2nd Annual Winter Re:Play

Playing in the snow is one of our favorite things to do in the winter. So, for the second year we invited our friends from Chicago to our cabin in northern Wisconsin for some Relaxation and Play time.

Where did we go wrong?



Here comes...and goes...Super Jamie!

Linnea sporting the chocolate go-tee. Note how she shakes her head at the end. It's her "say cheese" with on kiddie steroids! Cheeeeeeeeese!

I think Chris likes the north woods...and loves his wife!

Can you spy the trail markers?

A majestic pine tree soaking in the sunset



Linnea was all smiles this weekend except when she didn't get her "nem-in-nems." She especially enjoyed stomping around in Ms. Jen's PINK winter boots!

I'm not sure what could be MORE Wisconsin... Badger hat. Check! Camouflage. Check! Cheese at the cabin. Check! Packers paraphernalia. Oops! Jamie knows that nobody sensible is a Packer fan!



Night Vision

Thanks for a great winter Re:Play weekend at the cabin! I am supposed to Photoshop Chrissy and Luke in the group picture since we forgot to take the picture before they left. But as you can see...I didn't. Sorry. But we're glad everyone could make it! And everyone's favorite Christmas gift (except mine in case Jackie is reading this) they didn't receive...


The Snuggie! A.K.A. the lazy man's sweatshirt.

Moosin' around in the North Woods

Eme + Jon + Stress + Snow = 2 fantastic head colds...two thumbs up!

Eme and I headed up to the great north woods of Minnesota's Gunflint Trail along the North Shore of Lake Superior (a.k.a. Jeff's Happy Place) for some outside play time with my family. Even though it was cloudy most of the time it was still fun to be outside in God's creation to enjoy the snow covered wilderness. We hiked up Britton's Peak (pretty small), ate at Sven & Ole's Pizza (A-mazing!), stayed at Adventerous Christians in the Patten Cabin, and x-country skied around the AC. Tip: Check a map before heading out on a remote, wooded x-country ski trail an hour before dusk. Eme, Micah, and I made it around the AC loop...up and down hills, around corners, over rivers, dodging branches, and squinting to see a dimly lit map (because it was dark). We made the entire 4.5 mile trek!

Remember when sledding down even a small hill put a smile on your face like Kaitlyn? Snow is so much fun!

I was keeping Elissa "close at all times" just like the sign says.

You may remember these views from Jeff's August 2nd blog entry. It's just a bit more...white now!

Yes, we got colds on our way up north. A little medicine and crisp fresh air did us good though!

And no, we didn't see any moose this time :( But we did capture a photo of a northland creature in this self-portrait of us. You can see him just over Eme's right shoulder.

The View of an (almost) Empty Cookie Plate!

After a fabulous snowy Saturday of baking Christmas cookies with my mom, Michelle, and Margaret, I had so many cookies I couldn't justify keeping them all to myself. Tis the season to spread joy, right!?! I wrapped up a mound of cookies and brought them to work. Only a minute had went by after unwrapping them and cookie had already been snatched. Now, if you work in an office environment you know that whenever free food is unveiled it immediately draws people to it like a giant magnet. My favorite are the walk by snatchers who think you don't see them, but keep walking to avoid the awkward conversation of taking yet another cookie! It is now 1:45 pm and all that is left are a few spritz. Rave reviews for all, especially the oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chip cookie (which isn't technically a "Christmas" cookie, but still delicious)! I'm not sure who to shout out for that one, but it was a hit.

May you feel the presence of Christ this Christmas and encounter him even in the smallest of activities this season. Have a safe and joy-filled Christmas!

Happy Birthday Nancy!

Yesterday evening we celebrated Nancy's, Jon's mom, birthday. The party ended up back at our house with a couple of yummy pies!

Happy Birthday Nancy! May you be blessed this coming year and I hope your day was filled with love, laughter, and joy.

Global Warming Anyone?

For those of us in Minnesota we saw temperatures fall dramatically from about 37 degrees Saturday afternoon to -5 this morning! According to Paul Douglas (renowned Twin Cities weatherman), "This is shaping up to be the coldest December in Decades." Which reminds me, I haven't heard our friend Al Gore in a while...Maybe his tongue is stuck to a flag pole.

Back and Forth

It wasn't me running from one end to the other... it was my awesome nephew, Oliver. Margaret came over so that I could play with him while she worked on his quilt. It was a fun afternoon. He brought alone his little walker deal and walked back and forth. He would go into a couple rooms and try to shut the door but then walk right back out.

Here are a few more pictures:

Thanks Oliver for a fun Saturday!

Thanksgiving Evening... Stylizing

After Thanksgiving dinner everyone seemed to disperse to either playing games, working on our basement, or for my sister and I, work on painting a stylized tree. Without Michelle, I would not be as far as I am and almost finished - just a few small touch ups are left. Being that she is the artist in the family, I asked her if she would be willing to help. After we had dessert, She jumped right in taking the 8.5 x 11 in. paper picture and penciling it life size on one of the basement walls. It was fascinating to watch it come to life as we painted together for almost 4 hours. (I think we both didn't want to stop!)

One of the interesting pieces to the painting is that all of the colors that were used were taken from paint we already had, paint that is somewhere else in our house - Kinda fun! Besides absolutely loving the tree, the little bird in the corner is my favorite. Here is a picture of our new thanksgiving tradition (a least it should be), but to get the full effect you need to see it in person.

Thanks Michelle for your help!

What more could we be thankful for!

Thanksgiving was such a fabulous day. Thank you everyone for making our first Thanksgiving back in MN wonderful.

It started early with getting the pies (Pecan, Apple, and Carmel Pumpkin) ready and in the oven before we had to put the Turkey in.

Jon's mom and dad were the first to arrive to help with the Turkey - it was delicious!

13 people in all!

We had home grown potatoes - a lot of them. We filled an ice cream bucket with the leftovers!

No pictures, but my Mom brought fantastic buns and my sister brought the corn, which again, we had plenty of. I am certainly thankful for Thanksgiving for all the leftovers!

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!