By my side

See what I mean...he loves to be by us!

Long day

Eko decided to crash right next to me after playing around. He is a cute little guy!

Position is Everything

We trust ourselves a little more after getting to know Eko's habits over the weekend. So we rolled Eme's shaggy rug back out on the living room floor. Eko laid down as soon as the rug was unfurled.

Then he just couldn't decide which position was the most comfortable. Finally, after a few adjustments, he made it to the other side of the rug!

Eko

Over the past few months we have been pondering, reading, stopping by the Humane Society and most importantly...praying. Yesterday we put a little 10 week old Black Lab/German Shepherd on a 24 hour hold. This gave us time to pray, think, and shop for puppy supplies. And today after work we picked him up from the Society!

After a quick and reserved car ride home he was busy checking out his new home. After a meal, a few outdoor "banyo" breaks, a couple indoor mishaps, and a couple hours of roaming/exploring he crashed into Eme's arms.

He is SO cute!

Jeff and Shelley even stopped by for a surprise visit as they were in the area celebrating their 14th anniversary. Happy anniversary Jeff and Shelley! (Insert Jeff into this picture. He was sitting on the chair adjacent to Shelley)

Notice the dog books from the library on the ottoman...this is our first puppy! We are getting ready for sleepless nights.

You're welcome to come on over and meet Mr. Eko!!

It's funny how you read some things and you think to yourself that it sounds kind of weird or crazy. Take this yellow towel for instance. Some of the books said to wrap your new puppy in a towel or blanket that has been in your house so he gets your scent mixed with his scent. That way he gets to know you and is comforted at the same time. Well, we didn't wrap him in this towel but we used it to wipe the snow off his feet. Later on tonight he walked over to the patio door and nuzzled up right next to the yellow towel.

We thought this was great because then we could place the towel in his kennel and he would want to go in there without coaxing so he could curl up and sleep next to it. He did for a little bit, but wanted to get out of the kennel soon after. When we let him out he went to the patio door, looked around for the missing towel (it was still in the kennel), and curled up to sleep. Incredible!

So we brought the towel back out to him so he would associate it with bed time. Then after a while we picked him and the towel up and put them both in the kennel. He went right to sleep! Awesome!

K.O. - O.K.

Eme and I both had a pretty busy week at work. So Friday around 1:30 we decided to take a spontaneous trip up north! We had a great drive up Friday night and enjoyed an absolutely perfect Saturday and a nice drive home on Sunday. Except for a minor concussion at Lutsen everything went great!

We were both glad this was not our gondola!

This IS Minnesota!


Almost at the summit of Carlton Peak


Eme soaking in God's beauty on top of Carlton Peak (I would have taken the picture towards the lake, but the sun wasn't quite in the right spot)


No snow in the Twin Cities? No problem up here!


Eme and I both love being outdoors and just sat on a rock for about 20 minutes to soak in our surroundings. It was about 30 degrees and the suns warmth coupled with the beautiful landscape was energizing and rejuvenating.


After a stroll around downtown Grand Marais and (it goes without typing) a wonderful eating experience at THE best pizza place on earth (at least the parts of earth we have explored)...Sven and Ole's, we headed up the Gunflint trail to go moose hunting.


We did not see any moose this time but we did see some great scenery and even saw a fox trotting across a lake.


On Sunday we stopped to take a look at the historic Split Rock Light House, a Minnesota icon. I know this picture is gray and cold but it carries power as the lighthouse stands guard over thick clouds and the ice covered Lake Superior. The wind was bitter cold and we have seen this image hundreds of times either in photograph or in person, but it was a powerful site nonetheless.

Listen closely. It sounds like waves or wind. From this vantage point you can see there is ice (so no waves) and the wind is not that audible. We realized it was the waves under the ice and the ice shifting that was making the almost clockwork or trainlike machine noises. It was pretty crazy!

Happy Birthday!

February 26th was my grandpa's 94th birthday and today we helped him celebrate!

Livin' On a Prayer

Yes...we have Rock Band 2

Commendable

I must apologize if my Scavenger post seemed a little "off." I'm affraid it may not have come out to be the fun game I intended when it was spontaneously created in my head. I was originally going to type a quick "shout out" to Margaret for her morning blog reading routine. Then it turned into a quick scavenger hunt. And it finally morphed into a quasi-challenging internet scavenger puzzle. In the mean time I had somehow come up with an arbitrary 4-hour time limit and may have responded a little too sandpaperish to certain "answers." I only meant it to be a fun post.

Jerimy did a great job at answering the questions! So you and Margaret can pick an evening (that fits everyone's busy schedules) and we'll look after little Oliver!



Anyway, below are the (not so long-anticipated) answers...



1. The highly rated GM stock closed at $2.22/share on February 24. The Star Tribune is clinging to a $954M dollar figure for the new Vikings Stadium. This means you could buy 429,729,729 shares of GM stock...if there is even that many to buy!

2. The new St. Joseph Regional Medical Center located in Mishawaka, Indiana (I think I previously stated South Bend) will be 677,500 gross square feet when it opens in October.

