A Lovely Week

The past week was a blur.  I spent Tuesday-Friday in a training class. Surprisingly class was so wonderful and I learned so many new techniques for my daily job and am so happy I attended. I was also extremely impressed with the banquet staff and all of the tasty treats they served for breakfast and snacks. 

The creative foods were a must after sitting from 8:30-5pm listening to lectures and group work. I am also certain I doubled my intake of caffeine sitting in that class all week long - and I had been doing so well skipping pop + coffee. 

Friday evening I celebrated my dear friend Nae on her graduation. The day was rainy but cleared up by evening. The graduation party was held at a fun outdoor park which was so colorful and fun plus great for her many nieces & nephews to keep busy at. 

A spur of the moment Cup and Cone date with Ms. Amanda Sue was a perfect ending to a busy but lovely week. 

Lovely Minnesota. I heart thee.

What a wonderful week & weekend - ready to embrace Monday and a few week with a clean slate. 

Slice of July

Summers in Minnesota are always beautiful, fun and sunny with so many activities going on! This past week at work was so busy I did not have a moment to blog with family in town, working late every evening - it was definitely a busy week! 

Here is a quick snapshot of my beautiful July so far! 

{St. Paul Fire Works}

On the Fourth I spent the evening picnicing and barbecuing with friends on the Mississippi River in St. Paul. The fireworks were spectacular! 

{Birthday Celebrating}

I celebrated my birthday with family a few days early. We had a true barbecue and I made S'mores Cupcakes for my birthday dessert! I also received fun birthday cards & packages in the mail - from sweet friends and family. 

On my birthday I went out for lunch with Curly Locks and had an amazing Coconut Almond slice of cake and then celebrated with my grandparents (my birthday + their anniversary on the same day) the next day and we shared a slice of Black Forest Cake! I love celebrating + sharing a special day with my grandparents. 

{Bachelorette Celebrations}

I spent a fun evening celebrating a friends' wedding! The bride wore pink and all of the other ladies wore their little black dresses - we definitely had fun! 

{Cherry Berry Addiction}

I have discovered a Cherry Berry addiction in recent. I love their frozen yogurts and toppings! My favorite toppings are slivered almonds, berries, pretzels, a dash of sprinkles and a little bit of of candy with cookie dough! 

Yum!

{Insta-Friday} Summer is Here

It's been a long time since I've linked with with Jeannette at Life Rearranged for 

Insta-Friday but here I am again. 

It feels good to be back on the blog after a few crazy weeks.  

An afternoon spent in beautiful Stillwater with a friend 

loving all of the encouragement that comes through social media - it's a great quick pick me up in the middle of the day and just requires a quick glance but is SO encouraging. 

Visiting and holding a brand new baby -- Ms. Adrienne June

A new favorite - Summer Lime chips with a hint of cilantro - a summer must! 

Minnesota scenery -- must I say more?

{I am thru & thru a Minnesota girl}

coraly-pink polish - polish is so simple but I love how it makes me smile 

sipping Caribou+patio seating

What a beautiful week. So excited that today is Friday and the weekend is just beginning! 

I'm headed to the beach this weekend, what are your plans?

Summer Lovin'

The last few days in Minnesota feel like summer

seventy & eighty degree weather

sipping iced coffee & lounging outside

flowers in bloom

sunny skies & green grass

plates of fresh fruit

walking to the ice cream parlor

ice cream melting so fast you can't eat it quick enough

Summer may not start until June 21st but it feels like summer my friends. 

{Dear Monday} 5.14.12

How & Why do Mondays come so quickly?! 

 I'm linking up again with Megan at Happy Day for Dear Monday letters! 

Dear Monday, I'm not sure what you have in store for me but bringer on! 

Dear Minnesota,  thanks for the stellar weather as of late.

Dear Carm, it was beautiful to see your face, laugh & talk with you in person, even if it was only for an hour during your layover. I am so ecstatic that you are moving back to the Midwest! 


