Married at work

Minnesota Zoo

2009-11-26T01:34:00.004-06:00

I drove up to Apple Valley, MN to meet my sister and kids at the zoo. We all had such a great time! Abby and Ryan love it there (although Ryan was getting sick of it by the end) and Emily enjoyed it too. This was a perfect time of year to go...there weren't many people there at all!!!

Miss Independent

2009-09-24T14:08:00.003-05:00

It's a slow process but a sad one. Each day Emily gets less and less dependent on me. It of course starts the instant she's born where she once was 100% dependent on me is now more like 95%. Then she moves from sleeping right next to me in the co-sleeper to sleeping down the hall in her crib. Then she plays by herself for longer periods of time without needing me to constantly pick her up and hold her. To now when I am no longer breast feeding. If I think about it too much (the fact that I will never breast feed her again) it gets me sad but obviously it has to end sometime. And since I'm producing very little at this point, it's not worth the extra effort to nurse her anymore. So yet another way she is becoming less dependent on me. It's as if our days are filled with training our children to depend on themselves. From holding the bottle to potty training to driving a car. That's what parenting is though, it's such a weird combination of being proud of your child for becoming self-sufficient and sadness that they no longer need your help. I'm in for much much more I'm aware.

Wanted to include this picture of her sleeping. There's really no feeling better than this...seeing your child fast asleep. I have been so happy with how she's been sleeping!! She's always been a wonderful sleeper (takes after me). These last few days she's been going to bed around 9pm, waking around 6am, I then feed her and put her back down and she sleeps until a little after 11am!! Loving it! My mom warns me that just when you think they're the perfect baby they start teething and it all goes downhill from there (at least for a period of time). So I'm expecting that will happen so I don't get TOO frustrated when/if it does. In the meantime, I'll continue enjoying the quiet nights and pray for my friends who have not-so-great sleepers.

Glorified Formula

2009-09-14T17:43:00.003-05:00

So I started on solids today. She seemed to be eating a lot of formula lately and it just felt like the right time. I'm actually kind of nervous to start solids. Partly because I'm afraid of the portions and whether or not I'm going to be giving her enough or too much. Then there's so many options it's overwhelming!! Plus it's just more work than the bottle honestly so I know I'm in for more planning ahead. Like everything else though it will just take getting used to. My sister reassured me that really she's getting most of her nutrients from the formula and breast milk anyway. Starting on solids this early really is just to get them used to eating with a spoon more than anything.

The first batch I made for her was pretty much glorified formula in a bowl. Just a bit thicker than formula. Here's a video and some pics.

Another 5k

2009-08-25T17:33:00.000-05:00

Suzanne and I raced another 5k together again!! This time, we ran the whole way together!!!! It was much better than the first as far as that goes. But my time wasn't the greatest. Oh well we still had fun and challenged ourselves. Here are the stats:

Jennifer Elder
bib number: 771
age: 28
gender: F
overall place: 149 out of 171
division place: 18 out of 22
gender place: 76 out of 96
time: 36:22
pace: 11:43
gun time : 36:28

Growing Girl - 4 month appointment

2009-08-24T17:09:00.000-05:00

Here are Emily's stats for her 4 month appointment (she's quite the little chub):

Height - 25 1/2 inches (85th percentile)
Weight - 17 lb 4 oz (96th percentile)
Head - 16 3/4" (84th percentile)

So all of this on top of wearing cloth diapers means she's wearing 6-9 month clothes. She's starting to grab things much better, becoming more aware of her surroundings (Gus, when we talk etc), she loves to smile, she sometimes laughs but not as often as we'd like and she LOVES chewing/sucking on her hands. That's her favorite past time.

I'm starting to get into a routine now finally. This is a typical day for her not including eating and changing diaper schedules (I want to record this for my benefit later with other children plus I'm always interested in others schedules so hopefully someone out there will find this interesting.)

7-8am - wake
10am-1:30pm (or 2 hours after she wakes) - nap
1:30-1:45 - tummy time
1:45-4:30 play
4:30pm-5:30 - nap number 2
8pm - start getting ready for bed/bath
8:30pm - down for the night

I LOVE that she takes that long nap in the morning because it works really well with my schedule since I'm not only a full time stay at home mom but also a work from home mom!! I need to get stuff done and this is a good opportunity to do that.

Haven't started on rice cereal yet. Honestly, I'm not really in a hurry for this. Many moms seem to not be able to wait for the next stage but I find bottle feeding very easy and convenient...why change that if it's going fine? I will probably start to try to introduce food once she turns 5 months old...which is very soon!!

Blog has been MAJORLY updated (again)

2009-08-23T01:06:00.004-05:00

Ok, I've spent the last few weeks updating my blog with all that's happened for the last 6 months or so. I love having this blog for my own memories. It's a great place to keep all the pictures and stories. Anyway, here are the links to everything that's been updated:

Baby showers and prepping for baby
Introducing Emily Mae Elder
Going out in Public
Breastfeeding Woes
Jay and Jen's Wedding
Emily's kidney update
Top 5 can't live without baby items
Emily's photo sessions
Winehaven
Carefest 2009
Father's Day 2009
A day in Red Wing
MEL Vacation 2009
Movies for baby
Elder Vacation 2009

Thanks for reading!

Elder Vacation 2009

2009-07-25T00:35:00.001-05:00

For the Elder side of the family we went to Edgerton, WI and stayed at a cabin. This was a great time hanging with family and getting to go a few places too. We mostly hung around the cabin, went to a few tourist places, went downtown, played some games and our friends Shannon and Jeremy came to visit to meet Emily (since they live only an hour from there).

Hanging out in the backyard

Uncle Jay holds Emily for the first time...we made him :)

View from back

Shoot, some are sideways and I'm too lazy to rotate them. This is Yancey (Scott's cousin) doing what he liked to do the most...fish!

Tuck fishing

Scott's "office"

Lucas with Emily

Spencer feeding Em

The House on the Rock carousel

Infinity room at the House on the Rock

Yancey caught a big catfish and named her Bertha. Then they fried her up and ate her...yuck!

Little Norway

Our tour guide

Edgerton's Tobacco Days was going on...we bought some potpurri

Scott's mom couldn't resist the book sale

Family pic (minus Emily who was napping)

Lucas

Smore time!

We were waiting for a gopher to come out from under the car so we could take a pic...no luck!

Scott taking pics of the birds

We loved watching these birds take their first flight while we were there!!

Movies for baby

2009-06-27T23:24:00.003-05:00

Who says having a baby means you have to give up what you want to do? Much to her Daddy's delight, Emily has been to 4 movies at the theater since she's been born. Here they are:

Her first movie: Star Trek - she slept in my arms during the entire movie

Second: UP - she needed to be fed at first but then slept through most of it

Third: My Sister's Keeper - a little whiny during this movie but overall pretty good. Luckily my Aunt Donna was there to hold her outside while we finished the movie.

Fourth: Public Enemies - she slept the entire movie in my wrap while I stood up. What I do for her :)

For reviews of these movies go to my husband's website: http://www.minnesotamoviefreak.com

MEL Vacation 2009

2009-06-26T00:01:00.001-05:00

This year for our vacation with my side of the family we went to Shell Lake, WI. We rented a cabin there that was right on the lake! It was about 45 minutes from Hayward, WI. The cabin was just beautiful but the weather ended up being pretty chilly. This was perfect for our family with Emily because she really wouldn't have been able to go outside much anyway. Plus we ended up going to 2 movies which Scott loved!! It was so wonderful because my Aunts and cousin Lauren were able to come out for the week too!! The pictures pretty much explain what we did all week.

We went to the Wilderness Walk one day and got lots of great shots! It's so much cooler than the website makes it look! We really enjoyed it.

Most of the animals were just walking around amongst the people

Probably the neatest part were the deer. They would be so close you could touch them and they would just run and hang out around us

An albino deer

Sisters!

Shhhh, don't wake Emily!

Fun with our shadows

Emily spent lots of time in my wrap that week. I went on several walks to this cute little coffee shop a few miles down the road.

Lauren loved "bossing" Abby around...Abby didn't mind either.

Plenty of Rock Band and Wii was played on the trip

Lots of sleeping too

And then of course there's Risk

and Settlers

We did a photo shoot with Lauren towards the end of the trip

The kids loved the hot tub!

The last day was finally nice enough to get in the water. Here Ryan is wishing he was older...

A day in Red Wing

2009-06-24T23:55:00.001-05:00

I really enjoyed my time with my dear old friend, Katie Wells. We met in Red Wing to spend the day together and she got to meet Emily! I also received lovely gifts from both her and her grandmother. I love her family! We spent the day chatting and laughing over coffee, then went downtown to a not so great restaurant :) And then ended it with more catching up and a walk around the lake. It was a gorgeous day!

Father's Day 2009

2009-06-21T00:22:00.002-05:00

This year for Father's Day we went to a Twins game treated by my dad. It was so great because our entire family was there!! Great until Emily had a blowout (stupid disposables) and we had to leave around the 6th inning. But we did get to go to a nice conference room and watch the game from there so it wasn't all that bad!!

Me and my sis

Abby loving time with Papa

Our new room thanks to Em's poop :)

Love this one of Abby playing

Ryan's pretending he's a baseball player

Walking with the kiddos (Emily's in my wrap...again)

Carefest 2009

2009-06-20T23:46:00.003-05:00

This year for Carefest we took pictures again. Last year we took before and after pictures but this year we took pictures of people at work! It was so cool to see so many churches and organizations getting together and helping our community all in Jesus' name. Loved it! Enjoy the video. Thanks to Wade Beavers for putting it together for us!!

Winehaven

2009-06-09T23:36:00.001-05:00

We had the pleasure of taking pictures for a great family-owned winery in Chisago City, MN called Winehaven. Scott and I went here for a Raspberries and Wine Festival during our Summer of Festivals. It was so much fun and we instantly fell in love with the place. Well. after spending time with these people we also fell in love with them! They were so much fun and you can tell they all love what they do. Here are a few shots from the day:

Ice Wine - we got to try some of this and it was fantastic!!!

