Anniversary, Part II June 6, 2008

So, a week later, I’ll finally finish posting what Husband and I did for the rest of our 5th anniversary celebration.

Saturday, we went to the Guthrie Theatre following our time at the Sculpture Garden. They allow you to give yourself a little tour around the building, or you can get a guided tour for a price. Since we’re all about The Free, we did the self-tour. It really has some amazing spaces. I take it back. Unbelievable spaces.

Here are a couple of my favorite images:

And this one highlights their very reflective window sills on the 4th floor. Only the part in the middle is an actual view to the outdoors.

We ate dinner at a fabulous little place called True Thai (We had “B” on the appetizers, the Purple Yam, and #57, the wok-fried bean-thread vermicelli.  Overall, we gave the restaurant 4 out of 5 stars for incredible service, friendly staff, and very tasty food.), and then went to a Saints game with my father-in-law and brother-in-law.  Anja’s first outdoor game!

My Posse Does it Right May 25, 2008

Here are some photos from our “anniversary spectaculare” (the extra ‘e’ there makes it Fronch). We had fun a the sculpture gardens yesterday, as did 500 million other people. We ran into at least three wedding parties, possibly four.

Starving artists’ ode to mini golf:

Someone else having a much more zen date than us:

The image used in virtually EVERY Minnesota brochure, The Cherry on the Spoon:

We also went to some more places, which I may or may not post about tomorrow.  It’s Memorial Day, so I should be relaxing and eating picnicky food and waving flags and stuff, right?

May 18, 2008

No one told me
It would be so hard
To write daily
Once the sun came out to play

Spring has finally come to Minnesota. This past week buds turned into droopy, still-getting-their-life new leaves (I love them this way…while they’re tender and have yet to be chewed on or slimed by bugs…they remind me of newborns). Grass went from wintery prickly deadishness to live, vibrant green.

And I am LOVING taking photos. I need to get out and shoot some of the flowering trees before the buds fall off. And I need to steal some lilacs from someone’s yard before they’re finished blooming. I know that’s awful, but they’re my favorite flower, and people can share, right?

So tell me…do your blogs suffer during the summer? My Google Reader’s contents have been fairly sparse as of late, which leads me to believe it is so. And if it is so, does that mean people understand and it’s more acceptable to post less for a season(while not losing all your readership)?

My Brother, the Naive May 14, 2008

Not to be confused with knave.

Beck wrote a lovely post about her daughters today that reminded me of some more stories of my manipulative tendencies toward my younger brother.

I really did have the perfect brother for manipulating.  He was tender-hearted, gullible and naive.  He thought I hung the moon until he was about 4.  Then there was me: nerves of steel (or at least gold, in which one can leave a mark with one’s teeth), heart of stone and mind chock full of skepticism.  I needed to take advantage of his innocence like a redneck needs an old dryer in their front yard.

We, like Beck’s children, had a “special tree” in our neighbor’s backyard.  It was a pine, not an old, gnarly, notched deciduous.  Norbert kept the branches trimmed up about 3 feet, but they were so long that they hung down to the ground, creating a tee-pee-like space underneath.  We would play on the soft brown needles underneath.  Our favorite game was “fairies.”  I would tell Brother stories about how the fairies arrived (by rocket, of course) and explain to him why he never saw them (even though he would often claim that he did, the pour soul).

I would run out to the tree, Brother trailing behind but running as fast as his chubby little legs would carry him, and say, “Oh, Brother, you just missed them!  There went their rocket!”  Sweet little boy would look up in the sky, shading his eyes, his lower lip trembling, hoping to catch a glimpse.  But it was hopeless.  Only I ever got to see the fairies.  As he got older and tired of my lies, he would attempt to manipulate me back (that or he was hallucinating).  He would run to the tree and say, “Oh, Heidi, you just missed them.  Too bad.”  And I would say, “Brother, you didn’t really see them.”  “Uh HUH,” he would whine.  “Yes I DID!”  And I would walk off smugly, knowing better, and he would feel ashamed.  I was loving like that.

Story #2

I was not the only one who liked to take advantage of Brother’s gullibility.  When visiting my aunt here in the Twin Cities, it often RAINED PENNIES.  I kid you not.  Miraculously enough, it only did this over her driveway.  It never rained pennies in my hometown.  We (my mom, aunt and myself) would stand in the driveway of her townhome complex and throw pennies in the air.  As they would land, Brother would shriek, “Another one, Mommy!  Look!”  And as he would stoop to pick it up, we would toss another penny some distance away.  As he got older and more suspicious, we would wait until planes were overhead and tell him that the planes were dropping them.  I remember this scheme working until he was probably 6 or 7 years old.  Sorry little chap, wasn’t he?  I only feel slightly better about all my manipulations knowing that my mom and aunt, adults, took their own delight in fooling him.

So there you have it.  More stories of me being a terrible older sister.  Let’s hope, for Anja’s sake, that I have gotten over my need to have fun in such a fashion. 

Come back tomorrow–I may post a photo or two of me and my tow-headed brother.  And tomorrow’s a special day.

Baby Can’t Read Yet May 7, 2008

Yeah, I know that’s shocking. At 8 months, she still can’t read.