Dear week of TV show finales, family dinner, friend birthday celebrations x2, graduation celebration & movie night with the girls, you already hold such wonderful potential. I cannot wait to see what else is in store! 


Dear plants, please grow grow grow!   

Happy Monday! 

An Unexpected Weekend.

My weekend was not what I expected it to be.
Does anyone else every have that? Wednesday & Thursday I was absolutely sure I knew what my weekend held and then it all changed. But that's ok - my weekend was still amazing & perfect. 

Tasty ice cream with Kelly & Khalia - ice cream dates may just be perfection in a cup!

Many movies were watched; Thor, We Bought a Zoo & Ghost Protocol. 

The weather was a bit dreary and it rained a few times. But sometimes rain is a good thing, even if we don't think so at the time.  

A beautiful & productive Panera date, they're the best. 

Lots & lots of reading. The fun leisurely reading while lounging in bed or in your favorite chair with a cuddly blanket. 

One last bridal wedding shower for Lynnae.

Skyping with Amanda Sue. 

What a fun relaxing weekend. 

How did you spend your weekend? Was it what you expected or was there a game changer?

Showering with Love

The past few weeks I've had many occasions to celebrate life with loved ones near & dear to my heart! I am so blessed to have these people in my life and loved being part of their celebrations!

{beautiful snacks at Nae's shower}

Two weeks ago Amanda & I headed to Wisconsin with one of our favorite brides-to-be to celebrate her and her upcoming wedding in June. We even got a glimpse of our bridesmaids dresses which Nae's mom is making for us!

{Shower Cake // Amanda, Nae & I // bridesmaids dresses}

Last week I was able to celebrate my friend Amanda and her little girl. Amanda's mom took care of all of the details, the shower was just beautiful and was held at the Lake Elmo Inn with their famous brunch! 

Six years ago Kaarin, Kristi & I were all in Amanda's wedding - for the first time since the wedding we were all together again. 

I can not wait to celebrate Nae's wedding in a few weeks and meet Amanda's little girl soon after (or before). 

Beautiful Weekend & Beautiful Moments

{cupcakes from grandma's birthday celebration}

Happy late Sunday evening! 

The weekends was a little mix of everything - busyness, relaxation, chaos, reminiscing with friends, celebrating life and way to many calories consumed! This morning I finished reading NieNie's book Heaven is Here -- she's so inspiring and such a beautiful person. How silly is it that I am actually sad that I finished the book - I wish it would keep going, good thing there is her blog to follow along with! 

In recent weekends I have completely ignored my inbox - and it's been beautiful. But then Monday comes around and I have a rude awakening as I try to wade through everything. So thankful that I will have a day off tomorrow to slowly wade back into the week. 

*yawn*

Please excuse me as I go climb into bed and hopefully sleep past 7am *wishful dreaming*.

Lately

I've been spending my time....

enjoying the beautiful outdoors.

enjoying Minnesotas tell tale signs of spring. 

enjoying the simple pleasures of coffee dates with friends and paging through magazines.

enjoying the beautiful skies and loving how they are always so dreamy and magical. 

How have you been spending your time lately? 

Why Hello Monday

                                                                    Source: sittinginatreeblog.com via Junia on Pinterest

A few days ago I cracked open a book that I received at Christmas... it's a five year plan book. I was interested in the book since it was highly recommended and came from a great friend. As I was paging through the book I came across a page about TGIM, Thank God It's Monday.

I'm not sure about you but I rarely think that way on Monday.
Rarely.

Intrigued I read on.  The book pointed out that millions of people dread Mondays and how that is a ridiculous way to spend one-seventh of your life - dreading a Monday. In the next five years you will receive 260 different Mondays, each one a new fresh day full of promises, possibilities and excitement. Why shouldn't we anticipate Mondays as so many of us anticipate Fridays?

This is a new thought for me, as I'm sure it is a bit foreign for the rest of the general public. But from this day forward I am going to try and enjoy Mondays, look at them with anticipation, excitement and joy.