Emily's photo sessions

2009-06-01T20:57:00.003-05:00

Em did well for her debut shoot. It was pretty short because she got pretty cranky. She peed on me at one point ha ha! Then we had a second shoot a month or so later. This one Cat came to help out and brought some props.

Daddy with Em

Mommy with Em

I know it looks like she's laughing but she's not

Crabby baby

A little older

Top 5 can't live without baby items

2009-05-28T19:37:00.001-05:00

There are a few things that I absolutely love and cannot live without on a day to day basis. I would recommend these items to everyone (starting with the best):

1. Sleepy Wrap - I love love love this thing so much! It is the best for carrying Emily around. Plus she falls asleep in it all the time and then you can just tuck her little head in and she'll just stay like that for hours. This one is especially nice because it's very long and stretchy. If you get one thing at all on this list, it should be this one!!

Here I am walking with Emily, it looks like she's in my shirt :)

Older kids can go in it too

She was asleep about 5 minutes after this picture was taken

2. Miracle Blanket - Friends of ours kindly passed this on to us and we actually kind of forgot about it until she was a few weeks old. Ever since then she's been swaddled in it for all naps and at night too (if she's not in my wrap). Swaddling is so important to keep babies asleep and this one really works! There are others out there that people like too...either way...SWADDLE your baby tightly!!

3. Bumgenius 3.0 Cloth Diapers - These diapers are the BEST! What a great way to save money and the environment. Plus they grow with baby and they're super cute :) We love using cloth diapers. I could go on and on about this but won't. Haven't had a blowout yet!!

4. Co-Sleeper - So convenient! She sleeps in a tiny little bed right next to our bed so it makes those middle of the night feedings so much easier!!

5. Snoogle - Ok so this isn't something for baby but it's for pre-baby. This pillow makes sleeping so nice while pregnant and eliminates the need for a billion pillows in bed.

Emily's kidney update

2009-05-26T23:15:00.001-05:00

When I was pregnant with Emily, they noticed some fluid in her kidneys during an ultrasound. They told us that this was pretty common. I remember we were worried but also glad we were able to see her again (and reassure us that she was actually a "she").

When she was born we went in for her 2 month appointment and she had another ultrasound done. Usually this corrects itself in the birth canal but in Em's case it didn't. There was still fluid in her kidneys. The biggest concern is that they want to make sure her urine isn't getting into her kidneys. So we put her on antibiotics for a few weeks and set up an appointment for a VCUG.

A few weeks later she had the VCUG. It was so sad! We had to strip her down, lay her on the table, and hold down her hands and legs while they put a catheter in her bladder. She was crying pretty hard and it wasn't easy to watch. Her little body was so tense from crying that the nurse requested I put my finger in her mouth so she would suck it a little bit and ease the tension thus making it easier for the catheter to go in. They put black dye in her bladder so they can easily see through an x-ray if it goes into her kidney.

Anyway, long story short her urine is not going into her kidneys so she is a healthy little baby! It's such a relief and a blessing to not have to worry about it anymore!!

Another Jen Elder

2009-05-20T22:46:00.002-05:00

Scott's brother Jay and Jennifer got married!! The wedding was awesome, we actually were their photographers so we spent a lot of the day behind a camera. Emily was only 1 month old so I spent a lot of time with her too. Spencer loved his little cousin!! Em also got to meet many more relatives on the Elder side.

The wedding was beautiful. I actually almost starting crying when she was walking down the aisle!! Unfortunately Emily got a little hungry so I had to bring her downstairs to eat where she started crying and several people told me they could hear her crying upstairs...oops!!

After the wedding we got to take a few more pictures of Jay and Jennifer and then we went to the reception. The funny thing is, we originally planned to have the wedding outside at Scott's parent's house but it was too rainy. So we had to go to the church instead...which is in a different county...which means the wrong county was on the marriage certificate....which means they weren't officially married. So the priest luckily realized this and had to pronounce them husband and wife again at the reception. It was pretty crazy but definitely something they'll remember!!

Lucas with Em

Papa Tuck with Em - I think this is the first time he held her

Cousin Spencer giving her a kiss

Elizabeth with Em

Great Grandma Otto with Em

At the rehearsal

Love this pic!

The ladies celebrate with some champagne before the ceremony

Her dress...it was gorgeous!

The Elder Family

The second wedding

Breastfeeding Woes

2009-05-05T18:48:00.001-05:00

Ever since I thought about having kids I thought without a doubt I would breastfeed and that I would have no problems whatsoever. In fact when people told me they had problems I used to think "oh you just didn't try hard enough, you must not have really wanted to do it." I even went through the breastfeeding class ignoring anything that had to do with formula because I knew I would just be breastfeeding. Well, I was in for a surprise!! For some reason I just don't produce as much as I thought I would which left Emily hungry for more. So from early on I started supplementing (as recommended by the doctor and lactation consultant even though I was not thrilled about this) and I was supposed to supplement until she started gaining weight. So those first few weeks I was making several trips to the lactation consultant. I wanted so badly to be able to have enough milk for her but it just wasn't happening! So now I am still supplementing with formula but also give her breast milk too. I'm not giving up!! There are advantages and disadvantages to using formula:

Advantages
1. You know exactly how much food she's getting
2. Dad (and anyone else) can feed her too
3. It's much more convenient in public
4. Formula keeps babies satisfied longer (helps with sleeping through the night)

Disdvantages
1. It costs money...LOTS of money!
2. Not the best nutritionally for her
3. Not as much mother/child bonding
4. When going between breast and bottle there's a chance for nipple confusion

I'm very thankful that she didn't have any nipple confusion and takes both bottle and breast very well. Overall this experience has been bittersweet to be honest. I've of course enjoyed the advantages and not enjoyed the disadvantages but you have to do what you have to do.

You mean I can actually go out in public with a baby?!?!

2009-05-01T00:03:00.002-05:00

Well I must say that the last few weeks have been a whirlwind! I feel like I'm just a constant breastfeeding machine who's locked inside a cave. Figures it's while the days are now warm and beautiful and everyone on Facebook is talking about how gorgeous it is out there and I'm stuck in my very attractive pajamas all day long. One of the main thoughts that crosses my mind several times is, "will my life ever be normal again, will I ever be able to go anywhere now that I have a baby?" It all seems so complicated right now and so much work to go out of the house with a baby. I distinctly remember the first time I drove by myself. I was worried about how I would put the carseat in the car by myself and how I would hold the carseat without looking awkward (it seems like all moms just know how to carry these things). Well it did feel awkward and I did have a little sense of anxiety the first time I went out by myself. But it kept getting easier and easier and now I am proud to say that I can carry the carseat with one hand very easily now!! Yay, it's the little things :) I forced myself this week to GET OUT and do things. Like go to bible study, go to help out at church and go back to WW. That was hard but helped a lot. Here are some more pictures from her first week:

Sleeping baby

Gus is a little protect dog

Neglected puppy

Grandma Elder

Thanks for the gifts!

Daddy with Em

We both love to sleep

She always presses against the side of her cosleeper

Her warming bear (and apparently new best friend)

Introducing Emily Mae Elder

2009-04-27T23:44:00.004-05:00

Emily Mae was born on April 11th, 2009 at 6:05pm. She weighed 8lbs, 11oz and was 21" long. Here is my birth story for those who are interested (sorry if TMI for those who aren't):

Friday, April 10th (my due date) I went in for my 40 week appointment. My doctor did an exam and while she was checking to see how dilated I was she also stripped my membrane and did some massaging. I was 3cm. That night around suppertime I started having contractions but I wasn't sure if they were actually contractions because they were not very regular and they were tolerable or if I was just still sore from the exam.

That night they seemed like they were becoming a bit more regular. They felt like menstrual cramps. I was hoping that I could sleep through the night and maybe be able to time them a bit better during the day. But that didn't happen. I didn’t get any sleep at all. I was constantly looking at the clock to see how far apart the contractions were and they were about 5-7 minutes apart each lasting about 30 seconds.

At about 3am I woke Scott up and called the Birth Center and asked them what I should do. They told me to wait until the contractions were closer together, lasting about a minute and were a little more intense. We waited at home and took showers/got ready to go while I labored for about 3 hours. Finally we decided to head in at about 6:30am.

When I arrived I was 4cm dilated. For the next few hours I laid in bed, walked around, sat in the waiting room with my mother in law, sat in a chair etc while having contractions. I was progressing pretty slowly so they decided to give me some Petocin (sp?) to get me to progress more quickly. After getting the Petocin (just an IV), I was still debating whether or not to get an epidural (by now I was 6cm dilated). My sister was there and telling me I should. I asked the nurse and she said she did with her kids but it seemed as if I was tolerating the pain well so it’s up to me. I finally decided to go for it. I’ve heard that after 6cm they start getting really painful and much closer together.

The doctor came in to give me the epidural. This is a strange experience but really, TOTALLY worth it to get it in my opinion. You all probably know how the epidural goes in etc so I don’t need to go into detail there. When he was putting it in I had two contractions but didn’t feel them at all because I was so focused on what he was doing. He did have to insert it a second time because it wasn’t going into my spine correctly the first time.

After the epidural I felt my contractions a little bit on my right side which sometimes happens but it was very tolerable. Then they broke my water and put a catheter in my bladder and I didn’t feel a thing. Then it was just a waiting game until I got to 10cm. I was extremely tired and almost fell asleep. This is when I was updating my Facebook because I literally was just laying in bed waiting for a few hours. A few times when I was having contractions her heart rate would go down a little which concerned them and myself a little so they gave me some oxygen. Because of this I couldn’t sleep. I was also just thinking about what was to come. Would I have to get a C-section? What if I push for hours and hours? What if the cord is around her neck? Etc etc.

