Happy Birthday Ryan

Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Ryan's birthday was yesterday and we had a fun day! First we went to a potluck for people adopting/adopted from the Philippines. We ate some good food, met new people, and watched some Filipino folk dancing. Ryan and Lance also played a game of basketball with some guys. It took up the first part of our day.

Then in the evening we went to dinner and a show with a bunch of friends. We were going to meet at a local chain restaurant, but the wait was at 80 minutes already when we got there. So, we ended up at a kind of fast food restaurant. But hey we had quick service and it was quieter. Then we raced downtown (we talked too much at the restaurant and left late) to go to the theater to see Wicked. It was packed, the tickets were impossible to get (unless your my resourceful friend Ann!) The show was amazing! I loved the storyline, the costumes and the singing was wonderful. Ryan (the birthday boy) enjoyed it also, but liked Spamalot better. Wicked ranks way up there in my favorite shows.

So, Ryan's birthday was filled with cultural events. Probably not the day he would choose, but he had a great time anyway.

We do live in a winter wonderland

This is what we woke up to this morning.

I knew the post that I put up on Wed. was too good to be true. It started with a big wind/rain storm yesterday. The wind was so strong that it blew our yard waste container about 50 ft. and then flipped it over. This is why we need weather people in MN, we never know what is going to happen here.

Wordless Wednesday- with words

Gas prices in our area- $1.99 a gallon
Average Temperature the past few days-
around 70 degrees!

I'm not complaining about either, just surprised!

Tag, are you it?

My blogging friend sent me this tag and I thought I would pass it on.
The rules: Remove 1 question from the list below, and add your own personal question to make it a total of 20 questions. Tag 8 people, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged. Whoever does the tag will have blessings from all.

1. At what age do/did you (wish to) marry? at 26 (so last year right?)
2. What color do you like most? PINK- I'm such a girlie girl that way
3. If you can have a superpower, what would it be? I would be invisible like Violet in the Incredibles
4. If you can travel anywhere in the world, where would you want to go? Anywhere away from MN, really Italy would be very cool
5. Which part of you do you hate the most? the fat I insist on carrying around
6. When you get sad, what do you do? I don't get sad, I just get mad at someone else
7. What book are you reading now? Little House in the Big Woods
8. If you win $1 million, what would you do with the money? Pay off debt, oh you meant something fun? Travel!!
9. What did you love the most about last year (2007)? Materialistic, but I love my new minivan
10. How did you get your name? My parents were going to name me June but changed their minds at the last minute due to an actress' popularity named Julie
11. What is the moment you regret most? I regret losing touch with many people I've met over the years
12. What type of person do you hate the most? I dislike people that talk and have never investigated or researched or lived what they are talking about
13. What is your greatest asset? my family of course, no monetary value
14. If you had one wish, what would you wish for? I would like to live on an island with just my family, but we would be visited by friends and have the Internet
15. How did you celebrate the New Year? Same as every year, to bed at 10pm, just another day
16. What tv show do you watch that you are embarrassed to tell people about? America's Next Top Model
17. It’s 2008. What are you looking forward to this year? meeting our new children
18. Anything in your life that you wish weren’t so awful? I should knock on wood because all is good right now
19. What’s the shallowest thing you intend to do this year? Ryan said, highlighting my hair every few months is shallow
20. What’s the meaning of life? To raise my kids so that they can become better people than we are

Now the fun part...I get to tag. Of course I have to tag Amy because she would tag me. I will also tag Michelle because I know you just don't enough to do during the day with homeschooling three kids and everything:) I'm going to tag Mel because I want to read her answers. Renee (even though you are out of town) as punishment because you still owe me that recipe. Now that Patricia is blogging again, I can find out what you are thinking also. I can only do 5 because it took me almost a week to get my questions up and everyone else I know has already been tagged.

Wordless Wednesday-Fall Clean up

Our weekend without the kids

This weekend we went to a Bed and Breakfast in Duluth with some friends. The boys were busy in their own right. They had birthday parties to attend, fun functions at church and they hung out with grandma and grandpa. We went with our friends Mariela and Rodrigo from Argentina, they have never been up there. We didn't get up north until late Friday evening, so we just got some food and hung out. The B&B was the best. They thought of every last detail and we loved staying there. We had to rent the smallest room because I lost to Mariela on heads or tails when booking, but it was still a great place. On Sat. morning they brought breakfast to our room (a requirement I have for B&Bs, I'm not getting all dressed to go eat breakfast with strangers). It was wonderful, eggs, muffins and fruit. I had to take a picture because the fruit was so cute. They even made little hearts out of the watermelon. It was delicious.On Sat. afternoon we went to the Split Rock Lighthouse and then to Gooseberry Falls. It was cold at the lighthouse, but it was nice walking around the falls. We just spent the day walking and talking and not worrying about kids. That afternoon we went to lunch and that was quiet also. At night we went to see the bridge and walk around downtown Duluth. It sounds really boring when you read it, but just know we had a great time.

Sunday breakfast was wonderful also, but then we had to pack up to leave. I 100% recommend the B&B we stayed at for anyone going to Duluth!

We picked up the boys, it was good to see them. Came home and did dishes, made dinner and did laundry. Pretty exciting way to end a weekend, huh?

I give up

In an effort to be cheap and in denial of winter coming, we have put off turning our heat on in the house. Well today may be the day that I give in. Ryan said I would be the first to break because everyone else in the house is so hotblooded. Here are my three justifications as to why any sensible person would want to turn it on:

#1 From the news website:Current Forecast
6 PM
Rain
44 °F

#2 The boys have some ice cream bowls that turn blue when they have ice cream in them. The one on the left is how they are supposed to look empty (I had to put it under hot water for a few minutes to get it to its natural state). The one on the right is how they both looked in my clean dishes rack from sitting on the counter all day.

This is the thermostat in our house right now. It is 60 degrees in the day, can you imagine the night time temp. Yeah, I think I'm going to turn it on now.

I guess the cold weather is on its way, I can't stop it by not turning on the heat!