3. Eme's favorite tea is Assam "top of the top" from the Tea Gschwendner.

4. Minnesota became a state on May 11, 1858.

5. Jon went to high school at Concordia Academy in Roseville. Interesting tidbit...Jeff, Betsy, and I all graduated from the same high school. Not so interesting? Well, when you consider that the 3 of us lived in a combined 5 states before and/or during our high school graduations, this fact becomes a little more interesting.

6. The current unleaded fuel tax rate (per liter) in Novia Scotia is 15.5 cents.

7. This was a tough one! The estimated average cost per click to advertize on Google for the word "taxes" is $2.48.

8. In high school Eme was not only the captain for her varsity Lacrosse team, but she played goalie!

9. The Rice Creek Watershed District covers roughly 201 square miles.

10. There multiple ways to get to format cells. But the keyboard shortcut key is ctrl + 1.

Answers

Oh come on now...you don't think it's going to be that easy do you? Since Margaret wasn't able to come up with the correct answers I will open it up to anyone to answer any of the questions posted in "Scavenger Hunt." Sure some are difficult, but that's what makes it a hunt! If everyone chips in to answer the questions correctly, little OG still has a shot at an evening with Jon & Eme!

P.S. That post was a direct result of our conversation on Sunday Margaret. I was just trying to help you out with your morning routine and daily "rut" ;)

P.P.S. The correct answers will come. In the off chance that a couple answers are unknown, they will be revealed. I know, the anticipation must be killing you!

Solid Wednesday

As some of you may have known, I just went threw a very busy couple of weeks that culminated yesterday. Myself and my 2 coworkers were working diligently days and evenings to prepare for an interview and our annual meeting that just so happened to land on the exact same day. Because of the time that I had just put in I decided to take off a little early from work. It was wonderful. I picked up my fabulous nephew and headed over to the Children's Museum for some special one on one. I started psyching myself out after I got to thinking that I had never taken someone's baby anywhere other than their house or mine. But he is so great that I didn't think too much of it! Here's a few pictures from our adventure together. Thanks Margaret and Jerimy for letting me take him for a few hours!

Scavenger Hunt

To Margaret (to assist your morning routine):

If you can answer these questions within 4 hours of this posting you have a chance to win a spectacular prize!!...One evening of Oliver sitting by Eme and me!

1. How many shares of GM stock could you purchase (at the close of Feb. 24) with how much the media seems to think the new Vikings stadium will cost? In other words...Media cost estimate of Vikings stadium / cost per share of GM stock = number of shares

2. How many square feet will the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center Replacement Hospital in South Bend, IN be when it opens in October?

3. What is Eme's favorite tea to brew?

4. When did MN become a state?

5. What high school did Jon go to?

6. What is the current unleaded fuel tax rate (per liter) in Novia Scotia?

7. What is the estimated average cost per click (CPC) to advertise when you type in the word "taxes" on Google?

8. What position did Eme play in high school Lacrosse?

9. Beautiful Rice Creek flows through Jon & Eme's back yard...Approximately how many square miles is the Rice Creek Watershed District?

10. What is the short cut key to format cells in Excel?

Lazy Sunday... mostly to recuperate

Besides being super cute... our nephew loves to come visit Auntie Em and Uncle Jon. So much so that when Jon left the room and went downstairs, he blurted out"Uncle Jon". (with Margaret as my witness!)

Thanks Margaret, Oliver, and Michelle for hanging out Sunday afternoon. It was fun to sit around and chat.

"...a nice little Saturday planned."

Some of you who haven't had the chance to see our home yet have asked for pictures. This is an acceptable and normal request. However, it's kind of weird to go around and take pictures of your own home. It's either a mess (most of the time), I think of taking pictures when I'm not at home, or a combination of both...

We have been planning our different rooms to see how we can strategically place our furniture to fill the most space while maintaining the proper balance of mismatched and coordinated pieces. Today was the day of action. Swapping the living and family rooms seems to have worked out quite nicely.

This action day accomplishes a two-fold strategy. 1. We successfully rearranged. 2. We are finally able to take more pictures of our house for world wide display!


Eme even got in a little baking.

While moving our furniture we uncovered Lauren's famous signature on the sofa we received from the Walter's. Thanks Lauren, Gary, and Nancy! The sofa has been a great addition to our home and it provokes fond memories of our time together last August/September!!

Watch out!

Normally I wouldn't let Oliver "play" with the computer but he was so adorable and it seems he is a natural.

Ask yourself, "What is lighter than air?"

If you've seen Horton Hears a Who than you will know what the title of this blog refers to. While Betsy was in town a couple weeks ago, we had the Bonkoski family, sans Jeff and Dave, over for dinner and a movie. Shelly, the Red Box lover she is, stopped to pick up a movie for $1. We gathered downstairs for our movie in our newly updated basement. I thought it was a cute movie with a few laughable moments - okay one VERY laughable moment and a few good chuckles. Jon was able to capture my hysterical moment on film. Looking back at this photo, I'm not sure if it was just the right moment in time where I would have laughed at anything because of the expressions on my wonderful niece and nephew sitting next to me, or that there was a good mixture of both adult and kid humor to keep the movie interesting. Either way, laughter is the best medicine. I hope this at least brings a smile to your face!