Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all got what you wanted! I took this picture this morning after opening gifts. Apparently, Chuck just got wore out from all of the presents. He was sniffing each one of his. When my dad was opening one of Chucks gifts, he felt that Dad was going too slow, so he tried to help my chewing on the wrapping paper. Have a good day everyone!!!

There's no Place Like Home for the Holidays

Last night, before I went to bed, I was inspired to take this picture of our Christmas Tree at home. I finally made it home yesterday, and enjoyed spending some time with my family before they get too busy.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

This is the view that I was greeted with this morning when I opened the blinds in my living room. I just thought that I would share with all of you!

Oh Christmas Tree...

Tonight, my roommate and I went to the store and picked up a Christmas tree and some decorations. We found a very inexpensive tree that fits perfectly in our apartment. We had fun picking out the decorations and actually decorating the tree.
Here is our tree all lit up.

Snowy Greetings

Thanksgiving Humor

A Feezin' Weekend...and...a long post

This past Saturday, I woke up at 5:30 am, which is obviously very early. Why did I decide to get up so early? Well, I went down to Brookings, South Dakota for the NDSU vs. SDSU football game. My roommate, Alex, and a few other people were on the road by 7 am. It snowed most of the way down, so I knew that it was going to be quite chilly. We got to Brookings at about 10 or so and walked to the football stadium. The game didn't start until 1 so we had to walk around for a while, which was ok with me. About an hour before the game, the stadium was over half full of people who came down from Fargo to see the game.

NDSU hadn't lost a game all season, so it promised to be a very good game. Unfortunately, NDSU wasn't playing as well as they could have. Going in to half time NDSU was down by about 10 points. Although no one was worrying too much because they always play better in the second half of the game. But they should have been worried. They did lead for a while, but do to an interception in the 4th quarter NDSU would go on to lose their only game of the season.

It was a very cold day, and also a very long day. We went and ate at Perkin's before we left town and jumped at the chance to eat by the fireplace. I slept most of the trip back, and was in bed about 10:30 that night.
This is what happened on Sunday. It snowed. Although it didn't stick around, it still was not very exciting. But atleast I had the day off. I made Manicotti on Sunday night and my roommate and her boyfriend came and ate with Alex and I. It was a very good meal, and they brought some pretty interesting wine. It was a nice night.
I dropped Alex and his brother off at the airport today. They are heading to Seattle to visit their parents. Alex bough me this really pretty poinsettia last night, along with some truffles. I was pretty happy that he remembered when I told him that I actually liked poinsettias.
Last week, I got a slow cooker in the mail. I got it for working at the same place for 5 years. As you can see, it already has food in it. I decided to try it out and make some chili. I'll have to let you know how it tastes since it wont be done for a few more hours. But I can't wait to test it!

Cute Little Guys

This past Saturday, my good friend Trudy came to Fargo to visit her nephews. I also got the chance to visit them, along with Trudy. This is Kolby. Me and Alex had brought Starbucks over, and after we had finished, Kolby's dad Aaron, filled the cup with water and gave it to him. So it looked to us at first, that he was drinking a cup of coffee. It was pretty cute. Kolby will be 2 years old on December 31st. He's very cute, very loud, and pretty darn funny.

This is Trudy, holding her youngest nephew Caleb. Caleb is 7 weeks old, and was just baptized this past sunday. He is also a cutie pie. When I was holding him, he started pooping, so I gave him right back to Auntie Trudy. Kolby doesn't really appreciate the baby, he says quite often "Go Baby." He also likes to headbutt and scream at the top of his lungs, but Caleb sleeps through it all.
We were sitting on the floor watching TV, and Kolby goes and grabs a book and sits right on Alex's lap. They are pointing out all of the different animals in the book. Kolby ended up spilling half of his water all over Alex's leg.
At the end of the night, Trudy and I gave Kolby a bath. His bath water is colored red, because they have these tablets that you can put in water to change it colors. It was a very fun night hanging out with Trudy and the little boys.

Five Short Years

It doesn't seem that long ago when I first started working at the Kmart shoe department. But believe it or not, but it has been five years. My anniversary there was actually last May, and it quietly passed, so I just assumed that they had forgotten. But when I got to work today, I recieved this certificate was waiting for me. I also got a pin and a brochure to pick a present from. I'm a little undecided about what I want right now, but some of the presents include a toaster, blender, slow cooker, speakers, a watch, or a ring. It's going to be a tough decision.

