magazine I read on my break at work): chop up all your produce when you get home from shopping so it's ready to go when you're ready to cook and need to whip a meal up fast!!! It's a lot easier to do it all at once.

Our New "Outdoor Room"

I spent a large part of this past weekend completely decking out our tiny little balcony....and I have to say that James and I are both very pleased with the end result! I decided that since we have no backyard and will miss that a lot this summer, we should atleast have a nice mini outdoor retreat the help compensate! First, I ordered this adorable little bistro set from Walmart (for an amazing price). It arrived on Saturday and we assembled it. Immediately after assembling it, I headed off to Home Depot to get some plants and other decor. Originally, I was hoping to grow tomatoes, cilantro, basil, and peppers. I was so excited that we might actually be able to have a garden right outside our window. Unfortunately, I realized that all these plants need "full sun" and we definitely only get "full shade." After going back home and researching, I learned that we can only grow a few varieties of flowers in the shade. So I bought one cilantro plant (I figured I would try and grow this and if it dies, oh well), some Columbines, and planted a bunch of impatiens seeds in the planter. We also got a hummingbird feeder, mini candle lanterns, and a citronella candle to scare away the swarm of mosquitoes we're expecting to appear soon. James thought I was going a little too crazy with doing-up the balcony, but when we got to eat a romantic candle-lit dinner OUTSIDE on Saturday and Sunday, he decided that he loves it too! YAY for our mini backyard...feels good to be outside! :)

Easter

Holidays are definitely a strange time when you're all grown up and married...probably because we're in the process of forming our holiday traditions. Our first "married" Easter consisted of going to church, of course, and spending time with family! Pretty normal, I guess! On Saturday night, we went over to James' dad's house and he cooked ribs, ham, and pies for us. Then after dinner we played Clue. I was extremely excited to play a board game instead of the usual card games:).

On Sunday morning, we were lucky enough to have Erin come to church with us! We had a great time celebrating. After church, we relaxed at home and I gorged myself on the Easter candy my sister sent us and leftover birthday cake. I have no self-control when it comes to chocolate...but the little chickie (pictured at left) was just way too cute to eat...

Then last night, we went to James' Grandma Lorraine's house for a big family gathering and food and more goodies!

Overall, this Easter was a great one and we had a wonderful time celebrating! Thank you Jesus for giving us such an incredible reason to rejoice!

Pretty Roses

I also had to post a picture of these beautiful roses my parents sent for my bday. They are so cheery looking and make me so happy!

My Birthday!

On Friday, I turned 25. YESss! Now I can officially rent a car without ludicrous fees and can get cheaper car insurance! Not only that, but according to scientific research the frontal lobes of my brain are now fully developed. Very exciting news. :)

It was a great day...even though my bday makes me miss my family and friends in CA.

I brought mini cakes to work with me and shared them with the pre-schoolers and then I got to leave early! Since it was good Friday, there were hardly any kids there and I probably could have had the day off...but it seeing all those cute little faces definitely brightened my day. James had a surprise for me when I got home.....he had decided to take me out to dinner to a surprise place! I had an inkling that I new where we were going. There is only one place that we go out to eat lately....Little Fiesta. It's our favorite. What a surprise James! :) Little Fiesta never disappoints. James got himself a huge Dos Equis and I ordered a large peach margarita and we happily chowed down on our always hot-out-of-the-oven chips and our authentic burritos.

When we got home from dinner, James had ANOTHER surprise for me hiding in the oven. A bday cake made by him! Poor James was forced to buy two boxes of candles for the cake since the 24 pack was not enough....that's when you know you're getting old. The sweetest part of my day was that he sang happy birthday to me solo. The chocolate chip chocolate frosting was delicious. And we happily licked all of the candles like little kids.

Here's to being a quarter of a century old!

Really Rocori?

