Around Here

It is worth noting that it is freezing around here, like they said on the news you would legitimately freeze and get frost bite within minutes if you spent much time outside.  The air temperature hasn't been anything crazy around here... just in the -20s (like -25 this morning).  I say it isn't crazy because it has happened before and we frequently have weeks in the -10 to -15 range.  What is crazy is what they call this 'polar vortex' which has brought this arctic air down with wind chill temperatures in the -50 to -70 range... yeah, crazy.  Some people I know don't believe in 'wind chill', but I can tell you first hand that wind with anything this cold cuts through any sort of barrier you try to wear and feels like it cuts you.  The wind chill is what closed churches and schools today and canceled almost all forms of transportation (airplanes, buses and cars).Picture above from when it was a bit warmer outside here in Fargo.  We frequently take Wesley on walks alongside the frozen river and Scott and Wesley love to race each other on the path.

New Year 2014

S and I went out to dinner to celebrate on New Years Eve. Even though our meal wasn't the best, we still had such a great time. We bundled up, since the whole day was -17, and pretended we were all dressed up even though were in long underwear and turtlenecks.  I tried a bunch of different braid and hair up dos and just couldn't get it to work! Anyone have any secrets?! It was a fun excuse to wear some red lipstick and have a martini. 

We came home and decided to camp out in our living room with Wes and watch a movie. Stripes on stripes.  The next morning, we had probably the best January 1st day ever and laid in that flannel and down comforter bed all day long taking naps, watching bowl games and S played lots of video games. It was glorious. I then found a recipe for 'Mormon Scones' and we decided it is our new favorite unhealthy fried food, probably surpassing our homemade doughnut tradition.  In high school, we frequently ended up at a friend's house and his mom was usually always cooking these scones. I have still remembered (8 years later) how good they were and was happy to find such a good recipe. Hope you had the best first day of the year too! Happy New Year!

Top photo from my instagram

Christmas In Montana 2013

Scott and I both found out we had the week of Christmas off at the last minute.  We decided that if the weather was nice enough we would drive back to Montana to spend it with his family.  The weather was pretty scary over the weekend before, but our drive proved to be dry and quick the whole way (8 hours) there.  The picture above is to document our Christmas together and my first time using a Christmas cracker (they give you crowns in them!)

There was lots of snuggling with Wesley and a white white backdrop. Scott and I accidentally both dressed in flannel for the drive which I didn't realize till I took that picture #flannelcity

(on the left) During our stay, we all went to check out the Army Navy store in Billings because they carry Filson gear that is sometimes on sale.  That store is full of stuff, like lots and lots of stuff. There were all kinds of things hanging from the ceiling (up above me were bullets, a grenade and razor blade wire) and stuff stacked to the ceilings through the whole store. (on the right) I am basically the puppy whisperer. Penne, the wire haired pointing griffon, is within months of the same age as Wesley and they have so much fun together.

Our everyday view.Pretty much the funniest puppy. We were waiting at the drive through at McDonalds and he was perched on our smallest center console.

One of the most beautiful sunsets on the drive home.  That drive was a long one and took what felt like forever but we were lucky to have dry roads.  We also started listening to a book on tape for the first time and are bummed we didn't think to do it sooner!

Wesley Prays

We recently taught Wesley to pray before all his meals. Its pretty cute... I set his food down and he sits and looks at me as I pray. I thank the Lord for his "puppy food" and usually either pray for whatever is coming up in the day or for a great night sleep if it is in the evening. He has been a fairly easy dog to train simple tasks to, and this has probably been my favorite. Even though when he first learned to shake I was pretty ecstatic. 

Oh ya, that picture below. Some of his dominant traits have kicked up a notch with Scott out of town. If he catches his reflection in the TV screen or the mirror he gets a little upset and lets out his big beagle howl. Its pretty cute and funny... until its a little annoying. -- sorry neighbors!

Letters For Scott

Scott left on a big trip, or vacation as I would call it- he definitely wouldn't call it that. He is traveling almost every other day for interviews but we get a break to be together the week of Thanksgiving (thank goodness! I miss him!).  Last minute before he left I decided to put together this project for him.

I was inspired by it here, but didn't have the time to put that much effort into it. I wrote him a letter, added a quote at the bottom and printed off a bunch of pictures that most of the time coincided with the topic of the letters. I also wrote on the back of the pictures. I figured enough cute pictures of Wesley sleeping and of us would hold him over for a while and so far he said he really liked them. I found the letters much easier to write then I thought they would be, and since I didn't include a bunch of other stuff then pictures it all came together really quickly. The topics for my letters were: open when... you are happy, you are done with your first day, you are feeling sad, you are bored, you are hungry, you miss me, you are almost done with traveling, you need my love. I miss you baby!

Ella

One day while I was nannying we were all playing around drawing and writing and I ended up doodling this floral wreath with one of the little girls' names in the middle. I was so touched because she liked it so much too that she put it on the front cover of her school folder. 