Happy Almost Halloween

I've been pretty busy here as usual, but what else is new. I had a weekend off this past weekend, so it's been pretty restful here. I've been watching the world series here, and in case you couldn't tell, I'm a Bosox fan! I do like the Twins a lot more, but they didn't make it into the world series this year, so I've been keeping track of Boston. I've been a fan for a while, and still remember very well the 2004 world series. Tonight is game 4, and so far I believe they are up, but the game isn't over yet.
I've had a nice and relaxing weekend, so tonight I decided to do something productive and made Alex dinner. I baked some chicken and melted some cheese over it and served it with spaghetti and Alfredo sauce. It was very tasty.
After diner, we carved pumpkins. This is my punkin diggin into his pumpkin. I don't think he liked it very much. It was pretty slimy. But it was still pretty fun.
Here is Alex's creation, which he entitled "fiery Redhead." Apparently there is no relation to me, but I'm not sure where else he would have gotten that from.
This is my creation. I have entitled it "Crabby Alex," just to get back at Alex's pumpkin's name.

My new Baby!

Well, this has been a long time coming. I finally got a laptop of my own tonight! Alex had been looking around for computers for me for a while. He found a great deal on a Thinkpad. But the company was taking its sweet time in shipping it, so he decided to cancel the order for it. It would have been a nice computer, but it wouldn't have had all the features that I wanted. So tonight he decided to take me to Office Depot to look for new computers. I have loved HP computers ever since I got my desktop, so I kind of wanted a HP laptop. We were looking at a different laptop than the one I purchased, but it didn't have the screen that I wanted. I was comparing two computers and realized the one I was comparing was the perfect computer for me. It has an amazing screen, lightscribe, 2 gb memory, and of course, Vista. I am having alot of fun playing around and learning my new computer. I also got a free Canon printer with scanner when I got my computer. It was a great deal! And I am very happy!

Following Behind

A nice weekend

Well, the weekend started out pretty nice and finished the same way. It all started off Friday afternoon. I got home kind of early, so I just sat around and watched tv for a little while. Just enjoyed some quiet time. A little later, Alex came over for diner and I made him some pretty tasty chicken alfredo. Earlier in the week, he had promised to take me to a hockey game, so we went to the FM Jets home opener. I am a pretty big fan of the Jets now, so it was nice to see the first game of the season. It was a pretty good game, there were quite a few new faces, so it was interesting. Things didn't start off to good for the Jets though, they were down by 1 quite early in the first period. But things picked up pretty fast. By the end of the game they had come back, and won 4-2. I didn't go to the game on Saturday night, but they won that one too 5-1. So overall, it was a good hockey weekend. It was homecoming for MSUM this weekend, and the Dragon Football team has had a pretty decent season so far. They also won thier game this season, so now they have won over half of their games, they are 3 and 2 so far.

Saturday, I had to work so I didn't get to enjoy the nice warm weather. But I still had a good night. Me and Alex and a few friends walked down to the Bison Turf, which is an NDSU bar. We are only a few blocks away so it's not that far. We played a few games of pool. Me and Alex were on a team, and by no means are we any good, but we still had fun. We did win a few games, but only on technicalities; mainly the other team scratched when they shouldn't have. It was a nice night, and no one had to drive since we lived so close to the bar, and that made everything better.

Sunday night, is my usual stay at home night. So I had a chance to work on some homework and watch the newest Family Guy. Although, this weeks episode was definetaly not as good as last week where they spoofed Star Wars. If you want to see it, click on the links below. If they don't work, I'm sorry!!

http://www.tv-links.co.uk/listings/2/143
Go to where it says season 6, then the episode is called "Blue Harvest" and there should be both parts there. Enjoy!

I know...I know

I know, it's been a while since I last posted, and I know I said that I would keep you all updated. But nothing incredibly exciting has happened for a while. So anyways...