Finally I was at 10cm and ready to push. This was a weird experience because I didn’t feel the need to push at all and really couldn’t tell how I was supposed to be pushing because of the epidural. But apparently I was doing it right because the nurse kept telling me I was doing really well. Scott was there holding up one leg and a student was holding up my other leg (it was her first birth and she was so excited). After about 35 minutes of pushing the nurse finally got the doctor. Once the doctor came in I pushed for another 10 minutes and she was out. What a surreal experience. She came out and was crying instantly and had wonderful color. Scott and I were both crying also just in awe of what happened. They put her right on me and I don’t even know what they were doing we were just so caught up in the moment. Truly amazing!!

I did have a 2nd degree tear which of course I didn’t feel at all because of the epidural also. Recovery is pretty disgusting and you’ll feel like you’ll never heal again down there but believe me you do. I’m already almost 100% healed. I recommend taking advantage of the nursery to get some sleep those couple nights you’re in the hospital. You won’t get that kind of help again and it’s good for your body to recover.

The first night home was very strange. I have to admit it was a huge eye opener…”you mean I can’t just go to sleep with my husband and sleep all night?” The first couple weeks were challenging for me too. It’s different for everyone of course. It’s such a drastic change to your life all of a sudden. It wasn't until about the 3rd or 4th week that I started thinking "ok, I can do this" and really started falling in love with my little girl.

Here are some pictures of the event which I actually now look fondly on :)

Me still pregnant, waiting or her to be born

Our nurse, we loved her! And she's a Bears fan :)

Just moments after she was born (wow, was my face swollen!!)

Hair!

Auntie Laura gets to hold her first niece!

Watch out for the paparazzi :)

Grandma Elder holds her first granddaughter

Ryan whispered in my ear that he "loves" Emily and Abby just loved looking at her

Dad gives her her first bath

All clean :)

Swaddled baby

Going home outfit

Baby showers and prepping for baby

2009-03-29T19:13:00.001-05:00

The baby shower in Illinois was wonderful! Scott's Aunt Lacrecia put it on for us and we had a great time. We played several games and opened lots of wonderful gifts. Thank you so so much for putting this on for us!

The baby shower in Rochester was also great! Shannon and Laura spent lots of time on games and my friends Leah and Suzanne also spent time on food, decorations and a diaper cake. Thanks to my mom for hosting it!

We've been busy prepping for baby here are some pictures from the shower in Illinois (don't know were the photos from the Roch shower are) and random things we've been doing around the house.

Playing the diaper smelling game

The same lady who made our wedding cake and bridal shower cake also made this one!

Sue made this out of washclothes, socks and onesies...SOOO cute!

Scott being silly

Scott's Grandma won one of the games!

Most people guessed too long...maybe I looked bigger than I was?

Opening gifts

Love this shot...speaks 1000 words

My organization system for the clothes (her room is the only room organized in the house)

So many clothes to sort out!

Scott painting the nursery

The nursery before

Before

Nursery after

Maternity Pictures

2009-03-27T22:24:00.005-05:00

We had so much fun doing our own maternity shoot in our studio. This is the first one we've ever done and enjoyed experimenting. I'm 38 weeks pregnant here.

86 the tongue please

2009-02-06T11:03:00.003-06:00

Needless to say my job is not always that glamorous! We got a request to edit a photo that someone brought in. He wanted the tongue removed and his head from a different picture instead. I did it but I had a hard time keeping my breakfast down while I was zoomed in on the bloody tongue...

Before

After

30 weeks

2009-01-30T16:20:00.002-06:00

Here's me at 30 weeks. We were testing out the camera before clients came in today. I'm also testing out something. It seems that when I upload pictures to websites the quality goes way down. Not sure what this is about.

There, that's better. A friend of mine on Facebook helped me figure out what my problem was. Still don't completely understand my problem but at least I have a temporary fix.

Anyway, a little more about the pregnancy. She supposedly weighs around 3 pounds now and I can feel her moving a lot. There are days that I feel her tons and days that I hardly ever feel anything. Yesterday was a day there wasn't much movement and it's those times that I get a little worried and wonder why I don't appreciate the moving more when I feel her move. I still am breathing deep and have been for the last month. There are times I just feel like I'm out of breath, especially during my WW meetings. Overall the pregnancy has still been very mild. First shower is in a week and then another towards the end of February. Scott and I both have had dreams where we can actually see her face and hold her but she's still in my belly. Weird huh?

25 things you didn't know about me

2009-01-26T15:51:00.002-06:00

Alright, for those of you that don't have Facebook, here are my '25 things' I posted about a week ago:

1. I'm a Weight Watchers Leader (which means I'm also a Lifetime Member). I lost 45 pounds in 2006.

2. I took voice (singing) lessons my senior year of high school and was also the lead in our high school play (Grapes of Wrath)

3. I almost failed my Government class which almost led to me not graduating high school (I skipped school a lot towards the end of HS)

4. My husband and I had a goal of getting out of debt (except the house) before our first child was born and we will accomplish that goal :)

5. I'm very cheap when it comes to spending money on myself, I hate getting my haircut and don't really like shopping for new clothes either.

6. I'm obsessed with cookbooks although I hardly ever cook.

7. I never skip a meal.

8. My birthday is on St. Patrick's Day.

9. I work for a family business so literally work in an office that's connected to my parent's house.

10. We live in a small manufactured home in Stewartville (again, part of the "get out of debt" plan) but it's for sale and we are hoping to be able to take advantage of the buyer's market right now.

11. Our 2006 Honda Civic was hit 4 times in one year.

12. I was born in Rochester, NY.

13. I am a nail biter.

14. I cringe when people bite down on their silverware.

15. My dad is an identical twin.

16. I teach a class about the benefits of social networking on Facebook.

17. I taught myself how to play the guitar when I was in college using a Guitar for Dummies book.

18. I'm planning on using cloth diapers for our little girl when she's born.

19. My husband and I met on the internet and talked over the phone/internet for 2 years before actually meeting in person.

20. I almost always order a kid's meal when we go to fast food restaurants.

21. I ran, swam and biked in a sprint triathlon last year.

22. I used to have several imaginary friends when I was younger including a horse, grandma, baby, bee, rabbit, cat, dog and more. Oh and they all had names too :)

23. I used to wear a patch and glasses when I was younger and now wear no glasses or contacts.

24. I've only been to one funeral.

25. I didn't eat red meat for over 4 years.

I've been tagged...

2008-12-17T11:17:00.003-06:00

Alright I knew this would happen, but it's fun. I've been watching friend after friend get tagged and eventually it made it to me. Thanks Sarah :)

Here are the Rules: go to Your Pictures file go to the 5th folder open up the 5th picture and post it then tag 5 people when you are done.

This is a picture of my niece and nephew taken by my Dad in August 2007. I love Ryan's face here, such a genuine laugh.

We have SOOO many pictures that it's tough to know which folder to go to. Anyway, I found one and will now tag 5 people. I tag Suzanne J, Laura L, Lori N, Robin O and AJ F.

It's a GIRL!!

2008-11-10T22:18:00.006-06:00

Scott and I are so excited when we found out today that we're having a little girl. I must say thoughts have been all over the place this last week. When we went in for my 4 month appointment, the nurse practitioner thought she heard 2 heartbeats. Plus I was measuring a little big. So the possibility of twins have been circling in our minds all week. Although twins would be very special and unique, I admit we're a little relieved that there's just one baby in there. No offense to any twins out there (Dad) or any parents of twins. So far everything looks great, she was moving around quite a bit during the ultrasound today.

My pregnancy has been very mild. We found out we were expecting back in August. Since then I've had no morning sickness or weird food cravings. I was more tired than usual during the first trimester. But now that I'm in the second I feel great and I actually feel like I have plenty of energy.

So we're very excited and feel blessed by this whole experience. She's due around Easter time, beginning of April. Sorry if some of you didn't know I was pregnant but sometimes it doesn't come up in conversation or I don't remember who I told. I'll keep you posted on any more news. In the meantime we're trying to get used to calling the baby "she".

Blog has been MAJORLY updated!

2008-11-09T23:37:00.006-06:00

I just spent the last few hours updating my blog because I don't want to stop blogging but I've gotten lazy lately. I've not only added new posts but I've also updated my blog roll too. I like to keep my posts in chronological order so I put the links here to everything that I've updated so you can access them easily:

Tuck's Birthday
MEL Vacation
Missouri Cabin
BWCAW
Our Anniversary
Ishizaki Wedding
Abby's Birthday
Presidential Election
Midwest Lifeshots

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Studio is NOW OPEN!

2008-11-06T23:13:00.002-06:00

A few months ago we decided to expand our business to not only do real estate photography but to do portraits and weddings also. In order to do this, we decided to build a studio. Just off our office (attached to my parent's home) we built the studio. It's a great place for people to get head shots, seniors, family and children pictures. The great thing about our studio is, we offer the best of both worlds. The property sits on 2 acres which we have specifically set up for photography. So families can get pictures both inside and out. Inside pictures are more formal while the outside pictures really capture your personalities offering more casual and fun photos.

You can book a session today by going to our website Midwest Lifeshots Photography or by calling 507-424-1044.

Obama wins

2008-11-05T23:00:00.001-06:00

This has been probably the most historic election of all time. I just wanted to mark this down in my blog since it was such an important day. Obama has come out ahead and although I wasn't a huge fan of either candidate, I did choose one.

I would go into detail about my thoughts on this election but I find it unnecessary now that it's over. Plus everyone is so opinionated in this area, it's not worth getting into debates.

I voted and I'm optimistic for the future, you have to be as an American...Republican or Democrat.

Happy Birthday Abby!

2008-10-20T22:47:00.000-05:00

Abby (our niece) turned 3 so we went up to the cities to celebrate. We got her a sleeping beauty barbie doll with a bed. It was only $15! But her favorite present all day was definitely her new "big girl" bike. She was in heaven! After going on a bike ride and then hanging out by the campfire, 1/2 of us watched Sleeping Beauty while the other 1/2 played some Killer Bunnies. We all finished the night by watching Sarah Palin on SNL...the most watched episode of SNL ever! Once again Scott got some great pictures of Abby with her new bike.