Halloween 2013

I know I am a bit behind in posting but I wanted to post this really because of the recipe and food we ate Halloween. I am a huge fan of homemade costumes, this year Scott dressed up as Sherlock Holmes (he usually is a ninja) and it was pretty funny because one kid who came to our door told him he looked like a disco ball... ya. He was sad that the kids didn't understand his costume but the adults loved it!- once he told them what he was. I thought it was clever. I made a cat mask the afternoon of and we got Wesley a Frankenstein costume for cheap. Next year though I am going to make him a lion's mane and I think that will be his costume every year from now on- he just gets so sad in costumes, or really anything.

I bought my first halloween decoration- a spider that you put a pumpkin in. I thought it was cute, I have never seen it before. However, we have critters around here and everyday we would see a little more bites in our pumpkin. The day before Halloween they broke into the core of the pumpkin and threw the seeds everywhere. I was bummed because I wanted to roast those seeds the day after Halloween, Scott was happy because he thought it looked creepy enough that no more decorations were needed.

Halloween isn't really my favorite holiday but I do love cooking a good meal the evening of, it always seems like the best time to make some good chili. We made homemade chili and put them in homemade pretzel bowls. I have to say it was one of my most favorite recipes. It turned out great.

We made the chili with this recipe from Food Network, except we substituted homemade pinto beans for the pinto beans part and accidentally substituted my mom's homemade salsa for the tomatoes part (which what I am convinced made it so delicious).  I think this recipe is worth it to try and make without the substitutions, it really had the best flavors. We topped it with green onions, cheese and greek yogurt.

We then served the chili in these pretzel bowls from A Beautiful Mess. These are really so easy and I would absolutely make them again, they would be great with any soup. Since there were only a few of us I only made four bowls but they were a hit.

Film from Tennis 2011

Scott loves to play tennis and I am really bad at tennis. I am pretty sure these photos were taken back in Grand Forks (which would make sense with the rest of the theme of the roll). I will say there are lots of beautiful trees around here. Hopefully one day I will get better and be able to hold an actual match. These were just random pictures from some random beautiful day.

'The Reverse' Return Address Stamp

I finally designed a stamp for us! It is a return address stamp and I decided to do it a little different from all the other return address stamps out there.

I put the emphasis on our address with calligraphy and kept our name simple in type. I love putting the emphasis on our address because it is a special place to us and it is our home- it is my favorite place we have lived so far.  I also think it turned out beautiful and is one of my most proud stamps.

To also give people an example of a more traditional stamp, I designed a stamp so our name was in calligraphy and our address was kept simple in type.

Looking for a stamp for yourself? The holidays are coming up! You can find one here in my shop. Thanks for looking!

Film from Minnesota 2011

We went to visit good friends of ours in Minneapolis back in 2011 when we first moved to North dakota after we got married. I finally developed film from then and love how the pictures came out. Isn't it great reliving memories through forgotten film? We went to the Minnesota State Fair (after everyone telling us how wonderful it is) and were not disappointed. We basically ate our way through there.

We also spent some time walking around the Mississippi River which was just so beautiful. Thanks again Zach and hannah for having us! See you next weekend!

Our New Thing 03

I have not been able to get over sparking water! I have never had a taste for it until this summer and all of a sudden it is the only thing I am buying and looking for at stores. By the time Scott and I got to spend time with each other this summer I also got him hooked. When we got back home to Fargo

and did some shopping at Target, they spit out this coupons at check out with two discounts for sparkling water. I went back 3 times because they kept giving me coupons... ooo its so good!

I have a feeling it will start to be replaced with our favorite hard apple cider recipe... here is how we make our (my) favorite fall drink. Heat some apple cider up on the stove with a cinnamon stick, whole cloves and some peeling from an orange. Pour over a shot of pomegranate liquor and pear spiced vodka. You are welcome- Cheers!

ESPN College Game Day

So yesterday was a really big deal... ESPN College Game Day came to Fargo! They shut down most of downtown and set up their big screen and all the frills right in the middle of the street. There were people on top of buildings and hanging out of the windows and it was really hard to get up close to see what was going on, but it was cool.  

Fargo flooded again

Just thought I would mention... Fargo flooded again in June. Ya that was the second flood of the spring season. Kind of a bummer, the city had to build another clay dike to save downtown from flooding again and the mosquitos were already bad but it was really beautiful to watch. We were just sad that we couldn't use the dog park since April. 

Garden Box

I know it has been awhile since I wrote about anything in our lives, but I thought I would start with one of the best birthday presents I have ever gotten. If you don't know much about me, I love plants and I love building things. I had this genius idea of making a garden box for our vegetables since we have a lot of rabbits in our neighborhood. I basically drew up the plans for about a week, we went to the store to buy the supplies and we (Scott) spent all afternoon building it. It really is so nice to have a raised garden at waist height- it helps not having to bend over and with weed control. 

I couldn't resist at the garden center and bought way too many plants. Our garden box was full before the season even started! My plan was to plant a companion garden... basically where vegetables and herbs are strategically planted to influence a healthy and flavorful garden while also helping with pest control. I did chose too many plants for my planter box but included in there: bell peppers, jalapeños, tomatoes (2 varieties), lavender, carrots, mint, zucchini and squash, marigolds and basil and I think that is it. I'll have to eventually post a picture of how it looks at the end of the season all overgrown and how everything tastes! Homegrown veggies and herbs are my absolute favorite! 