Last Thursday, I had my 22nd birthday, in case you didn't know. Alex and I got dressed up to go out for a nice diner. It was a different experience, because I don't know many people who wear ties, and I thought that it was pretty nice for Alex to wear one to take me out. We went to Johnny Carino's for an excellent diner. Afterwords, we went back to Alex's place where he had a few gifts for me including the usual jar of peanut butter, and new flash drive, and a nice locket. Plus a wonderful chocolate cake! It was a very nice night. We finished it off by studying for tests that we both had the next day.

I went home this past weekend to see my parents. Holly didn't make it home unfortunatly because she had to work. While I was home, I finally got a new cell phone. It is a Sony Ericsson w300i. It has a camera phone, mp3 player and a radio. It is pretty nice. This is the first picture I took with my phone.

Saturday evening, we went over to my parents friends house, Gary and Brenda's house I guess. Dad and Gary had a rib cookoff. These are some of Gary's ribs and in the background are some of dad's extra ribs. Both of them were very good in their own ways.

There were four smokers lined up to try to cook all of the 80 pounds of ribs that we had. There were plenty of left overs. I took some back with me, and then me and Alex made a detour through Crookston to drop off some ribs for Holly. Overall, it was a very good weekend.

I'm going to try really hard to keep this updated, but my life isn't terribly exciting. Sorry if that is news to you. Anyways...I promise if I have something interesting to say, I'll update!

Holly's Adventure

This past Saturday, we moved Holly up to Crookston for College. It is a pretty nice campus, very small, but still very nice. We got her moved in relatively quick, and helped her to start unpack. I didn't take too many pictures because I forgot, but I did take a few on my way down to Moorhead. (Don't worry, I wasn't driving). This is looking back on Crookston from highway 75. It was a beautiful day for moving in, clear sky and warm weather.
This was the view from the window all the way back to Moorhead. Luckily the trip only takes just over an hour.
We also caught site of some large piles of produce on the side of the road in places. I believe they are either sugar beets or potatoes. At 55 mph, it's kind of hard to tell what is what.

Finally...

Sorry it's been so long everyone. I haven't had the internet for a few weeks here, so here is probably going to be a long post, I promise I will try to keep you all up to date from now on. Anyways, on with the post. At the beginning of the month, as you already know, it was cousin Chris's wedding. Pictured above is Sue, my dad, Glen, and the DJ. It was a very fun night of dancing and hanging out with my family. I even got to enjoy some time at home after the wedding before I headed back to work and before Alex came back to Fargo.
Unfortunately, I didn't make it up to Canada with the rest of the family this year. But the good news is, Alex is finally back in Fargo! Since I decided to stay here and hang out with him, he took me camping at Buffalo River State Park, about 20 to 30 minutes from town. It was very fun. We borrowed my dad's tent, and after a few attempts we finally got it set up. I thought we did pretty good, the only problem was that we were the farthest away from the toilets. But it was still very nice.
After we set up camp, we decided to go for a walk. This was one of the view we discovered. It was a beautiful day, nice warm weather, clear skies...Unfortunately, on this walk we discovered a few frogs. With every step we took, more and more frogs would jump off of the path, and since they were hidden underneath the grass, it gave me a little fright. But it was still a nice walk.
For diner, we roasted hot dogs over a fire and for dessert, we had smores. It was a lot of fun cooking over the fire. We didn't plan well enough, so by the end of the night, we were running out of fire wood.
This is Alex, of course, in the morning. We were cleaning up camp and I decided to take one last picture. It was a pretty chilly night, but we survived. We also heard wolves howling in the distance. But overall, our camping trip was a lot of fun, and I wish that I could go back.

In case you didn't know, my major has changed to management. I was a little disappointed, but at least now I have a graduation date...Spring 2009! So there, I will be graduating before my sister. Anyways, it looks like I will have a pretty busy schedule.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have
Principles of Economics I: Micro
Calculus for Business and Social Sciences
Spreadsheet and Database Applications (not Fridays!)

and On Tuesday and Thursday I have
Principles of Management
Principles of Accounting

I'm looking forward to starting classes again, and I have some good news. I got my job back at the box office. I am very excited to start work again. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week, and I promise that I will keep this updated from now on!

Quick Post

Hi all! Don't worry I'm still alive! I just haven't had the internet for a while. I'll make a better post soon to let you all know what I've been up to, but I just wanted to make a quick post here. I also wanted to share this cartoon with you all, I thought it was kind of funny and kind of sad, and very relevant to me, having just spent over $500 on books. Grrrr...anyways, have a great day!

