Blizzard!

This is especially for those who don't live here. The snow here is blowing like crazy and it's really scary to drive. There were several car pile-ups, sections of I-90 closed and lots of closings/cancellations. And of course all virtual tours were postponed too. The driving conditions were terrible! My dad ended up taking us home and I'm glad he did. I got some of the storm on video as well as the huge drifts by our house. Those drifts are still there and probably bigger... plus, being that the wind chill is about 35 below, the temperature in our house is slowly dropping.



Check out the video:



Some more footage:

New York or Texas results

Would you rather have a Texas accent in New York or a New York accent in Texas??

The results are in:

New York accent: 4
Texas accent: 3

More people need to vote! I chose Texas accent. I love southern accents! Not as much of a fan of the NY accent. I had an east coast accent when I lived there...sounds more abrasive than a southern accent. Guess it depends on the person :)

Blizzard conditions today. Although I love storms and crazy weather days, I don't love rescheduling virtual tours and getting backed up at work. The snow is gorgeous though!

Poor Civic...

This past Monday we had lots of snow and driving conditions weren't the best to say the least. So we worked from home this day and didn't drive anywhere (not to mention our heater broke too so we had to wait for the maintenance guy in our 50 degree home). Tuesday, although the snow stopped, was still very icy and there were a few accidents. Right when we were getting off I-90 heading north on 52 towards the Marion Rd exit (for those of you that know the area), we noticed 2 cars in the ditch and one pulled over. This must've just happened because their cars were still running. So naturally because we figure it's icy around there we slow down quite a bit BEFORE getting there. The guy behind us did not do this in time and when he did start slowing down, he lost control. We saw the whole thing happen. Scott even said "he's going to hit us, he's losing control" and he did. We pulled over and got all insurance information etc. No one was hurt thank God...but it was scary on the side of the road and having all those cars pass us and some very quickly...to quickly. I was hoping one of them wouldn't lose control also and just hit us.

The irony? This is the 4th time our car has been hit and we've only had it for a year and a half!!! All 4 times were not our fault at all and in 3 cases we weren't even moving! So needless to say, the guys at the auto body shop pretty much know us by name now. Scott was joking this morning that we wish they had a punch card or something for frequent visitors.

Just bad luck...4th time's a charm...hopefully.

Trying to keep our house warm...we turned the ovens and burners on


Our Civic


Our bruised Civic


Yeah I took out the license #...probably not necessary but hey it's good practice!

Changes to my blog!

I have made a couple changes. First, I put a "would you rather" question for everyone to answer. I plan on putting a new one up every week. The more people who vote the more results I'll get and I think they'll be interesting. With "would you rather" questions you need to pick one or the other and there are no special circumstances (take "it depends" out of your vocabulary when considering your answer).

Also, I added a page element which shows what I am currently reading. When I'm done I'll do a short review of the book and put the next review up. Please comment if you have read the book or have questions. I don't know how to put a comment area right under it so just comment on any post or email me.

That's all! Oh and look below...it's a new post too :)

Attention all Movie Lovers! (plus a weekend update)

My husband recently converted his movie blog into a website. Here's the link: Minnesota Movie Freak. It's really a great site. Watching movies is definitely his favorite past time. It's so much more to him than most people. And I have to say I'm beginning to come around too and enjoy them more than ever. Check out his site before you even go to the theaters. He's in depth with his reviews but some of them will have reviews from me too and from others that saw it with us. Plus you can review too! It's a fun site.

This weekend we did a few things. On Friday night we just kinda hung around. We ordered Outback to go (thanks, Dad for the GC) and lounged around. It was so freezing this weekend that you didn't want to leave the house much.

Saturday morning my friend Suzanne and I went to our first tri-clinic. As some of you know we're training for a triathlon that we'll be doing with some of my friends from college in July. We're super excited but I have a long way to go. Luckily there's time but those things always come sooner than you think. I have to admit it's tough in the winter time especially when I'm not a member of a gym. Anyway the tri-clinic was very very helpful. We worked on our technique for the front crawl (much more to it than I ever thought) and then the instructor video-taped us so we could watch what we were doing wrong and try to fix it. After that we did lots of laps and worked on finding our pace, endurance and some underwater breathing exercises. All very helpful and a great workout. I'm so excited because next week we're going to be doing a mini-tri at the Y. Should be interesting. It's great having trainers there to push you.

After the tri-clinic Scott and I went to see Atonement with our friends Eric and Leah (see review by clicking on the movie title). Then they came over for a pot roast dinner and cards.

Sunday was church, Panera and then we went to see Cloverfield with our friend Nate. It was a double feature weekend (like I said, it was coooold). After that it was back home to do some cleaning, I took a nap and we watched both championship games. Wow, can't believe the Packers lost! I really wanted to see Green Bay vs New England. I was rooting for Green Bay all the way.

Our house was so cold we literally had some frost in the upper corner of our master bathroom on the inside!! Plus our heater is working overtime and Scott thought the heating element would burn out (the heat wasn't coming out so hot) so he wanted it to rest. So we were trying to warm up the house by turning on all ovens, stovetops and the dryer. Ahhh gotta love a poorly insulated home in -40 wind chill.

Chase

We took pictures of our friend's little boy Chase. We did this a while ago but I wanted to post the pictures for those to see who know him (in our bible study). The photo shoot went well. He was really easy to work with and he kept doing "touchdown" it was so cute. We've really enjoyed getting to know his parents better and watching Chase grow up.