Until Friday, James and I were both under the impression that it was almost a sure thing that Rocori would hire him back as a full time social studies teacher next school year. One of the older teachers at the school had decided to retire and since James had proved himself there as a part-time teacher with glowing reviews, we thought the job would be his. We were making plans to stick around the St. Cloud area for a while and even talking about the possiblity of buying a house. Unfortunately, we both found out on Friday that Rocori was forced to make cuts and the job we thought would be given to James is going to be dispersed between three tenured teachers to keep them on full time.
We are both a little bit upset, to say the least, but obviously James is meant to be somewhere else. Over the next few months, we are crossing our fingers that he will find a job somewhere sooner than later so that we do not have to worry.
But maybe this is an opportunity for adventure. Maybe we could both go teach in Japan or Korea? Or tag along with my sister on her possible journey to Israel.
I told James that if all else fails, we can go sell tacos on the beach in Mexico. I could wear my moo-moo and tend my little garden. And he could wear his pancho and take long walks on the beach with me at sunset. After all, this has always been a dream of mine.
He didn't seem too excited.
One thing we do know though, is that it's all going to be okay. But we will be hoping and praying that an exciting new job opportunity comes up soon!

Our Fabulously Boring Life

It's been a long time since I last posted, and what I've realized is that our life is really, well........uh...the best word for it is boring.

We don't really do anything in particular on the weekends. In fact, our usual Saturday consists of sleeping in late, watching various HGTV shows and way too many sporting events, arguing about what to do, and making dinner. When people ask me what we have been up to, I have to think really hard to find anything eventful to discuss. The strange thing is, it is SO MUCH FUN being boring. I love that we act like total weirdos when no one else is around. I love that we sometimes sing random songs together and brush our teeth together every night. I love that almost every argument we have is only half serious and we always end up laughing instead of being mad. I love being called "Indiana Jones, Clownsauce, and Wee Willy Wagner..." I just love the wild, crazy, totally exciting boringness. I know (actually, I hope) that our lives are not always quite THIS boring. Someday we'll join a dance class, travel the world, meet new and exciting people...and maybe even buy a house and have babies. We'll have things to work on around the house, diapers to change, little league games to go to....it will all be wonderful.

But for now, life is good. It is SO good. And I really, truly, honestly wouldn't change one boring thing.

James: "Babe, I can't cut up the chicken with you all up in my grill."Me: "Look how domestic I look in my apron! We better document this!"

5th Place

Last Sunday, James came home exhausted from lots of beer ponging and pizza eating and reported that he and Mike came in 5th place out of 128 teams in the big tournament. The games started at eight different houses or "regions" and the winners of these 8 houses were called the "elite eight" and gathered in the final house where all the losing teams stood cheering. Unfortunately, midway through their last game, James and Mike hit a "cold streak" and began to miss cup after cup, resulting in their loss. According to James, although they came in 5th, they were hands down the best team there. So good in fact, that people were betting money and a car on them winning into the wee hours of the night. Oh team Avenement de Vinyle, your talent amazes me. :)

More Beer Pong Excitement

So, I was surprised last night to come home to James and Mike working on their beer pong team shirts...This tournament is a big deal in our household. I was impressed to see these two working hard on something so crafty!
Their shirts actually turned out very professional looking! It was quite the process making them. First they printed out the letters they wanted, then cut them out and taped them to a cereal box, then put the cereal box inside each shirt and traced the letters. I would never have thought to do this...I would probably have gone out and bought iron-ons...very creative! These guys are going to be looking oh-so-professional at the tournament this Saturday. ha ha. Good luck guys!

New Bedroom Decor

Now we have curtains and bedside lamps in our bedroom. Hooray! Now we can read in bed in our cozy room!

I had been obsessing over getting some life into this room since we moved in, but I've realized that decorating of any kind takes lots of MONEY! Believe me, this bedroom would be a lot more done looking if I had more dollars :)

I decided to get some red curtains, which was a very bold choice for us. But really, we needed some color in this stark white room! We feel a lot more at home now...the room has a much cozier feel already. It still feels half done though...so I still have more plans...I want to finish filling those little frames with pictures and I want to get a dark wood or black-ish wooden bed and matching night stands. The new furniture might not happen for a while, but atleast the pictures for the frames are on their way!

Beautiful Weather Finally!

Today was a great way to end a fabulous weekend. Friday night, we had a lively night of beer pong and we got to see our friend Chad. And last night, we played bar bingo with our good friends Bill and Paula, who we also haven't seen in a long time.