Last day of work

Today was my last day of work at the box office. I didn't get work study for next semester, so I can no longer work there. I am pretty sad, it's been such a big part of my last 3 summers, and even school years. Pictured above are the girls I worked with this summer. There's Me, Amanda, Carrie, and Courtney. Courtney used to work at the box office, but graduated last year. She came back to help out for the first three shows before moving to Chicago with her husband. Last night, Mom came down to Moorhead to see Guys and Dolls. It was a really good show, I got to see it twice here actually. Mom really enjoyed it when we saw it in Duluth with Auntie Patsy, so she wanted to see it again. Well, I hope that everyone has had a great weekend.

Amazing...

Amazing...That word pretty much sums up how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was. Things worked out much better than I could have ever hoped!!! It is probably the best book in the series. Just wanted to let you all know!

Just a little bit longer

In just a few short hours Harry Potter will be mine! I will be standing in line to get the latest book at midnight tonight! I am very excited in case you couldn't tell!

Happy 23rd Anniversary Ma and Pa!

Yesterday was my Mom and Dad's 23rd Anniversary!!! They enjoyed a dance at a wedding that we attended last night, Dad might have enjoyed it a little too much! (Just Kidding).

4th of July Fireworks at MSUM

Have a great Independence day everyone!!! Enjoy your day while I'm at work!!!

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change - Prologue/Cantata

Sorry for the long absence in my posts. I haven't done too many interesting things lately. I've seen a few plays this summer, and this is one of my favorites. It is called I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. This is not from MSUM's production, it's just a video I found on google. MSUM actually had a revolving stage, and that worked really well. If you ever get the opportunity to see this one, I would recommend it though, it was hilarious!

New Apartment

I moved in to a new apartment on last Saturday. Mom and dad helped me move in. But you know what. Everytime I have to move, it always rains! And this time did it ever rain, it downpoured on us!!! But now I'm all settled in and getting used to life in an apartment. I really enjoy it and I am finally off campus!

I've been here for a week now, and it's even better than I expected.

Third Update

It was a happy Holly-day in Bemidji this past weekend because my little sister graduated from high school. I am so proud of her! She will be attending the University of Minnesota Crookston this fall and she will be majoring in early childhood education. I wish her the best of luck!

Second Update

On May 18th, Mom, Dad, and Me went up to Red Lake. The fishing wasn't great, although I did catch a walleye (dad didn't). It was too windy to go fishing on Saturday, so we decided to go 4-wheeling instead.
I was riding with Denise, a friend of my parents, and we got stuck right away. It was pretty muddy. I eventually lost my shoes in the mud, I did get them back but they were very very dirty. But we had a fun time.
This is the group that went 4-Wheeling. From right to left: Me, Denise, Jeff, Lori, Dad, Dave, Mom, Mary, and Kevin.

First Update

Holly's senior prom was on May 5th. I decided that I wanted to make a trip home to see my sister for her very last prom. I also had a lot of homework to do, but my main reason was to see Holly. She looks so pretty in her dress, and cousin Melissa did a very good job with her hair. Holly's such a cutie pie!
This is me and a group of friends. From right to left: Krissy, Me, Kristin, Melissa, and Trudy. My boyfriend Alex was also there, but he's not in the picture (obviously). Alex was a trooper and even went and sat through grand march with me. What a sweetheart!!! It was a fun day, but I had a lot of homework to do the next day, and stayed up til 4 am working on it. But it was worth going out with my friends even if I did have to stay up late the next day working on homework.

Interesting News

This was an article that I found online today regarding Concordia College (MSUM's rivals) on the Fargo Forum website.

Some Concordia College graduates tossed more than just their caps to celebrate Sunday’s graduation.

About 50 to 80 graduates and students were found skinny-dipping about 2:30 a.m. Monday morning in a pond on Concordia’s campus, said Moorhead Deputy Police Chief Bob Larson.

Police were called after a security guard “did not get the cooperation he had hoped for” when he tried to disperse the group, said Roger Degerman, Concordia’s senior director for communications and marketing.