I'm also posting because with these photos, and all other work-related photos, I honestly want feedback. And I mean real constructive criticism. We often ask our friend/co-worker Robin for advice because she definitely knows what she's doing when it comes to taking pictures and we really appreciate her realness when she gives feedback. But we want to hear what others think too. We're looking to improve and fix anything we may not see in the results ourselves. So if you have a chance, please comment and let me know what you like/don't like. I'd rather have friends and family tell me the truth than paying clients. Eventually we will have a more official website for Midwest Lifeshots but in the mean time I'm just posting here for my own records. Thanks in advance.

Touchdown!










Touchdown again!


For some reason the color looks off on this one?




Probably my favorite


A little collage work (his dad calls their dog "the dog" that's why it says that)

Christmas 2007

I haven't been as good about updating the blog lately but hopefully I will be a lot better since we're not as busy anymore. We celebrated Christmas 3 times: once with Scott's side, once with mine and then together. Here's a summary of that week:

Shannon and Jeremy's
On the way to Illinois we stopped at our friends Shannon and Jeremy's house to hang out with them. They were wonderful hosts! We had so much fun playing Rock Band, games and having great food together....plus it was great (as always) to catch up and laugh with them. We stayed the night and watched the Packers vs Bears game. Jeremy is a huge Packers fan and we're big Bears fans so this may have to be an annual thing. Bears won yay!! Then we were on the road to Illinois.




Christmas in Illinois
We spent the week in Illinois as we always do every year. A very much appreciated and restful break from our everyday lives. This year Marcus and Patrick were there for some of the time too. Marcus stayed with them as a foregin exchange student, he's from Brazil. I had actually met him back when Scott and I were dating. Patrick is his friend and they're back in the states because they're going to go to school in Wyoming and decided to spend a few days with his "second family" before heading out there. There are several traditions that we follow every year and I love them. Every Christmas Eve we have a steak dinner before going to the evening service at Uncle Mike's church, there are always 2 big family dinners (that usually take place on the same day) and one of the dinners is always soup and sandwiches which I very much appreciate since you get so stuffed with all that other food! Every time we go to Illinois we always play lots of games, order Monicals pizza and so far for the last 3 Christmas' we've gotten together with our friends Brian and Brittany for games (Brittany is the daughter of Scott's moms best friend). Usually we teach each other games and now they pretty much get the same game for Christmas that we do. We love them and wish we could see them more often...but we love this tradition too! Finally one of my favorite traditions (and one I will do with my children also) is Scott's mom hides our biggest present and then puts clues all over the house. It's like a scavenger hunt. Everyone helps each other out and reads all the clues until after about 4 or 5 you've reached your present. It's always so much fun...Gus likes it too :) We once made clues for his mom and attached a clue to Gus. For a while we nicknamed him "clue 4" We also had fun with Jay and Jennifer...(Scott's brother and girlfriend)...we went to see I Am Legend which I really liked. It was nice to hang out with them we don't get an opportunity to do that often. We spent some time with Spence (nephew...their son). He stayed over one night and we did another tradition...had pancakes in the morning :) Oh and another fun time...my cousin-in-law Angie and I played a little Guitar Hero while her parents and Scott shopped for a new tv. She was a virgin GH player but has now crossed over :) Here are some pics:

Family Pic


Christmas in Illinois...no snow :(


Scott getting the steaks ready


Christmas!




Much to Jay's dismay, Spence got a doll for Christmas :)


A clue!


Scott reading a clue

Spence searches for a clue too

Yeah, clue in the dog food


Marcus finds a clue in the kid's clubhouse




Me and Spence in the clubhouse...he likes to lock me in there

G money

Typical Illinois trip for Gus...they beg because Tuck gives

Christmas in Minnesota
We celebrated Christmas the Sunday before New Years with my side of family. Everyone was there and it was wonderful! Saturday night everyone got there and we just hung out. Kristin and Daniel stayed over at our house which they do every year. Sunday morning was Christmas all over again. Ryan couldn't wait to open presents. I'd say the biggest hit for a present was the kid's digital camera. Abby and Ryan both loved it!! Also, Ryan really liked the hockey stick he got from Matt which paired well (and unintentionally) with the air puck we gave him. The whole day was great, we just hung out with each other, watched Elf, played games, worked on puzzles and talked. Scott and I (mostly Scott) converted all my family's home movies to DVD's and gave that to my parents for Christmas. Needless to say it was a big hit watching past Christmas' and remembering the good ole days. We also sat down to enjoy a slideshow of the vacations we went on this year which was fun too. Oh and Abby can finally say my "name" They call me Auntie and she says "Dauntie" I couldn't get enough of it it was adorable. She is the cutest little thing! On a side note, about 85% of all these pictures were taken with "my" little Kodak camera. Lately it's just not doing anything or anyone justice when I take their picture. So keep in mind these pics are to convey a story, not to enter in a photo contest...I'm very particular so it annoys me that the quality is so bad. Here are some pics:

She wears this hat all the time


Ryan waiting patiently

This looks like something familiar


The beloved camera


Typical scene that day :)


She got it!


Abby taking pictures the wrong way






Hockey time!






Abby found a bug friend and was sad to see him go!




The year ended at Eric and Leah's where we enjoyed good food, games and conversation as always. Here's a video of my first time opening a champagne bottle. Yes I know, we don't get out much therefore it doesn't take much :)

Happy New Year!