Swine flu strikes again!

Well not really, but we did have to cancel our vacation to Mexico beacuse of it. So frustraing. Mike and I were supposed to leave this coming Monday with our good friends Ben and Kallie. They were going to use his parents time share and invited us along to join in the fun. Since it was a time share the whole trip was super cheap - great hotel for $180 a week - split between 2 couples - come on, $90 for a hotel for the week? In Mexico? With fun times people? How could we say no to that? In comes swine flu, and whatever the hell stage 5 from the WHO means. Threw a little wrench in our plans to say the least.
Ben spent a good majority of the day Wednesday trying to switch our destination with the time share company (Thanks Benny!) but so was everyone else in the world who had planned on vacationing in Mexico that week. He tried and tried to get us on a beach anywhere in the world - literally, we were considering the Canary Islands for a minute -but the time share company had booked every place they had on a beach. So since we had flights (luckily with no cancellation fees due to the swine flu) we knew we had to go somewhere. We started looking for hotels in southern Florida that had a decent rate. Randomly Kallie and I found a resort on Key Largo that I had looked into for a destination wedding for Mike and I! AND it was only $99 a night - and it was beautiful and right on the beach! SWEET! Done and done. Kallie booked the hotel, switched thier flights, I booked a rental car, switched our flights and here we are.
New vacation, a little more expensive, but we're still going somewhere on the ocean! I have never been to the Keys before so I am looking forward to doing a bit of sightseeing in the area and addition to a bunch of nothing but lounging in the sun!

Engaged!

I know this entry is well over due...well, 5 days over due. Mike and I are engaged! He asked me on Friday night while we were on the rooftop of my parents building overlooking Minneapolis and St. Paul.

He had it all planned out with out me knowing a thing! He bought the ring on Wednesday, and made the call to both my parents to let them know of his intentions, ask for their blessing, and get them in on his plans. My mom called me on Wednesday afternoon while I was at work and asked me if Mike and I could come over on Friday after work to help them move furniture and then they'd take us out to eat. They got a new flat screen TV and were moving the living room furniture and a couple large bookcases...I knew they were doing this so it was no surprise to me that they were asking for our help. So I called Mike and told him that my mom called and asked for our help and he said 'ok sure'.

So Friday rolls around and I get out of bed, throw my hair in a pony tail (without showering) put on the jeans I wore the day before and a t-shirt and head to work (my office is super casual). I left work a little early and when I got home Mike and his dad, Bill were outside talking. They told me that they wanted to go look at the ring I picked out with Mike's mom the following Monday. That's when I said "No more ring talk! You know what I like, I think about it everyday...and it's getting a bit anti-climactic!" So they just laughed at me and said ok. Bill left and Mike went in to take a shower before going over to my parents place.

When he got out he looked at me and here was our conversation:

M: Don't you want to change clothes?

H: No, we're going to move furniture.

M: Yeah but they are taking us out for sushi afterwards, don't you want to look kind of nice?

H: Uh, ok.

So I changed clothes but still didn't shower.

We get over to my parents building and shopped around in the global market on the first floor before going up to their place. When we went up to the loft, there was a note left on the table that said "We're up on the roof with drinks! Come up!" This is no suprise to me, it's a very typical thing for my parents to do. So we head up there and have some pear martini's and chat for a while. Mike and Pat went inside to 'fill up' and I guess hatch the plan. They came out and a little while later my mom and Pat went inside and that's when it happened! Mike said "You know earlier today when you were talking about this being anti-climactic?" And he pulled out the ring! My parents were inside taking pictures of the whole thing.

My parents got out the champagne and I called my sister and grandparents while Mike called his 3 siblings. I'm not really that much taller than Mike...but when he forced me to dress up I had to have the appropriate shoes!

So here we are now, trying to plan a wedding sometime within the next year, and hopefully it will be in either Mexico or Florida!

Snow on April 5th.

After waking up to snow yesterday morning, I think this kid has a good idea.

Boy to his mother: Well, why don’t all Minnesotans get in a circle, link hands and sing “Here Comes the Sun!” THEN MAYBE IT’LL GET WARMER AND I’LL CHEER THE FUDGE UP.

This is from overheardinminneapolis.com