Our New Thing 02

Tomatoes are just starting to come into season (I know we are light years behind the rest of the country in terms of fresh produce) but I will take what I can get. Right now I can't get enough of cream cheese (in general) but specifically these fresh snacks. 

Take an english muffin, toast it up. Add some cream cheese. Top with some fresh tomato and some really good balsamic vinegar. I recently started trying to buy seriously quality foods and buying a good aged balsamic vinegar will change your life. It has a taste to it so delicious that you could understand how people would put it on ice cream and how it could taste good. Anyways back to my current favorite use: top off your english muffin-cream cheese- tomato with some good balsamic vinegar and enjoy!

Bookcase Renovation

We built a bookcase! Well kind of... We had this black bookcase from Target that was probably the most unsafe and flimsy thing we owned. It made me nervous when we had guests, dog friends or kids over that the thing was going to topple over either on them or onto our TV. If you touched one end of it the whole thing would sway back and forth, it really was any minute that it was going to go down in a bad way.

During clean up week around here (where everyone puts as much of their junk/ garbage on the side of the road and the city picks it up for you) we found a big panel of wood. We were just going to buy a piece of ply wood and cut it to size but found this free piece of wood and decided to give it a shot. We cut it to size and nailed it to the back and just like that this horrible bookcase because my new favorite (and safer) piece of furniture. No swaying, no tipping- it is sturdy now like a quality piece of furniture! Quick and easy fixer-up. No need to buy something new, we just updated what we had with someone else's garbage- feels good.

Wesley's First Bike Ride

We took Wesley on his first bike ride and he did great! We have this great bike path along the river about 4 houses down on our block. He was a little scared of the bike at first, really anything with wheels freaks him out a bit, but he ended up doing great right off the bat. We didn't ride too fast and he kept up great along side Scott's bike. He did try to cross the path a couple times but learned his lesson quick- we didn't hit him! but he got scared when he saw the bike coming at him.

It also was a great excuse for us to get out on our bikes too. It was my first bike ride of the season and it was so nice to remember what it was like to take a ride. I will admit, we were feeling a bit lazy this day and didn't feel like running the 3 mile loop so we did a bike ride for Wesley, but really it was nice for us too.

Then the sun came out! Those are the days we have cherished around here. If North Dakota has taught me anything, it is to appreciate those days with sunlight- I will never forget to be thankful for that small thing. All the grass is just starting to grow back in complete with wild flowers. However, they only bloom on sunny days! So before they cut all the grass along the bike path we took a walk and it was fields and fields of yellow wild flowers.

Monday Night

Monday night was pretty funny. It has been raining here for about 4 days now (which is a nice change!) and coming home we noticed a bunch of soaking branches on our wreath and front steps of our home. When I looked up I saw a bird trying to build a nest right above the light for our door. We encourage nest building but will all the stuff that has already fallen on us during the process we didn't want the change of also getting popped on, so we put up our trusty gold elephant to scare them away- it worked last time. Now we have a clean stoop and don't have to worry about dodging anything coming or going from our home. 

Fargo Flood 2013

We made national news! Fargo almost flooded! The national weather service estimated that our city would flood at 50% and that we could have a record high flood at 10%. They estimated the flood levels up around 43 feet which would have put most of our town underwater... thank goodness it only peaked at 30-somthing feet and stayed away from anything record. Here are some of the days as we watched the waters rise...

Day 1

A nice day out and we could still walk most of the paths but most of the grass we would play on had started to disappear. It had recently snowed (which got everyone more worried about the flood) and you could see and hear giant sheets of ice floating down the river and slamming into one another. The dog park was unusable and they had started dismantling the fences so the river could flow through.

Day 2

Day two, some of the grass was still walkable, but most of the pathways were flooded and were un-walkable. At this point there were pretty confident that it wasn't going to flood so it was pretty exciting to watch the water rise so fast- I have never seen something flood before. They said that over night the water would rise over a foot and it just started engulfing the trees and grass.

Day 3

 

Day three the water rose like crazy! Where Scott is in the above photo is the dog park- completely submerged! Also in front of Scott off in the distance is where they had to build a clay dike to keep that big brown apartment building in the photo from flooding. They brought the national guard in to build the dike for 2 days. The walkway just below our house (where I am standing) is just starting to flood. The only place we were allowed to walk was on top of the dike and this is the day 'Keep Out' posters started to show up.It took the flood about a week to go down, but we probably didn't walk down there for about a week in a half to avoid the mud. After the water was down, the streets started to open up slowly and it took 8 days for the clay dike to come down. Then life started getting back to normal.

Casualties of the flood

There were some casualties of the flood, mainly huge trees and lots of debris. In the top picture is a tree stuck in the fence of the dog park and the above picture is Scott and Wesley standing on/near a tree that was trapped along another tree. It was pretty wild to see all the trees laying around. They just started cleaning up things this past week so hopefully the grass comes back in the dog park and we can go visit  all our dog friends soon!