Anyway, I asked you all for book advice back in February, and you happily gave it. While I wanted to buy ALL the books you suggested, we don’t have that kind of a budget, so we narrowed it down to a few.

Husband LOVES Jan Brett (as do I), so we bought The Mitten. Two I remembered from my childhood were Harry the Dog and Blueberries for Sal. Since none of these were really appropriate for where she is right now, I grabbed the Baby Colors book by DK. Even with those literary classics in the mix, the BABY chose the baby book. She loves the colors and will sit patiently while I read every object on the page. As a result, we went back and bought a couple more DK books the other day–an alphabet one and a body parts one. We also picked up a copy of Rosen’s/Oxbury’s We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, which she also enjoys a great deal. Over time, we’ll be able to build our library even more (even though we have many bookshelves that area already full of grown-up books). We hope Anja will love to read as much as her parents do!

Did I Tell You About My Weekend? April 29, 2008

It included a DATE!

Two, in fact.  With my husband, of course.  My in-laws came and watched Anja on Friday night and part of Saturday so that Husband and I could get out and remember what it is like to hold hands (when one pair isn’t always pushing a stroller).  It was fantastic!

We went to America’s largest indoor water park on Friday night, where I laid waste to this thing that shoots water up (it’s supposed to resemble surfing).  All the little 10-year-olds in front of me made it look hard, but if you’ve ever been tubing (pulled behind a speedboat on an innertube across a lake), this was a cakewalk.  A cakewalk on water.

Saturday we had a nice brunch with the relatives, and then I took Husband on a date of surprises.  First surprise - a stop at the Mall of America where robots (which people built) were fighting.  We only got to see two fights before one robot exploded into flames and they had to take a break to clean up.  Sad.

Then I took him to three places for lunch.  Yes, three.  Place number one was the wrong place; they directed us to place #2, which was too expensive, so we went to P.F. Chang’s.  Husband had never been there before anyway, and he loved it.  We shared Mu Shu Pork and some kind of lamb–yummy!

Lastly, I took him to the iMax theater at the Minnesota Zoo and we saw a 3-D movie about the Okavango Delta (in the Kalahari desert).  My goodness has 3-D technology improved since I last saw one (circa 1995)!  I could almost feel the weeds brushing across my face and reach out and touch the cracks in the elephant’s tusk.  It was 45 minutes of African fantasy!  And I had coupons for everything but lunch.

Husband liked it all, so: SUCCESS!  And I had a good time, too.  We decided we need to “date” more often.

———–

How about you people?  What do you do for fun (cheap) dates?

Q & A, Part III April 27, 2008

Happy Sabbath, everyone! Some more questions answered below…

Lulu (who should get a blog, right everyone?) asked, “In the spirit of Earth Day, what are your favorite ways to be green in your everyday life?”

I actually didn’t celebrate Earth Day in any special way, but I’ve been an avid reducer/reuser/recycler since I was little.

“What are your tips for a fit and healthy pregnancy? Mr. Right and I have what we call a ‘five year plan’ for wedding, house buying, and first baby, but I say it’s never too early to start getting pointers!”

It’s never too early to start building for a healthy pregnancy. The healthier you are when you get pregnant, the healthier you’ll be when you are pregnant. As a general rule, I tried to eat at least 5-6 servings of fruits and veggies a day in addition to taking my Juice Plus+. I worked out at the gym 3 nights a week and walked or ran outside 20-30 minutes on the off days. Even in the winter, Husband and I would suit up and go out for a walk. I continued this patter when I was pregnant, and worked out (lifting weights and everything) up until the day before I went into labor. You might get detractors (“Don’t you think you’re hurting the baby?”), but as long as you keep your heart rate at a safe level and don’t exercise to the point of exhaustion, you’re probably doing your body a favor. Another helpful thing to me was joining an online forum. The one I used was called “Babyfit” and it was helpful to have other experienced and first-time mothers to answer my questions.

“What’s your typical Starbucks order?”

You know, I’m not much of a coffee drinker (water, now that’s my bag), but when I do order something, it’s usually whatever the current seasonal beverage is.

Jamie asked, “What is your favorite book?”

When I was a child, it was probably a toss-up between Matilda by Roald Dahl or The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Now? I’ve been reading nothing but non-fiction for so long…it’s hard to say. I read the Bible most regularly, so I’ll go with that.

“How did you and your husband meet?”

This is a rather odd and long story. To make it short, he was coming to the same college as me, and my aunt said, “There’s this boy from my church coming to your college. I want him to get in with ‘good people’ so you should invite him to Campus Crusade.” I did just that at the beginning of the year, and dusted off my hands, duty done. I didn’t speak to him again until Christmas break, when we were assigned to the same discussion group at CC’s Christmas Conference. Our group really hit it off and hung out a lot back at school, and we became good friends. Then during May (finals week) he asked me out.

“What do you like most/least about being a mom?”

Most: I can be having the worst day ever, and just a smile from my baby girl brightens it incredibly. She really is a delight.

Least: I don’t deal well with lack of sleep, and her schedule and mine…they don’t always run parallel tracks.