Abby got to eat all the chocolate shavings off the pie

Ishizaki Wedding

2008-09-29T22:32:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we filmed our first "paid" wedding. It was an absolute blast and we're happy with the images. You can go to our website to see more pictures but here are a few of the album pages we put together:

Five amazing years...with my best friend

2008-09-27T22:10:00.004-05:00

Well it's been 5 years since we were married. I have the most amazing husband in the world. I kid you not, every single day I am in awe of how blessed and lucky I am to have such a compassionate, sensitive and loving man in my life. Plus on top of that he's constantly making me laugh. I am certain he will also portray all of these qualities to his own children when he becomes a father and it just makes my heart melt to think of it. I'm thankful for every minute I get to spend with him, and it's a lot of minutes since we work together too :)

Happy Anniversary to us, here's to growing old together sitting on the front porch in our rocking chairs with a glass of lemonade.

BWCAW

2008-09-23T21:23:00.001-05:00

So it was all inspired by the book Into the Wild. My sister had an idea for me, my mom and her to read the book. Then when we were done we would watch the movie together. I thought that was a great idea. My sister is not the outdoor type at all. She will take a comfy and warm hotel over a night in a tent any day. But after reading the book she got inspired to get out of her comfort zone and try something new...in the wilderness. So she got the idea to go up to the Boundary Waters for a few days. If you're not from around here you should know that if you do ever decide to come to Minnesota, the Boundary Waters is the place you should go. You basically leave your cell phones and computers behind and completely live within nature, surrounded by lakes and wilderness. I've been a couple times before and those times in my life are some of the most peaceful I can remember. You just won't see a sunset like you see up there. The whole trip is spent canoeing, portaging and then relaxing at your camp. Many people also fish for their meals.

Having been several times before to the BW, my dad jumped on the opportunity to go with my sister. And it only seemed natural for both my brother and myself to go as well. The two times I've been were also with my dad and it was the best bonding we've ever had, I think my brother can agree (he's also been with him). My dad's dream had come true, all 3 of his kids were sharing this memorable time together.

My sister ended up really enjoying herself! It was only a 4 day trip so it wasn't too grueling. Here are some pictures that capture our trip well.

Me and my sister before the trip

Me taking a look at all that needs to be packed up

My brother slept under the stars EVERY night!

My sister carrying a canoe for the first time

My dad and his 3 kids

Me filtering some water for us to drink

Me and Matt near a huge uprooted tree

Me and Matt canoeing between 2 rocks...you can barely see us

Me and Laura toughin' it out while my younger stronger brother carries a lighter load

We stayed up waaaay too late talking thanks to the coffee we drank the night before

Matt and Dad mapping out our route for the next day

Me tending the fire at our campsite...it was cooold.

Cooking dinner

Me single portaging

Laura single portaging

Dad looking for the best spot to take pictures of a beaver

Dad getting a shot of the rapids...can you see him?

Laura and Dad at the end of the trip

Cabin in Missouri 2008

2008-09-02T21:09:00.000-05:00

This year for Labor Day we went to Missouri to a cabin we usually go to over Memorial Day. We normally go to Tuscola for Labor Day but since this year we were just there for Tuck's birthday party, we decided to go to the cabin instead. It takes about 9-10 hours to get there and we were all talking about how that may be just a little too long of a drive so I think we're going to look for something closer next year. None the less, it's a great little cabin and we always enjoy our time there. This time it was Scott's mom and dad, Spencer and us. We spent time relaxing in the cabin, shopping at the outlet mall and we went on a boat ride at night which was a little scary...I had never been on a boat at night and didn't realize they don't use headlights! Plus the people that were driving the boat (neighbors) were a little intoxicated so it wasn't as fun for us as we'd hoped. Scott also spent a few hours trying to get a really nice shot of a hummingbird with his camera. He got a few that he liked.

Spence on the dock

Grandpa helping Spence feed the ducks

And the hummingbird attempts

Recipe: Angel's Pasta

2008-08-25T21:31:00.001-05:00

This is a great recipe we've made twice in the last few days to use up the fresh zucchini and tomatoes from my dad's garden. The picture is over to the left.

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces angel hair pasta
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 zucchini, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
3 tomatoes, chopped
12 leaves fresh basil
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
Meanwhile, heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Pour in oil and saute garlic until golden. Stir in zucchini, salt and pepper. Saute 2 minutes, then mix in tomato and cook a few minutes more. Chop basil and add to vegetables right before mixing with pasta.
Combine pasta and vegetables. Serve topped with mozzarella.

MEL Vacation 2008

2008-08-18T15:29:00.000-05:00

MEL stands for McCasland, Elder and Lazan. Basically meaning my side of the family. This year we went up to Brainerd, MN to stay in a cabin and enjoy time away from the real world. The place we stayed was perfect. It was two townhomes that were connected so McCaslands and Elders on one side while the Lazans had the other (since they're a bigger family). The weekend was spent playing badmitton, tubing on the lake, pontooning, jetskiing, shopping, playing lots of games (especially Killer Bunnies), spending time at the beach, watching the Olympics and of course eating good food and relaxing with family. Scott spent a lot of the time taking pictures. Next year we'll be doing about the same thing, staying at a cabin on the lake.

Back of the cabin

Ryan patiently waiting for his turn

Laura and Ryan

Abby

Waaaaah

Zach and Daniel goofing off

Me and Ryan

Laura and Abby....yeah that's right she's 2!!

Abby and Ryan fishing

Abby

Ryan driving the boat :)

Darren and Ryan playing badmitton

Kristin testing out a scooter

Playing with light painting

She's not cute or anything :)

Me with my healthy food

Abby LOVES bubbles!

Happy Birthday Honey!

2008-07-27T23:35:00.000-05:00

It's my husband's birthday today! Just wanted to wish him a happy birthday. This morning I made him a huge breakfast. By huge I mean eggs, bacon, grits, pancakes, hashbrown casserole and biscuits and gravy. All from scratch. Well semi-scratch :)

Love you honey!

Tuck's Birthday Party

2008-07-22T14:11:00.010-05:00

We spent the weekend in Tuscola, IL for Scott's dad's "surprise" birthday party. Well of course he found out beforehand so it wasn't much of a surprise anymore. The day of the party was spent mostly preparing for it. Setting up the bounce house, cleaning chairs, making food, getting tables set up, cooking the hog etc. Then the party started. Lots of family and friends were there. Tuck even put a pretty big ad in the paper inviting the entire town. Luckily we had enough food. It was my first hog roast and well, the meat kinda turned me off a little since I saw it actually getting cooked over the fire. This weekend was also the first time we got to meet the newest member of the family, Lucas James Elder. We had a great time taking pictures and cuddling with our new little nephew.

Look at all the food!

Spence waiting patiently for the Bounce House

The hog over the firepit

Tuck and Scott watching the hog

I actually ate some of this...gross

Scott's cousin Liz and her boyfriend Adam

Jennifer with Lucas at the party

The ad in the paper

A closer look at the ad, we loved how he offered a ride home to people

Tuck enjoying his party

Me and Spence climbing the "mountain"

Spence

A proud uncle

Lucas admiring Scott

I love little baby yawns

Me and Lucas

Danskin Triathlon 2008

2008-07-15T23:12:00.000-05:00

So about a year ago I got together with my friend Jess. I had just finished my first 5k and was talking about it with her. She mentioned that she did a triathlon and that it was so much fun and encouraged me to participate the following year. I talked with my friend, Suzanne about it and she became really excited to do it also. So we decided to go for it. Over the next year we both trained for the race, sometimes together and sometimes on our own. I wouldn't say the training was intense, or at least I wasn't training intensely. But we would swim about once a week and I did mini-tri's here and there if I had the opportunity. Then of course we did much more once summer rolled around. There were several evenings where we'd meet at the local pool, swim for our allotted time and then go on a bike ride. It was great to be able to train with someone and also have a goal to work towards.

So finally the race weekend came! I had butterflies in my stomach for a few days straight before the race. The event was a big one, about 4,000 women competing!!

When we first get to Illinois on Friday we just went right to the hotel and found a place to eat. We ate at this amazing little buffet place called Sweet Tomatoes. It has a huge salad bar with lots of really fresh ingredients plus tons of soup and baked goods. Yum!! I highly recommend it if you have one in town. Sadly we have none in Minnesota :(.

Saturday morning we woke up and went straight to the park where the race was being held. We were strongly encouraged to bring our bike that morning and leave it in the transition area. Before doing this I decided to wait in line and get a free inspection of my bike since I really haven't done any maintenance on it at all. Well the lady came around to pump up our tires. She checked mine and told me that my pressure should be about 80 or so and definitely no lower than 40...mine was 25!!! Oops. That may explain why everyone was passing me no matter how hard I pedaled at the Duathlon. After the inspection and putting my bike in the transition area, I met up with Suzanne and we got all our registration stuff, got our numbers written on our arm and picked up all sorts of goodies. Then it was time to listen to a speaker (who was very helpful by the way). After that I bought some sunglasses and Scott and I waited for Sue (Scott's mom) and Angie (Scott's cousin) to meet up with us. I wanted to drive the bike course to see how long and hilly it was. Not too hilly but pretty long it seemed. A nice ride though. Then, Culvers :) After that we went to the free Jelly Belly factory tour. That was a great bonus of the weekend!! After Jelly Belly I wanted to get some new workout gear, leave it to me to leave it to the last possible minute! Well actually what I had bought before was made out of cotton and I got a heat rash from working out in it. So I wanted something a little more breathable. Luckily, there was an outlet mall minutes away. After that we went back to the hotel to clean up and then went to Sweet Tomatoes again...told you we liked the place :). That night I was actually feeling really good. You'd think I'd be nervous...well I guess I was a little...but I honestly was more excited than anything else. It was just going to be so much fun!