What will Monday bring?

Weekend Long Party

This weekend was a big fun several day celebration for my dear friend & flatmate Amanda Sue. Very long story short Amanda Sue (who also owns the home I live in) officially leaves Monday to relocate to Ohio for her career (to follow the adventure read more here). 

We celebrated all weekend long. Friday night we kicked off the weekend with a flatmate night. Dinner at Buca di Beppo, followed up with ice cream from Cold Stone and then movie night at home. We watched Revenge of the Bridesmaids, which is quite comical since we are both bridesmaids for our flatemate Lynnae.

Saturday morning seven of us meet & had breakfast at Colossal Cafe  as part of Amanda's going away celebrations. The food was amazing and it was fun to gathering everyone before Amanda left. 

Later on Saturday Amanda & I had an impromptu date to Panera. When we got back we meet up with Lynnae & Josh (Lynnae's fiance) and Justin (Amanda's brother and our flatmate in the basement). We played one last round of croquet in the yard -- the boys won but we finished and had fun. 

I think we can all say that we are sad to see Amanda go, but we are all so excited for her to see what is in store. I think Amanda's own excitement is infectious and you can not help but be excited to see what the next few years will hold for Amanda & how she will rock Ohio. 

{InstaFriday} 1.20.12 Edition

It's that time again --- InstaFriday with Jeannette at Life Rearranged. 

No need to have a fancy phone with the instagram app, any cell phone will work.  

Looking at all of these pictures as I sort & organize them for Insta-Friday gives me warm fuzzies. Often by Thursday (sometimes even Monday) I forget what my previous weekend & the prior days were like and the fun memories that I had and the simple beautiful life moments I lived. I get caught up & consumed with work, juggling life, the wants vs. needs & other life worries.

The weekend began with a light dusting of snow, which is so out of the ordinary here in Minnesota this year and a wonderful breakfast with tea while my small group meet to study about hope + Jesus. 

Five Guys

yum

five guys+roomies+movie night. 

homemade mini donuts + sprinkles

Roomies are wonderful people.

Wednesday morning I posted on facebook about my desire for starbucks/caribou/dunn bros to please please please start delivering coffee so I could get a little espresso jump. My friend (& roomie) Nae SURPRISED me & brought me a caramel latte to work! She is seriously the SWEETEST. Later that evening Amanda Sue & I hit our fav local mexican restaurant for some great food and venting/celebrating/girl talk. 

Fabulous wednesday. 

Here is to a fabulous weekend! 

Beautiful Life Moments seen through Insta-Friday

A glimpse into my week through my instagram pictures. 

Outdoors *sigh* I love my clouds & naked tree pictures. Clouds are beautiful & naked trees have so much character.

I took these pictures on my way into dinner over the weekend with a friend & their family. 

Pannekokene with small group / Fort Snelling, let the flag always stand proud

Movie night with the roommate - we watched on a laptop on the coffee table

we're classy like that

pomegranate is my favorite fruit / fun girly present for a fun girly-girl

Seriously what a great week. How ever you spent your week I hope it was just as lovely & full of heart warming memories & beautiful life moments. 

Have a beautiful weekend! 

linking up with Jeanette again at Life Rearranged. 

You can too! 

Recently....

{fall} 

Fall is here. Despite the minor heat wave that Minnesota is having this week - fall is here. I am sipping pumpkin spice lattes, steeping tea and enjoying glasses of steaming apple cider. I love the crunchy leaves underfoot, and the colored trees. 

I am trying to find fun cute boots and figure out how to wear scarves everyday. I am loving the more layered looks of fall, the cute fall coats and jeans again with long sleeve shirts and cardigans. 

{on making changes}

I find myself (again) giving up pop, it's not a bad thing. I love how unintentionally I am giving up and lessening bad habits. 

Almost instantly without thought I changed my work morning ritual of half a cup of coffee to tea. I should never leave tea - it's a beautiful tasty everyday delight. 

