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

A month and a day...

Mike is on his way home right now as we speak! Crazy guy left at 3:30am this morning... Last night I told him not to wake up until at least 5am to leave so that he at least got some sleep. But I guess he's just in a hurry to get home!
Last weekend my dad helped me get the wallpaper border off of my kitchen walls! One thing I forgot to do was take a picture of it. Oh well, I'd rather not remember it! I'll take a picture before any paint goes up so all you peeps who haven't seen it can see the before and after!
There was one totally gross thing that my dad helped me with also. While I was sitting on top of my refridgerator (scraping wallpaper) I noticed there were a couple things that had fallen behind there from the previous owner (his name is Phil). I could see a hotpad and a bottle of food coloring. So my dad said that we should move the fridge, the stove, and the small counter that sits in between them and clean back there. Ho-ly nas-ty!! I take full responsibility for not cleaning back there after we moved in but I didn't think it could possibly be that bad. I don't think Phil cleaned back there once in the 7 years he lived there. I literally had to take a scraper and scrape food and grime off the floor under the stove. Something must have boiled over once upon a time and Phil (being the 50 year old bachelor he was) never cleaned it up. But now thanks to my dad for helping me move the appliances, it's squeaky clean! And now I won't have a nasty suprise when I move the appliances again to paint!

Bored.

I don't really have anything in mind to talk about for this entry... I have 15 minutes left of work and nothing to do. Well have have filing to do, but I'm just going to put that off until the morning.
Aly's coming home from school this weekend! I'm excited about that! I'm getting my hair cut by the one and only Farrah on Saturday. I could write a whole entry on Farrah...she is my hair miracle worker - and my mom's! I have reccomended Farrah to two ladies in my office and they both go to her now and one takes both of her teenage daughters to her too! I'm not planning on doing anything very drastic to my hair, I just want a little style to it. It's almost all one length again after cutting my bangs last spring!
I also want to work on my kitchen a bit this weekend. I want to paint it but before I do that I need to rip down the really pretty fruit wallpaper border that goes around it. I'll have to bring the ladder up cause it's way up near the ceiling. Fun times.
Mike is still in Colorado, working away. I had fun visiting him there last weekend! We went to "The Garden of the Gods" in Colorado Springs which was very picturesque. And we also went to the Denver Aquarium where Mike, and his niece Toni, fed sting rays by hand! . I'll have to post pictures when Mike gets back with the camera!

Water vs. Pepsi

Here is another quote from one of my favorite websites I've mentioned before www.overheardeverywhere.com

Mom to cashier: And we'll have a water.
Little girl: But I want Pepsi!
Mom: We're getting water Pepsi!
Little girl: Yaaaaay!
Mom, winking at amused cashier: When you have kids of your own, water Pepsi is the greatest invention ever.

Somehow I can see my mom getting away with this when my sister and I were younger...

Snow x 10 inches = a lot of snow.

I know I mentioned in my last post that I would talk about my job situation in my next entry but this needs to be discussed.
We are getting up to ten inches of snow today! It's been snowing since noon... it's 3pm right now and I'm guessing there is almost 4 inches so far. There is a winter storm warning for over 60 counties in MN alone.
There is only one thing this means - ok two things. One - I get to leave work early. Yay! Two - I have to go home and shovel. Since Mike is out of town I have to do it...I'm thinking I'm just going to do my half of the driveway today, and maybe save the other half for tomorrow. It's not that I'm a 'weenie' (as Pat would say)...ok maybe I am, but I don't have to only shovel the driveway. I have to do the sidewalk that goes from our garage to the house, the one that goes from the side of the backyard to the house, and the one from the front door out to our mailbox on the street. Needless to say I'm not looking forward to leaving work early.
Oh, and of course Pat called me at work to make sure I drive home safely. He and my mom are still in AZ...and he told me I had to go home and shovel...thanks dad.