This morning we woke up late and had a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast and then headed out to go grocery shopping since we were out of food (we pretty much only eat pancakes when we're out of milk for cereal...lol).

When we walked outside to go shopping we were really excited about how warm it was! Our thermometer on our deck read 59 degrees and we had the windows wide open all day long. Words cannot describe how incredible it feels to have open windows after months of being shut inside! It's wonderful to breathe the fresh air and hear what's going on outside. Tonight, we stuck to Sunday night homemade pizza tradition (4 weeks in a row i think...) and of course watched Desperate Housewives!

What a great day...hopefully the start of a wonderful week!

Rainy Days

It has been rainy since yesterday, most of the snow outside has melted, and everything is brown and gloomy. But I must say that I really am enjoying it! I guess I missed the rain...and rain means that SPRING is here! It's so peaceful in our apartment today with the lights on and the quiet drip-dropping sound outside.
A month ago, it was impossible to even tell that there is a pond outside because it was covered with so much snow. But now it looks like our pond is melting...and maybe our little beaver friend will come out to play soon! That is, if he survived the frigid cold. I actually googled beavers this morning to see what they do all winter(I know, totally dorky). Apparently beavers don't hibernate, but are active all winter long, swimming around under the ice and eating the food stored up in their little lodges. Pretty miraculous!
Anyway, I can't wait till everything turns GREEN!

Celebrate

I was reading an article about happiness today, and apparently, happy people find something new to celebrate each day, simple as it may be. I really want to try to find things to celebrate in my own life on a daily basis...what a wonderful way to recognize happiness where it is often overlooked in our day-to-day. Here are a few things that brightened my soul today:

....My delicious, french vanilla flavored coffee this morning......

...blueberries in my cereal..........

...........sunshine..

...chatting on the phone with sis-in-law Nicole and hearing about our nephew's newest antics...

..a clean house and the smell of my laundry detergent................

...and my handsome hubby of course!

Beer Pong Madness

So, basically, there has been a lot of beer pong going on around here since my last post. Since James and Mike have decided to venture back to Gustavus to win the big "March Madness" beer pong tournament, they have been practicing every weekend and James has been practicing around the clock. We have cups full of water set up on our classy card table....which serves as our dining room table... and every time he walks by, he takes a shot. I think it's so funny that I have been snapping pictures here and there. Here are a few shots of James practicing:
















The tournament is March 20. Good luck GUYS! hah hah

Skiing and Snowboarding

This weekend, we were lucky enough to get out on the slopes of Powder Ridge with Jenn, Chuck, and Zach! James didn't really think he wanted to ski, especially since it had been so long since he had been, but he realized as soon as he went down the first hill that he was still pretty good at it. I decided to snowboard after much debate, and I feel like it finally clicked for me last night after many other days on the slopes trying to learn(even though I fell and got a huge bruise on my butt:)! We had SO MUCH FUN!

Winter

So, I have to say that snow is a lot more magical when you only see it while you're on vacation. Since living in Minnesota, I have obviously become a lot less excited about snow. It's easy to let days and days go by without appreciating any of the beauty here. However, last week, we woke up to beautifully frost covered trees and I realized that winter actually is really pretty....even after 3 months of brutal cold. I'm definitely trying to enjoy the white beauty more. Atleast it's warming up enough for us to do some more ice-skating and skiing and enjoy being outside in the snow...

My Sweet Sister!

James and I got the best surprise in the mail from my sister earlier this week....a whole box of goodies for us! She is so sweet. I had been complaining that I never get to waste money on celeb gossip mags anymore....so guess what was in the box....MAGAZINES! haha. There was also a cute pink coffee mug, an 'H' magnet for our fridge (I'm obsessed with monograms...nobody will ever doubt what our last initial is around here :), and an assortment of pens for James since he's a teacher and "teachers need pens!" We also got a date idea book, a DVD (Now and Then, a fave of my sis and I), and a bunch of pink bubblegum and heart shaped chocolates that I have been guiltily devouring since they arrived.

She must love us. And we love her too...thanks Jen!