“How many pairs of shoes do you own?”

This is going to sound terrible, but keep in mind that I have shoes that date back to my high school years and probably 10 pair are $1.99 flip-flops from Wal-Mart…I have 40 pairs.

Jenni asked, “Bein’ as how you’re from Minnesota, do you have any Scandinavian blood coursing through your veins? You look blond and blue-eyed, but that could be German as well…”

You’re correct. I’m mostly Swedish, but I also have bits and pieces of these:

English
Irish
Scottish
Norwegian
French-Canadian-Indian
German
Ukrainian

How’s that for a mutt?

Thanks everyone, this was fun, and not as intimidating as I thought. Once again, if you asked a question, consider yourself “tagged” to do the same thing on your own blog, if you so choose.

Weekend Update April 15, 2008

On Tuesday evening, no less!

We had a fabulous time visiting family and friends, meeting new babies and babies-to-be, eating yummy (but not so nutritious) food prepared by my mother, and…going through old junk of mine.

See, my mom’s remodeling and she has this crazy idea in her head that she doesn’t want to store my belongings from high school for eternity. What’s her problem, I say. Just kidding. If I were her, all that stuff would have been kicked to the curb with my daughter when she turned eighteen. I’m not really that harsh. Just playin’.

Wow, it’s late. The reason I haven’t posted is I’ve been desperately trying to catch up on emails and YOUR blogs. That’s no small task when you subscribe to six billion blogs, let me tell you.

Oh, and I finally watched a movie. The Bourne Ultimatum. Anyone seen it? I loved the first two, and Husband rented this one a week and a half ago, and we finally made time to watch it tonight. Even though I’m not a conspiracy theorist (another fine movie), I love movies like this that make me think and that make me wary of Big Brother. Because Big Brother doesn’t always have our best interest at heart. And if our government could pull it together as well as they seem to in movies like the Bourne trilogy, I’d probably be kicking back and sending them my hard-earned money. They wouldn’t even have to steal it.

The Unimportance of Me April 5, 2008

Antique Mommy tagged me for a Six Unimportant Things About Me meme yesterday.

But there’s a twist (AM did this, so I’m going to do the same)…one of them is not true. If you can guess which one, you win a prize*. If multiple people guess the same one, I’ll do a drawing to determine the winner. You have until midnight on Tuesday, April 8 to leave a guess in the comments.

1. My hair is naturally blonde.

2. I learned to ride bike when I was seven.

3. My favorite drink is an Asian Pear Mojito at P.F. Chang’s.

4. I know how to dance the rhumba and the tango.

5. I sell a whole food supplement in my “spare time.”

6. I type 95 wpm.

Now the hard part. To tag six people. This is always weird because I feel bad for tagging people and bad for not tagging people. I know not everyone has time allotted for memes, so I won’t be offended if you don’t complete it. And if I didn’t list you and you’d like to play, do so by all means!

Carrie at Newlywed Nurse-to-Be

Jamie at Class Notes

Happy Mommy

Erica at Haphazard Happenstances

Donna at Quiet Life

Beck at Frog and Toad Are Still Friends

*Prize is $10.00 gift card to Bath & Body Works. I realize that doesn’t even buy one of their delicious lotions these days, but maybe you could get a cool lip gloss or a fuzzy wuzzy pair of socks.

Dancing With The Stars - The Gutt Goes Home April 1, 2008

Spoiler Warning: Uh, it was in the post title. Sorry ’bout that.

I watched both Monday’s episode online and tonight’s live after work today. I don’t have much of a post, but here were some highlights for me:

• The weird chick making nicey-nice at the camera in the background every time Tom and Samantha were stage right (our left). She icked me out.
• Adam Corolla makes me laugh a LOT. He probably rubs most people the wrong way, but he is all sorts of funny. Penn Gilette was a bit too in-your-face for me, but Adam…he can stick around for awhile. His comment yesterday about Julianne’s outfit was hilarious!
• Steve Guttenberg has an amazing attitude. You could tell the whole cast really has a respect (but also a little bit of “wow–is this guy for real”-ness) for him. I was laughing my hinder off when he and Jonathan performed their “Mango” together. Watching them try to keep their composure = priceless.
• Was Karina really crying when she and Mario were in the bottom two? I think she actually hid behind him for awhile until she could better compose herself. Heck, I know I’d be crying, but you would think a performer would be used to competition.
• Mark’s faces were completely over the top. If he was in some sort of martial arts, I’d say he was using his kiup during every move he made. Some of the other guys did the same thing, but not to the degree he did.
• Who but Jason Taylor could make painting little ships look hot instead of geeky?
• My favorite part of the entire night was when Derek and Shannon Elizabeth were sharing extra stuff backstage and she said she got so nervous she threw up in her mouth a little and he just gapes at her and goes, “That’s gross.” HAHA!

———

Fun little add:  I was making Husband watch Adam Corolla’s performance and comments with me moments ago, and we had a little conversation.

Me: Why are you all wet here (motioning to his face around his mouth)?

Husband: I think it’s moisture.  I was in the shower…it was very wet in there.

Me (laughing): Really?

He’s an astute guy, that man I married.