Sunday morning finally came and it was an early one. We had to be at the race no later than 6:30am because the transition area closed at 6:30 (and you need to put all of your stuff in there for the transitions like tennis shoes, socks, towel, bag and whatever else you need). I liked that part, getting everything ready in it's own little place. Then all 4,000 of us walked to the other side of the lake. We were all in different waves. The first wave started at 7am. Mine didn't start until 8:28am. So we just waited and talked. Jess and Lindsay (another friend from college) were both there too and we were in the same wave. We spent most of the time in line for the bathroom. Just before we headed to the starting line we practiced swimming in the water...the temperature wasn't too bad. I was a little nervous about swimming in open water. Afterall we had practiced in a pool for the last year. It was much different but not too bad. Then....the time came!!

Go!!

1/2 Mile Swim

The swimming part is a little chaotic although less than I expected. I loved the swim, it was a lot of fun for me. You basically just have to keep looking up to make sure you don't get off course. And also make sure you don't kick someone in the face or get kicked in the face.

12 Mile Bike

Then it was off to bike. I ran to my bike and started taking off my cap and goggles on the way. The bike was also a lot of fun. It was soooo much better than the duathlon!!! I think the ride was just better, not as many hills and more scenery.

3.1 Mile Run

Then it was time to run. I don't enjoy the running very much. It's just not very fun for me. I can't stop thinking about how much I just want to be done! I did pretty bad with my run time this time but I guess not horrible considering I swam and biked first.

Overall the race was great and I really hope to do it in the future. This is a wonderul starter race if you ever want to get started. Go to Danskin's Triathlon website for more information. It's kind of bitter sweet, the ending. It's sad because I don't get to workout with my friend anymore and don't have something to work towards. It's kinda nice though because I don't feel guilty for not getting in a workout. I'm sure I'll find something else to work towards :)

Here are my stats:

Jennifer Elder
bib number: 3009
age: 27
gender: F
location: Pleasant Prairie, WI (Chicagoland)
overall rank: 1744 of 3655
class rank: 216 of 311
swim: 17:39
swim rank: 1445
transition 1: 3:31
bike: 50:58
bike rank: 2232
MPH: 15.3
transition 2: 2:23
run: 34:17
run rank: 1953
pace: 11:03
final: 1:48:50

Check out my other races I did earlier this year and last year.

Here's a video I put together. Thanks for the pictures and video clips Scott, Angie and Lindsay!!

The 4th

2008-07-07T21:22:00.000-05:00

This year for the 4th we went camping! Of course since it was a holiday and a weekend we had to camp a minimum of 3 nights. We went to Chester Woods again, I just love that place! I rode my bike from my parent's house (6 miles) the first night because 1. I didn't want to pay to get in with my car and 2. the triathlon was only a week away so I needed to practice all I could. The first two nights were spent with Eric and Leah at the campsite.

On Friday we went down to the lake and Suzanne and I practiced swimming in open water for the tri. Very helpful!! Then it was just a day of hanging out. Oh and we bought a "boat". We love going canoeing so we figured it's probably profitable to buy a little kayak than to continue renting over and over. It's the greatest little kayak, blow up so we don't have to worry about storage. We love the back rests on it....very comfy. So we got back from buying that and went right on the water with it. Then my mom brought us some awesome fresh food from their garden. We had barbecued chicken over the fire, fresh salad with homemade dressing, potato salad and mulberry cobbler for dessert. It was fantastic!!! That night for the fireworks we didn't want to leave our campsite so we ended up just walking around listening and partially seeing some of them in surrounding towns.

Saturday Suzanne and I practiced the tri again. This time we swam for 20 minutes, then timed our transition to bike. Then we biked 14 miles!! I was so proud of us. It was hard work but I think ultimately helped us in the tri. Then my sister and her family came and we hung out with them until the next morning. Abby and Ryan liked riding their bikes around the campground and they both got a ride in the kayak. Ryan especially liked this but mostly because Scott let him help.

Leah fanning the fire

Scott with the new purchase

Our boat and tent

Abby

Ryan getting real excited for smores

Auntie and Abby

Matt's Graduation updated

2008-07-03T10:52:00.001-05:00

Just added Scott's pictures of Matt's graduation:

Click Here

Blog has been updated

2008-07-01T23:00:00.008-05:00

I've been meaning to put some things on here for a while but hate when they're out of chronological order. Afterall I would like this blog to be some sort of scrapbook of my life. So I've added two entries and here are the links:

Matt's Graduation

Devil's Lake State Park

Also, here are some random pictures of Abby, Scott and Spencer.

Can you find Abby?

Mom's Day in Stillwater

2008-06-30T20:49:00.003-05:00

You may recall the video I made for my mom for Mother's Day. It was a video letting her know that my sister and I were going to treat her to girl's weekend in Stillwater. I haven't had a chance to post a couple pictures and talk about it. It was a great weekend! We walked around downtown Stillwater which is an adorable little town. We shopped, well actually mainly just looked around none of us actually bought much at all, we stopped for tea at a tea house and just enjoyed our time together.

After hanging out downtown we got into a heavy political debate back at the hotel room which ended up leaving us famished for dinner. Thanks to the good ole GPS and Blackberry we found a great little Italian resturant that was excellent. Sometimes I love technology.

The next morning was the real event. We woke up casually and then made our way to Hudson, WI to catch the brunch cruise. That was lovely, a nice buffet and a relaxing ride on the St. Croix. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of us...don't know what we were thinking there. But I did get some pictures of the water and cruise.

We were the guests of the day so we received free room service :)

Why I haven't been blogging much lately...

2008-06-17T22:21:00.004-05:00

WORK! It's been so busy lately at work. Luckily we've been able to work from home instead of at the office because my dad is gone for the week. I must say, working from home has been wonderful!! But believe me, it hasn't been a time for relaxing at all since it's been so insanely busy. Last night we worked until about midnight and tonight...well you can see the clock...it's past 10:30. So for all of my family/friends who have time to lay in the sun or go to the beach...CHERISH that time and know that I am jealous :) I'm kidding...life could be worse, I could be fighting a war right now or working a 12 hour shift at a factory. Instead I get to feel the summer breeze from the nearby open window with my slippers on and enjoy the comforts of my own home with my dog at my feet and my husband just a few steps away.

(I put the curtain behind the cabinet so it wouldn't blow so much in the breeze)

Lucas Pictures

2008-06-17T22:15:00.003-05:00

Here are pictures of our new nephew whom we have yet to meet:

This is my favorite!

Welcome Lucas James!

2008-06-12T19:38:00.003-05:00

I don't have pictures yet but our new nephew was just born!! Welcome Lucas James Elder to this world. I'm so excited to meet all 9 lbs of him. Mom and baby are healthy...praise God.

Devil's Lake State Park

2008-06-08T21:52:00.008-05:00

We had a very interesting time with our good friends Shannon and Jeremy on this camping trip in Wisconsin. First of all, Devil's Lake is a beautiful park with lots of hiking trails and a wide variety of camping spots. Before the weekend started we were a little leery of the weather. There had been horrible storms the night before and Wisconsin even had a tornado watch on Friday. But I wanted to go anyway because if we don't the whole weekend would be perfect of course and we would kick ourselves for not going.

So we went. The good thing about the weather being bad was that there were tons of cancellations, so we were able to reserve a way better campsite. So we camped the first night, enjoyed our hobos (S+J are no longer hobo virgins...and I just realized that S+J are our initials also...I wasn't talking about us) "enjoyed" some wine and some good conversation. The night was perfect!!

Then the next morning was also really nice outside. We woke up, ate our yummy oatmeal and decided to go canoeing. Now I had opened the windows to our tent because I wanted it to vent out and I was thinking we'd be back after canoeing to change into different gear to go hiking. I think you know where this story is going. Anyway, we walked to the main area (about a mile away) to go canoeing only to find out that the water was too choppy and they wouldn't let us go. So we decided to hike instead. Gorgeous hike! It was such a nice day and it wasn't too sunny so it didn't get too hot. We ate lunch in the hills and really enjoyed our time.

Well a few hours later we came down from our hike and overheard the ranger telling everyone there was a tornado watch for the next 15 minutes. so we decided to wait it out until it was over. Well that watch turned into another watch and became longer and longer. Pretty soon the sky was looking very ominous and we were starting to get worried. Our campsite was about 1.5-2 miles away and of course we had no way to get there but by foot!! So what do we decide to do? Walk on the railroad tracks right by the water and head right towards the storm of course. Shannon and I were a little skeptical about the whole thing but Jeremy and Scott assured us that if the tornado came our way we would just take cover in the nearby ditch right underneath gigantic falling rocks and power lines. Ok, the rocks weren't falling but they sure looked they were about to. Then the rain. It POURED!! And I mean poured. We were walking towards this green sky with the wind blowing like crazy and the rain falling hard. And what did we do? First we walked a little faster. Then we ran. Then we took cover under some trees for a minute. Then...we walked slowly in the rain and savored the moment. "There's something sexy about the rain" is what comes to mind...a song by Kenny Chesney. There's just something about it that's so romantic and unguarded. We of course were dreading going back to see the damage of our newer tent but we had a good mile to walk so we did nothing but laugh and literally jump in the puddles like kids.

Yes our tent and almost everything in it was pretty much drenched so we decided to hunker down in their tent and play some Settlers and eat brats until we were ready to pack up. We were planning on staying another night but we didn't have dry anything so that would not have been fun. It was sad to go early but the storms kept coming that night and hard...so I'm thinking it was better we left early. See, it's a good thing I didn't close the windows :)

Views from hike

Don't look down!