The students pushed the security guard’s golf cart into the pond and left quickly when police arrived, Degerman said.

Larson said officers found people in their underwear, but did not find anyone naked at the scene.

Some individuals left behind wallets and clothes when they fled the scene, helping authorities to identify 10 people, both students and graduates.

Larson said charges are not being recommended at this time because police do not know if the students identified are responsible for pushing the golf cart into the pond.

Degerman said the cart had to be towed out of the pond and the college is still determining whether it is serviceable.

Larson said this isn’t the first time police have heard about a late night dip in the Concordia pond, saying usually “we find out about it after the fact."

World Without End

Ever since Auntie Patsy let me read her copy of "The Pilars of the Earth" by Ken Follett, I have been a big fan of the author. It is probably the longest book I've ever read. I read it once in High School and I just finished reading it for a second time this morning. It is probably my favorite book. I was about to start reading "The Hammer of Eden," when I got the bright idea to check the authors web site, and when I did, to my excitement, there will be a sequel to "The Pilars of the Earth" coming out this fall. I am very excited. Here is what the website said.

World Without End. On the day after Halloween, in the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge. They are a thief, a bully, a boy genius and a girl who wants to be a doctor. In the forest they see two men killed.
As adults, their lives will be braided together by ambition, love, greed and revenge. They will see prosperity and famine, plague and war. One boy will travel the world but come home in the end; the other will be a powerful, corrupt nobleman. One girl will defy the might of the medieval church; the other will pursue an impossible love. And always they will live under the long shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed on that fateful childhood day.
World without End is the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth. However, it doesn’t matter which you read first. The second book is set in the same town, Kingsbridge, but takes place two hundred years later, and features the descendants of the original characters.
Publication and promotion World without End will be published early in October 2007 by Penguin in the USA and Macmillan in the UK. The Italian translation from Mondadori will come out on 18 September; other translations will follow in 2008. From September through December Ken will be promoting the book in the USA, UK, Ireland, other European countries, Australia and New Zealand. Details of personal appearances will be posted on this web site.
Prizewinning filmmaker Gerald Fox is making a documentary about the writing of World Without End for the distinguished arts magazine programme The South Bank Show, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. Screening is slated for September 2007.
The characters
Caris is the feisty daughter of wool dealer Edmund Wooler. She is a direct descendent of Tom Builder, the hero of the first half of “The Pillars of the Earth”. As a child, she announces that she is going to be a doctor – but girls cannot study medicine in medieval Europe. However, she refuses to accept this prohibition. Her determination brings her into conflict with the church, and blights her relationship with the man she loves.
Merthin is descended from Jack Builder, the stepson of Tom and the architect of Kingsbridge Cathedral. He has inherited Jack’s genius. But for the conservative citizens who rule Kingsbridge he is too much of a rule-breaker, and like Jack he is forced to leave
Ralph is Merthin’s brother, but a very different character – strong, aggressive, impatient of books, an accomplished rider and hunter. He will use his warlike skills to rise to the very top of medieval society.
Gwenda is the daughter of a dirt-poor labourer and one of five starving children. She is plain-looking, but determined to marry Wulfric – the handsomest, wealthiest boy in the village. Wulfric is engaged to the coquettish Annet, daughter of a prosperous peasant. But Gwenda refuses to believe she cannot win his heart.
Brother Godwyn, also a descendant of Tom Builder, is a cousin of Caris. He becomes a monk at a young age and is determined to become prior of Kingsbridge – and he is not particular about the means he will use to get there.

A quick post

I found an interesting fact today. While I was bored, I was playing around on Facebook, and found a statistic that I thought that I would share with all of you. Here are the top seven books people list in their profiles.

1. Harry Potter
2. The Bible
3. Angels and Demons
4. The DaVinci Code
5. The Notebook
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. 1984

I f0und it interesting that Harry Potter came before the Bible. There's been a lot of controversy about Harry Potter and it teaching people about witchcraft and things like that. It was just a fact I thought I'd share with all of you.

What a sweetie pie!!!

Yesterday, I got a very nice surprise. Alex came over to visit me as usual, and when I went downstairs to let him in, he had some very pretty African Violets for me. It was very wonderful, and I am very happy. What a sweetheart I have!!!