{updating goals}

Originally my goals were more books, less online reading; less eating out more eating in.  

On the book front I am falling behind but I want to get back on the band wagon. Must.Find.New.Book. 

More eating in & less eating out is going well. Of course my freezer is full of lean cuisines, healthy choice cafe steamers and smart ones. But you can't beat a meal that is under $2, quick to 'prepare' and under 300 calories. 

How are you enjoying the change of seasons?

A weekend that was

A weekend that was such a beautiful & fun weekend. 

Quite by chance my weekend went from being slam packed busy to a nicely balanced weekend full of fun, friends, children, church & football. 

For weeks I had been looking forward to this weekend. My alma mater was in town playing the Gophers. In college I loved going to Bison football games but since graduation I had not gotten the chance to go to any games. Enter this weekend the Bison vs. Gophers game. I looked at tickets but they were spendy so I went with the second best option - local sports bar. 

random fact: I don't like beer, below is a hard dry cider - it tastes a bit like apple juice, yes please I'll have that!

Bison totally kicked Gopher butt - it was a beautiful sight!

Sunday was full of teaching the kiddos about creation. 

Good Stuff. 

Bestie & I also went out for lunch. 

It was scrumptious. 

Goal for this week: take more pictures of people in my life

The only downside this weekend was waking up in the early sunday morn knowing I had caught someone's cold. Considering I know several people who have colds right now I am not sure who I can blame - either way I have it & it has me. 

Excuse me while I go hibernate with a box of klenex & packets of emergen-c

on mismatched & jumbled thoughts

 I keep thinking about the beach

---

I want to go hiking and play outside 

I want to play with my camera & take pictures

---

I was blessed to have lunch with a friend - over my lunch hour while at work.

It was amazing. Many people have friends that they work near & eat with them over lunch 

or co-workers to share that with. 

I don't - which is fine because I typically spend my lunch hours catching up

on personal correspondence, losing myself in my google reader or 

catching up on facebook. 

But Monday I had lunch with a friend - it was wonderful.

Makes me feel like a real live grown up {grin}

---

I really like JP

{from the bachelorette}

---

Work threw a huge BBQ for clients

so tired & drained afterwards which is ironic

I use to throw events & run around crazy {but calm} for 5 years

---

Buying coffee in the morning before work.

Also makes me feel like a real live grown up.

---

recently I have been reading books 

{gasp}

it feels nice to read books vs. something {blogs} on a computer screen constantly

---

it always amazes me how good I can feel in the morning if I go to bed on time

---

I do not like the "F" word

{fall}

I will like fall when fall comes 

but until then - enjoy summer

live in the moment instead of wishing it away

That time I celebrated all week long

{27 all week long}

I started off celebrating with my grandparents. 

They are so generous and share their wedding anniversary with my birthday - and I love it. 

We went to a German restaurant for supper, it was so much fun.

My grandparents

Aren't they cute?

I typically celebrate with lots of different friends - this year? I mixed all the friends groups. 

Let me tell ya it was amazing! 

Part of my small group girls. I love this group so much - words can not tell. 

This picture also happens to include 1 of my future roomies {excitement}

Bestie

We go back all the way to high school, I also was honored to stand up with her on 

the most important day of her life. 

Curly Locks & sister Gracie

I love these two people. Curly Locks get's me so well - I love her

Gracie - we have the same style, taste & love for pretty much everything. 

Gracie also puts some youth back in these ol'bones.

27 candles... let me tell you.. I wasn't able to blow out ALL of the candles - 27 is a whole lot of candle

I truly made my birthday a week long celebration

Let me tell you it was wonderful

I am so thankful for all of my friends & family that I was able to spend time with. 

I was also so blessed by my friends & family far away who took the time to text, call, facebook {<3 social media},  and shower me with cards & prezzies. 

If my week long birthday celebration was any indication 27 will be an amazing year.