Devil's Door

Heron's nesting...didn't know herons nested in tall trees...fascinating

Poor Jeremy had to carry all our stuff

Me and Scott

Shannon and Jeremy

Man vs Storm

Bad storms always bring beauty later, this was a gorgeous rainbow we saw so had to pull over and take pics. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Memorial Day 2008

2008-06-03T11:26:00.001-05:00

For Memorial Day we went to Illinois. Friday night was Elizabeth's (Scott's cousin) graduation. Saturday was a baby shower/grill out and then a birthday party. We had dinner at Monicals on Saturday night. Then on Sunday we spent the day with Spence and we had dinner with the immediate family that night...steak and potatoes :) Then it was time for cards. I love playing games. It was a good time, relaxing as usual but yet filled with little events here and there. It's just really nice to get away sometimes. I always feel like I need a nap when I'm there it's weird.

We got back on Monday and spent the evening with my family...it was a perfect day out weather-wise so we had fun outside. Scott got lots of great pics:

http://209.23.153.221/webgallery/memday2008/index.html

Recipe: Bruschetta Chicken Bake

2008-05-30T15:02:00.005-05:00

I've made this recipe several times and just made it again recently. I was reminded of how quick and tasty it is...not to mention pretty healthy too. For those of you that have never made this, do it soon!

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Place tomatoes in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix, water and garlic; stir just until stuffing mix is moistened. Set aside.
PLACE chicken in 13x9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with the basil and cheese. Top with stuffing mixture.
BAKE 30 min. or until chicken is cooked through.

Makes 6 servings
Calories 310 - Fat 7g - Fiber 2g

Recipe provided by Kraft Foods

Happy Birthday Dad!

2008-05-29T22:21:00.004-05:00

Happy birthday to my boss and Dad. He had a busy day today and I hope it was a great one.

Love you Dad!

Happy birthday to my Uncle Keith and cousin Kevin too :)

Matt's Graduation

2008-05-19T22:21:00.002-05:00

Well my brother did it! He graduated from college. Where did the time go? How did this happen so fast? We spent the weekend in Madison and I thought it was such a great time. We got to tour Matt's house again and boy was it messy. Sorry if I'm embarrassing you, Matt, but I must share the pictures. Guys (or most of them at least) just live like this and they don't care. I admit I am not near the cleanest person in the world but these conditions are just a little over the top for me. It's normal...it'll make them appreciate their wives even more later. I must say, though that it was my brother who came up with a cleaning system for the house...great job on that!

After touring his house we walked around campus. We really got a feel for what he goes through on a daily basis there, where he walks, where he likes to eat or study, where he works. It was great...a lot of walking! He was interning at the Capital so we stopped there too...couldn't get in though. Then we stopped by the student lounge (shoot, don't remember the name of it) and sat by the water with some nice cold beer. I felt like it was just a really good time with our whole family...I love it when we're all together...just feels right and we balance each other out.

Later that night we went out to eat at Samba Brazilian Grill. Very interesting. They had this amazing salad bar with all Brazilian food. Then there were about 8 gauchos (Brazilian cowboys) walking around with a huge skewer of meat. Each gaucho had a different kind of meat. This particular night there was duck, 2 kinds of lamb, 3 kinds of beef, sausage and parmesan-crusted pork. Most were pretty rare so I didn't like them but when you got a good well-done piece it was spectacular. They'd come to your table asking if you want that particular meat. If you did they'd cut you off a piece. It was expensive but such a unique experience. After that we went back to the hotel for the night.

In the morning we enjoyed breakfast at Denny's. Then we headed to the graduation a couple hours later. The graduation was super long and of course my brother was practically the last person no joke. So the entire time we're looking for him and finally spot him at the end. Then it was off to take pictures and then home. It was a great relaxing weekend with the family and I'm so proud of my little brother! I took lots of pictures of the campus for him too.

Here are some pictures Scott took. I really respect and admire his passion for photography, he got some really nice shots as always :)

Something you commonly see in Madison

And here are the pictures I took:

Matt at his house (and the paparazzi)

The kitchen

Matt decked out his hallway

Love this shot

Scott, you might be shot if someone from Illinois sees this

State Street

Proud parents

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

2008-05-11T19:49:00.003-05:00

Here's what you are getting from me and Laura this year, enjoy the video and turn your volume up :)

Book Review: The Digital Photography Book, by Scott Kelby

2008-05-07T22:36:00.003-05:00

Ever look at a picture and love it but don't know exactly why it looks good? Well this book teaches you how to take those pictures.

Ok I admit that I'm actually not completely done with this book. It's hard to continue reading it all at once. This book is wonderful for ANYONE interested in photography even if you just own a point and shoot. It has great how-to tips on what angles you should be looking for, how to light...just learn how to make a picture look good and know why it looks good.

In fact, it's the number one selling digital photography book out there. Scott Kelby does a great job at getting the point across quickly and doesn't bore you with tons of details. It's a must-own book for sure.

The Foods I Eat

2008-05-07T22:30:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine has recently joined Weight Watchers and she has asked me to help her by giving her some food suggestions. I've done this before and I also want a list for myself (sometimes I forget what I eat) so I decided to post it here so I will have it forever and now it will benefit others too. Feel free to comment on the foods you eat that are healthy also. Of course fruits and vegetables are an obvious great choice for foods but I may not be listing those since they are indeed obvious. I will list foods that I pretty much always have in my house since I've been on WW and that I occassionally purchase too.

Dairy
Skim Milk
Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
2% Cheese
Fat Free Cheese
Low fat Sour Cream
FF or LF Cottage Cheese
Country Crock w/ calcium
Egg Beaters - original and southwestern
Yogurt (I try to stick with the natural stuff here)
Laughing Cow Cheese (light original)

Meat
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Pork Loin
Lean Ground Beef
Tuna
Canadian Bacon

Snacks
Lowfat Chips (I like some of the natural kinds in the health food section)
TLC Crackers
FF Pringles
100 Calorie mini popcorn bags
WW cookies or bars
Hershey sticks
Cut up veggies

Canned
Soup (I like Italian Style Wedding)
Beans (kidney, pinto and black)
Fruit (pineapple, pears and peaches)
New Potatoes
Tomato Sauce/Diced Tomatoes
Corn

Frozen
WW desserts/bars
Frozen Vegetables
Frozen Fruit
FF Cool Whip
Edy's Slow Churned Ice Cream

Bread/Grains
Whole Wheat bread
WW english muffins
Wheat Pita Bread
Brown Rice (instant)
WW pasta
Bulgar
Barley
Polenta
Cereal
Oatmeal

Other
PB2
RF Peanut Butter
SF Jelly/Jam
Mini Choc Chips
Ranch dressing packets
Pickles
Hot Tea
SF/FF Pudding
Fruit Leather
Vita-muffins

Alot of times for dinner I'll make a pita pizza or english muffin pizza with just tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. It's pretty low in points.

I think that's it, I'll continue adding to this if I think of more. Here's a recipe for Taco Soup that I've made several times and love:

Taco Soup

1 lb lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, no salt added
1 can Rotel
1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch seasoning

Brown beef with onion. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker, cook at least until heated through. 1 cup = 3 pts. Top with LF sour cream and/or cheese.

Do the Du, I Did

2008-04-28T11:50:00.012-05:00

I'm officially a Duathlete! Yesterday my friend, Suzanne, and I raced in the 1st Annual Oronoco Duathlon. What does the Duathlon consist of you ask? We did the short course and this is what it was:

2 mile run
13 mile bike
2 mile run

I had never run 4 miles in my life! And man, the biking was a lot harder than I expected plus I need some serious help in that area. I did pretty well on the runs but biker after biker kept passing me. I passed one biker...she was walking :) And after the second transition (from bike to run), that was difficult for a a few minutes. My legs were numb! But once you find your pace and are comfortable it gets easier. I'm feeling it today. So I didn't rank the best but I finished and I didn't walk at all!! I'm proud of that. Plus it's my first Duathlon ever and I'm apparently not a biker...yet :) Looking forward to the Tri in July. Here are my stats:

Jennifer Elder
bib number: 4624
age: 27
gender: F
location: Stewartville, MN
overall place: 85 out of 92
division place: 5 out of 6
gender place: 40 out of 48
time: 2:01:03
run 1: 21:59
transition 1: 1:12
bike: 1:11:33 (yikes!)
transition 2: 0:52
run 2: 25:29

Summary
number of finishers: 92
number of females: 45
number of males: 47
average time: 01:39:44

Here are some pics, thanks for the awesome pics, honey!

Suzanne stretching

Before the race

Me and Suzanne

Me and Erin (a friend I met at the race)

Go!

1st Run

Eric and Leah showed up for support

More family support

Suzanne's mom and Mikayla

Random biker, cool shot

Start biking!

Bike graveyard

My legs hurt!

Ouch, I have to run AGAIN?

Almost there!

Victory!

Go Erin!

Finished at last!

To view more pictures you can go here: http://209.23.153.221/webgallery/duathlon/index.html

Now it's back to training...

Galena, IL

2008-04-25T23:58:00.006-05:00

A couple weekends ago we went to Galena, IL for a mini family vacation with the Elder side of the family. This was a Christmas present to us "kids" and we finally redeemed it. I've been to Galena before with Sue and her sisters and I fell in love with the town. It's so cute with tons of little unique shops and resturants plus lots of activities going on year round. We stayed in a 3 bedroom villa. It's perfect because each bedroom is on a different level with it's own bathroom. Then on the main floor there's a living room with fireplace and a decent-sized full kitchen. So you get your privacy but also have a place to hang out too. The first night we enjoyed chili and a casual night of hanging out. The next two mornings I took advantage of the adult lap swim and fitness room to do a mini-triathlon to help train me for the triathlon coming up in July. Great workouts! Saturday we went shopping and Spence stuffed a turtle...a fake turtle that is. We then got ready to go out to eat and ate at an amazing Italian resturant where we were seated in our own little room...it was called the Dungeon. Scott loved the sauce so much he bought a bottle of it. Then we went down to the Rocky Road Candy Co and got some treats...caramel popcorn and chocolate covered rice crispy bars. Wow...rich! A bite or two was all I needed. Then we went back to the villa to play some Phase 10. It was a really great time together. The next morning Scott took a few more pictures but I wasn't feeling well (dang rice crispy bars) so we didn't spend a lot of time doing that (see, I slow him down).

