Quick Fixes

Over the weekend, my sister Margaret and her fabulous son came over to help us work on our basement. Since I don't have any baby containment items, such as a crib or fencing to block steps, we had to improvise! What we came up with was an over-sized Rubbermaid container with a little chair padding on the bottom. A cozy destination for any youngster.

He also did a fantastic job of entertaining himself by jumping up and down, holding onto the edge. But alas, good things came to an end as we realized it was perfect chin hitting height - mid-video. Try to imagine him jumping for a good 20 sec before...

Change you can believe in

Here's an insightful Chicago Tribune article regarding a social experiment a 14 year old girl conducted at school during the campaign.

Phil Joel - formerly of the Newsboys

After a long Saturday of driving and celebrating the wedding of Jenny and Jarred (congrats!) and after getting home around 11:45 pm, church on Sunday morning was not easy to get up for. Our friends had invited us to their church to visit and we wanted to go, it was just was just a matter of getting out of bed. To our surprise they had a guest worship leader for the day- Phil Joel, formerly of the Newsboys. He sang a couple songs and Jon and I turned to one another thinking the exact same thing, he sounds strangly farmiliar. Sure enough, one of the pastors stood up to introduce him. In his New Zealand accent he started to discribe his new calling, Deliberate People - check it out! It was certainly a blessing and worth getting out of bed for!

It's a beautiful Morning

I get so excited this time of year - anticipating Thanksgiving, Christmas, ski trips and sledding. It all starts with that first snowfall and the sweet serenity of looking out on a fresh coating. Although traffic picks up and the inevitable blizzard looms, I just want to say that I love winter and all that it has in store. I find it truly captivating and feel blessed that we have such large windows to be able to enjoy each snowflake (and the draft that blows through them).

I say Wallpaper, you say _______

In our basement we had a lovely shade of green wallpaper covering our walls (for those of you that have seen it... I'm sorry!). Yes, I said "had" because it is no longer. Much to our surprise, we just started tearing it off the wall last night, and it indeed came right off. We had no idea it was going to be so easy. Granted, there is still the adhesive on the wall, but getting through the wallpaper to the adhesive is half the battle. It took a little over an hour and a half and we had every strip of wallpaper off the wall and in the trash. We weren't expecting to tear apart our basement like that, but how can you resist when it was so easy.

I don't mind wallpaper, in the right application, but something about it always makes me want to pick at the seams. I'm glad in this case, it didn't matter!

Election Day Snafu

Eme and I eagerly awoke a little earlier than usual to make the short trek to Grace Free Church in Fridley to cast our votes. We arrived just after 7 am and there was a line out the door. After waiting about 10 minutes we saw our neighbor two houses down from us that we just met at a little "ice-breaker" get together set up by our neighbors right next door...still with me? (Side note: it's nice to live in a neighborhood in which people get together to get to know each other!)

Ok, so we said "hi" to Tom (he was in the I-O line and we were in the A-H line) and we continued to sign our names in the registry. Then we funneled back into one line and he was right behind us. So I turned around and started a little small talk with him..."Hi Tom. So who are you going to vote..."

This is one of those moments when you are mid sentence and you realize "what am I doing???? Just stop talking!" You should have seen the look on his face when I started my sentence with "who are you going to vote..." His face puckered up and started to turn red. He seemed so uncomfortable it was almost as though he had just eaten a lemon.

But to his relief I finally finished my imposing question with "...for mayor of Fridley? We've only been here a month. Is the current mayor ok?"

The tension melted away and, with almost an excited response, he said, "Oh the current guy...Lund? He's ok."

I then tried to ease his mind further by reassuring him I wasn't going to ask any other political questions. Just the one about the local election. I made sure he understood I was not going to squeeze his political ideas from his head right in the election line. I'm not sure you quite grasp how much I attempted to undo my slightly (ok, highly) inappropriate political question IN THE ELECTION LINE!

Neighbor Tom, thankfully, understood that I was only asking about the local election of mayor to which neither Eme nor I could possibly have assessed in just one short month of residence in Fridley!

After that somewhat awkward exchange we continued to discuss safe, non-political, non-partisan topics such as metered lights, commute times, polling place locations (as in Tom saying he has cast his ballot at this location for as long has he can remember), and other neutral topics.

Before we knew it we were in the voting "booth" to cast our votes, received our red "I Voted" stickers and headed to work.

FYI - In case you haven't heard...

1. Starbuck's is offering a free cup of coffee if you go in a say that you voted (no proof required).


2. Ben & Jerry's is offering a free scoop of ice cream today after 6 pm I think.


3. Krispy Kreme is offering a free donut for voters as well.

We have not participated in any of these free offers...yet. We don't drink coffee and do they even have Ben & Jerry's in MN?

GO VOTE!!!

VOTE!!!!!!!

Here's a cool website that offers a quiz to see which candidate reflects your same ideology

Glass Booth

I'm sure you know who you are going to vote for tomorrow, but make sure you understand each candidate's stance on taxes, abortion, social security, same-sex marriage, same-sex (civil unions) privileges, etc. I could explain my stance on each issue, but many of you know where I stand. Besides I'm sure you appreciate the fact that leaders, whether it be pastors, mayors, CEO's, head's of households, or...President's of the United States are expected to act responsibly, morally, and ethically. It is an imperative pre-requisite for any leader to uphold to the highest moral standards.

Ok, stepping off my soap box now...GO VOTE!

I do need to say one more thing though...The DFL candidate for the MN U.S. Senate seat makes me sick!