The whole family in the Dungeon

Acoustic music at the resort grill/bar

An imported raspberry beer I tried (not normally into beer, it was ok though)

Our Villa (on the left)

Mom and son

Dad and son

Scott's artsy shot

I made him sit on a very old bench

I think he was singing when I took this

That's better

Downtown Galena

It's turtle-stuffing time!

Final Four 2008

2008-04-25T23:10:00.017-05:00

I officially deserve the bad-blogger award. But hey, it's been busy and when I post, I POST! I don't want to leave my fellow readers with something that's not the absolute best I can do. So if it takes me a little longer, so be it.

A few weekends ago, Scott went to Illinois to watch the Final Four with his Uncle. They're making this a tradition, to watch it together every year. Next year they'll be coming up to Minnesota to enjoy the madness. Ahhh yes, it truly is madness! It's a great way for the guys to bond though so I have no problem with it.

I did not go to Illinois with Scott this time for a few reasons. One is because I wanted him to enjoy this time by himself with his family. I very much love his family and love going to Illinois but it's good for us to do our own thing once in a while especially since we are around each other so much. Also, I don't get very many opportunities to get together with some friends from college so I figured this would be a good time to do that. My friend, Stef came to visit me. We had a great time. We went to the comedy club here in town, Goonies and out to eat at Bilotti's. Then we went on a long walk Saturday and went shopping at the famous Gap :) She doesn't have one where she lives so she was looking forward to going there. Anyway, it was great to get together with her.

I must say that my time alone in the house was different. Maybe I'm a scaredy cat or something but I am not used to being alone. The first night was a little freaky, I didn't get much sleep. Gus kept getting up too which is what woke me up. My mom brought up a good point, I've never really lived alone! I went right from high school to college to living at home with my parents for the summer to married. After the first night alone I got a little more used to it and it wasn't as bad. I feel like such a wimp but I guess any major change is going to take some time to get used to. Laura came down with the kids and that was fun as always. Love my niece and nephew!

Scott had a great time. He enjoyed the time with his family and especially enjoyed taking his time with photography. Normally when I'm around I tend to not be as patient as he is so I'm more in a rush. He got to take his time and really appreciate what he was doing. Gives me a lesson to slow down a little! He took so many pictures and I've posted a lot of them here. He went around the town and took pictures of memorable places from his childhood, so to some of you they may not seem like pictures you'd care about but they mean something to him.

Downtown Barber Shop

Parkview Church - the church he grew up in

Random cement block

Main Street, Tuscola

Scott's dad's Peterbilt

A legendary bakery in Tuscola, ask any of them!

Baby deer Scott photographed on his way home

Monical's Pizza, a must-stop place every time we go to Illinois

Highway 36

Flat = Illinois

Scott grew up near this railroad track, lots of memories

Spence at church

Spence with Grandpa

Spence with Grandma

Spence with Buddy

These windmills creep me out sometimes...don't ask

Just Chillin'

2008-04-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

This was shot yesterday when I was out filming a virtual tour.

Recipe: All-American Snack (slow cooker)

2008-04-16T23:53:00.003-05:00

I realize it's been a few weeks since I've posted. I have lots to update on with lots of pictures to post so stay tuned. I hope to get it up before the weekend. Here's a recipe in the meantime. This one's for you, Suzanne!

3 cups thin pretzel sticks
4 cups Wheat Chex
4 cups Cheerios
12-oz. can salted peanuts
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

1. Combine pretzels, cereal, and peanuts in large bowl.
2. Melt butter. Stir in seasonings and cheese. Pour over pretzels and cereal. Toss until well mixed.
3. Pour into large slow cooker. Cover. Cook on Low 2 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Remove lid and cook another 30 minutes on Low.
4. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in tightly covered container.

Book Review: In Defense of Food

2008-04-03T09:57:00.007-05:00

I actually read and finished this book a month or two ago but it was so fast I didn't even get a chance to put it in my "Currently Reading" section of my blog. I really liked this book and reviewed it on Amazon so figured I'd just copy and paste it onto my blog.

Is what you're eating actually food? Think about the long list of ingredients you now see in some of your favorite snack foods. We are getting further and further away from eating healthy even though most companies are stamping their products with health claims. Getting Vitamin E that has been infused into Whole Grain White Bread is not the same as getting Vitamin E from its natural source (almonds, olive oil and avocado for example). This book teaches you how to shop and avoid "food" items that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize. This book also encourages you to find a way to start eating locally and introduced the term CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to me. You can go to http://www.localharvest.com/ to find CSA's near you.

There's a documentary I really liked that explains more about CSA's too called The Real Dirt on Farmer John. Click here for my review.

Makes you start to wonder if the reason people get life-threatening illnesses and are overweight are not only because of the bad foods they eat but the good foods they're not eating. I'm of course not saying this is the cause of all diseases, not even close. But I do think that we don't take advantage of what was naturally given to us to help fight off diseases.
As many of you know, I'm a Weight Watchers leader and although Weight Watchers definitely promotes these healthy guidelines I'm starting to see many people eating "substitution foods" instead of real food to lose weight (they'll eat fiber-enhanced bread or Splenda-sweetened anything before choosing fruits or vegetables). I'm guilty of this too but now am intrigued by this new (yet old-fashioned) idea of eating and purchasing real food God gave us. It may cost more but I'm thinking it's worth it in the long run.

Although it's almost impossible to avoid everything that's not 100% natural, I've definitely been making several changes. I've switched from "light" breads and english muffins to 100% whole wheat (watch out for the 100% whole wheat breads out there...several aren't), I'm starting to eat more fruits and vegetables and have decided to have whole wheat pasta and brown rice almost all of the time now. Plus I'm starting to buy more bulk food from the local Good Food Store (like wheat flour and steel cut oats).

I know this may make me sound like a hippy but I don't care...change is good, this book gets an A!

More on our home...

2008-03-29T14:54:00.012-05:00

Well we're taking baby steps with this house selling business. First we put the sign in the window (tough work). Then last weekend while Scott and two of his friends were busy watching March Madness I cleaned the house and took pictures plus did the virtual tour of our house. I probably could've slaved longer and cleaned up bookshelves a little more or purchased more plants...but the type of home we're selling is different and the potential buyer we're selling to is a little less picky about those sort of things. So I figured as long as it's decluttered and the pictures are bright then we're good to go. We've received a couple calls just from the sign being in the window. We're putting the flyers out today and we launched the virtual tour on a new website:

http://www.stewartvillehomeforsale.com/

After we have the flyers out for a bit our next plan of action is to send postcards with pictures and information on the house to the local community. After that we'll post flyers around town and Rochester and maybe put a couple ads in the paper and hold an open house. The good news? We're not in a rush so it's pretty smooth sailing so far. Here are the flyers I made up for the house (click images to see larger)

We've really enjoyed living in this house. Of course it's not perfect but it suits us very well. Who wouldn't want a master suite? The community is great, very quiet and some of the most helpful neighbors I've ever met! It'll be sad to leave but for the future it's the best. We would like a yard for kids to play in and a more active community with other families.

Earth Hour 8-9pm

2008-03-29T14:48:00.011-05:00

If you haven't been to Google yet today, go! What a neat way to raise awareness for something. Google should do this more often with various charities. It worked for us! We'll be turning the lights out from 8-9pm tonight. Read more about Earth Hour by clicking here.

Practice, practice, practice!

2008-03-28T14:50:00.009-05:00

Just learning more about the camera settings and practicing some shots on my two coworkers.

Happy Birthday Matt!

2008-03-25T22:48:00.007-05:00

Ahhh yes, one of my trusted blog-readers and my BROTHER! My little bro turned 23 today :) Matt is currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He's graduating in just a few short months I can't even believe it. Then he hopes to go to law school. He's so dang smart! Anyway, I miss him and wish he lived closer. We have some really great talks sometimes and I'm glad we can just be honest with each other. That's what I love about him the most...his honesty. He can be a little analytical at times but he's a McCasland, what do you expect? Anyway, Happy Birthday little brother...love you and miss you. Hope you enjoy your gift!

Birthday Meal

2008-03-18T12:28:00.009-05:00

Every year Scott takes the time to make me dinner for my birthday. He cooks a lot of the time anyway but this dinner is special. He picks all recipes that I have saved in my Allrecipes.com recipe box and cooks up 6 different things (so it's actually 4 courses, not 6). He spends a lot of time planning and cooking and it's SOOO good! Here's the menu:

Mini Reubens

Spinach Cranberry Salad

Jerk Chicken Pasta (served with garlic broccoli and cheese bread)

Jamaican Cake

Last year's menu was:

Stuffed Mushrooms

Greek Salad (homemade dressing)

Garlic Cheese Bread

Angel Chicken Pasta

Dump Cake (this picture doesn't do it justice)

Happy Birthday Ryan!

2008-03-16T18:33:00.015-05:00

Our nephew, Ryan, was born the day before my birthday :) So needless to say we've been celebrating our "green" birthdays together. Well you know how that goes...he's 4 and I'm 27 so we're celebrating his birthday and I get a few presents. It's fun though because normally at this age you don't get a celebration at all.

I wonder if in the future they'll play off of St. Patty's day and make it a day to go "green"... you know, environmentally. I guess I haven't even checked...some places may have already done this as a way of advertising green products.

For Ryan's birthday we went to "Pump it Up" in the cities where they rented out the entire place. It's basically a large room with about 4 different HUGE blow-up things you can jump in. Adults can go too :) It was so much fun and I didn't get shocked once!! It's a great workout too. Then after all the kids jump and jump and jump, we all go into the party room to eat cake and Ryan opens his presents....chaos! It was a lot of fun. Then my family all went over to Maple Grove to a new hotel and stayed the night there....let the party continue :) Darren and Laura treated us to our hotel room and it was really nice and new. They had a whirlpool outside! We had 4 different rooms and Abby loved going in and out of all the different rooms. Ryan opened some more presents and I opened some too. His favorite present by far? Little hockey guys with a little rink...he literally played with them by himself for HOURS!

It's so funny what we get excited for as adults. I loved my gifts. I got a heart rate monitor (to help with my training for the tri), little tupperware containers for lunches (with built-in coolers) and a personal blender. Oh and of course green shamrock socks.

Another bonus to the night was I FINALLY got to go to Trader Joe's!!! This is a grocery store that offers lots of natural and good-for-you foods at prices that aren't outrageous (a dream come true for me). I've heard so much about this place through Weight Watchers and there isn't one near here. So when I found out there was a Trader Joe's right across the street from our hotel I nearly wet myself! Darren, my mom, Scott and I walked over to check it out. It was everything I imagined it to be and more. Loved it! And Scott did too. Now if only we could get one in Rochester!

Scott is now preparing a 6 course homemade meal for my birthday and I'm supposed to know nothing about it. He started this tradition last year and I have to say the food was amazing. I'm getting hungry smelling it.

Btw, I'm not going to do this birthday thing anymore once I come around to my year anniversary of blogging...it's just too much work and it's hard to decide who to do and who not to do. Unless we do something like we did for Ryan's this year, I won't be writing about them after June so don't be offended if you don't see it :)

Here are some pictures (taken with my crappy camera...we took more with the better camera just haven't edited them yet). Also some videos:

The birthday boy with his hockey guys

Abby with her new umbrella (Grandma always knows the best gifts to give)

Abby on the slide

Random footage (we mainly wanted to get Abby saying "yeyah")

Happy "Green" Day!

Big News!

2008-03-08T22:33:00.008-06:00

No I'm not pregnant.

We've "officially" put our house on the market!!!! For those of you that don't know... it's a manufactured home so it's not like your normal house. Therefore we're deciding to sell it FSBO. Selling our house is more like selling a boat...there's a lot less paper work and legal stuff with homes like this. So although we're not completely "ready" to move quite yet we figured it didn't hurt to put a sign in the window. We'll slowly take some pics and get some flyers out there and of course do several virtual and video tours. We plan on probably doing a postcard mailing in the area too. It's a buyer's market which makes us a little nervous BUT we're in a good situation. See, we purchased our home in Illinois and moved it here. Homes in Illinois are A LOT less. So even if we price it lower than the appraised value here, we'll still be quite a bit ahead. Also, we are surrounded by new homes so that should definitely help. Anyway, it's exciting. We're still debating whether we want to live in a small town outside of Rochester or in Rochester. Hence the location question. Which by the way, Brian does bring up a good point...what defines a good location. This is true, it's different for everyone. For me, a good location would of course be in a decent neighborhood (I assumed when I created the poll that of course people would choose a decent neighborhood no matter what) but I would also like to be within walking distance of either a small downtown area or the grocery store and parks or walking trails. In other words I don't want to be in the middle of nowhere where I'd have to drive somewhere all the time. There are of course benefits to that too but personally I think I want to be closer to town. Still struggling with whether or not we want it to be Rochester.

Put a new poll up, by the way...10 to 1 most people would rather have a great location. That 1 person who doesn't is my husband of course :) That doesn't make things much easier now does it?

Happy Birthday Leah!

2008-03-08T22:21:00.006-06:00

It's Leah's birthday today! Leah and Eric went to the cities to see ComedySportz (if you've never been GO, it's SUPER funny and fun...plus family-friendly). So in the mean time Scott and I developed a plan for her birthday. She has no idea about this and probably won't until at least tomorrow. I'm going out on a limb and assuming she doesn't check this before she gets home. Anyway, so for Eric's birthday I think last year we got him a GC and went in their apartment building (shhh, we know the code) and put the GC under their door. They said they found it later under the fridge or something. Anyway, so for Leah's birthday this year we decided to go a little more extreme. So we bought a pack of 80 envelopes and spent about 2 hours at Sky Dragon writing different things in each envelope. Some serious, some funny, some very random and some quotes from movies. And then a few had actual gifts in them. Then we went on a little excursion back to their apartment and slid every envelope under their door. Shouldn't have given us the code, Schillers! Anyway, it was much harder this time because they had since gotten a new door so we had more of a challenge. Then we left a lone Peep sitting on the doorknob. No birthday is complete for Leah without candy.

Happy Birthday, hope you enjoy your gift!!

New Poll

2008-02-25T16:49:00.005-06:00

Looks like most of you would like to have an invisible best friend over encounters with aliens.

My next poll is one Scott and I have been talking about lately. We're probably going to start to try to sell our home starting in April and we're wondering which would be better; to have a great home in an ok location or vice versa? Obviously to have both would be ideal but I doubt we can afford that so we'll probably have to sacrifice somewhere. At least we want to be prepared for whatever decision we have to make. So please vote, I'm eager to see what people think.

PB2

2008-02-20T14:33:00.015-06:00

It pays to be assertive!! That's a Weight Watchers "Tool for Living" (being assertive). PB2 is powdered peanut butter. It's made of peanuts, sugar and salt. You can mix it with water to get spreadable peanut butter but it's best to be used in recipes (smoothies, cookies etc). It's WAY lower in calories than regular PB and tastes pretty good too. I'm loving this stuff.

Here's the "being assertive" part. PB2 is NOT easy to find. In fact (as far as I know), they don't carry it in any stores in Rochester, you can only get it online and you have to buy a case!! So if you don't have someone to share this stuff with you'd better find a place to store your new powdery goodness. I contacted HyVee (our local grocery store chain) and within weeks the South HyVee ordered it and it's on the shelves!! They even said they'd probably sample it in the spring! When I went to get it there was a sign and everything displaying the new product (in the health food section).

I have to say there's a certain satisfaction to knowing I had a hand in this. It certainly makes me appreciate the store even more. So it pays to be assertive...definitely never hurts to ask :)

For more information and recipes using PB2, go to http://www.bellplantation.com/

Happy Birthday Jay!

2008-02-17T22:45:00.010-06:00

Happy Birthday to Jay, Scott's brother. Jay is exactly 1 month older than me...weird huh? He turned 27...there I announced it to the whole world. Or at least the 7 or so people that read this blog on a regular basis. Jay lives in central Illinois and owns his own roofing/siding company. He and his girlfriend Jennifer are mom and dad to our nephew Spence :) Hope you have a great day Jay...wish we could be there to celebrate with you.

Hopefully see you in a week!

Sneezing Panda

2008-02-15T11:31:00.005-06:00

For those who haven't seen this video clip it's very short and hilarious. Watch it!

Happy Birthday Kristin!

2008-02-11T23:09:00.004-06:00

Kristin is our first niece in the family and she turned 19 today :) She's going to college in St. Cloud, MN. We've really enjoyed getting to know Kristin over the last few years. My best memories with her include the trip to Chicago we took together with my sister and the nights she and Daniel spent at our house, usually around the holidays, where we would stay up late and eat lots of junk food. Kristin is one of the sweetest people you will meet and she's very easy to talk to. She's an aspiring beautician...she even cut my hair one Christmas in my kitchen and did a fabulous job.

Happy Birthday, Kristin, we love you!!!

Book Review: Into the Wild

2008-02-07T09:50:00.002-06:00

So I recently finished Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This book was recommended to me by my sister. She loved the book and suggested that we read it, discuss it, then watch the movie together. I loved the idea!

The book is a true story about a single guy in his early 20's who decides to take on the wild in Alaska as a personal quest for inner strength and life. His goal is to rely on very little to survive and he wants to be as far away from human civilization as possible. He comes from a pretty normal family but he's incredibly stubborn and set in his ways. He also gets hung up on little things that seem to self-destruct him inside because he doesn't talk about them but just lets them stir and build within him. Some say he's completely crazy and depressed and has a death wish, some say his heart was in the right place, he just should've been more prepared (which in turn I guess makes him a little crazy anyway). I don't think he was completely crazy or had a death wish. I understand this thinking I think we all have it at some point in our life. We just want to get away, get back to a more simple way of living, provide for ourselves...etc. Think about the self-confidence you'd get through an experience like this. I mean every meal you'd feel proud of yourself. We definitely don't get that sense of pride by throwing a Lean Cuisine in the microwave. But I also know that we CAN try to live more simply while not being extreme about it like he was. So if anything, this book should motivate you to want to go on a personal quest and get out of your comfort zone a little while getting closer to nature. There's nothing wrong with this. In fact my sister now really wants to go to the Boundary Waters (northern MN) because of this book. Having been there a couple times, this is a great place to meet those needs.

Although I liked the book, I don't love how it was written. To me it was kind of all over the place and there was a lot of repeating and random people Chris met that I couldn't keep track of. I think it would've been better if maybe each chapter was about a different person in his life and if it went more chronological. All of a sudden in the middle of a book was a completely different story about the author. Although it was interesting it gave him credibility towards the story a little too late for me. I understand it's a hard book to write.

Here's a clip of the trailer for the movie Into the Wild:

Now I'm on to a completely different book...Conversations with the Fat Girl. This is more of a comical, realistic book for me. I relate to her thoughts and it's a fun read...not for everyone I know :)

No Roads or No Grass?

2008-02-07T09:43:00.002-06:00

It was unanimous, turns out everyone would prefer a world with no roads.

New blog added to my list, check it out: Keeping up with the Jones

Blizzard!

2008-01-29T20:23:00.002-06:00

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

2008-01-29T12:59:00.003-06:00

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...

2008-01-25T14:26:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-01-20T23:29:00.004-06:00

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)

2008-01-20T22:44:00.003-06:00

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

2008-01-15T10:35:00.003-06:00

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

2008-01-08T12:59:00.004-06:00

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!

Jamaica Pictures

2008-01-01T21:15:00.004-06:00

Finally, here's the link to our Jamaica pics...turn your volume up!

Click Here for Slideshow.

Happy New Year!