Spa Day

The big day is almost here! I sat down at my computer to start writing my speech (yes, I procrastinated this long) and decided to post a few pics. Well, I shouldn't let you believe that I haven't done anything with my speech until now. I've actually been dreading....er, I mean, thinking about it for over a year. I just don't know the exact thing to say and the perfectionist part of me wants it to be absolutely perfect, of course. :)

I came back home Tuesday night for a mini-vacation before the wedding. My mom, sister and sister's friend got manis and pedis Wednesday and last night I went to the circus!! My niece definitely made out like a bandit with all kinds of circus goodies...a pink sword, light up sparkly sword, blow-up monkey and twinkly tiara. I have to say that my favorite act was the elephants - those animals are so large and amazing. But my niece was definitely not a fan of the elephants...they were big and scary!

Well, here are a few photos from our manis and pedis on Wednesday.

Mom, Candice and Angela gettin' their nails done.

Candice and Ang.....G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S (insert Fergie song). Design on my big toe? Sure....why not? Here's a picture of my pretty tootsies. The ladies at the nail place. My massage chair didn't work. :(

The blushing bride.
Ang's pretty nail. She had a rose put on the ring finger of each hand.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I'll share more next week after the big event. :) Now I'm off to help decorate for the reception.

Enjoy this beautiful weather!!

Rainy Sunday at the Coffee Shop

Well, folks, I'm not really in the writing mood today so I thought I would post some pictures that I've been saving. I'm sitting at a coffee shop enjoying a chai tea and wishing it wasn't so rainy outside. :(

I went home over Easter weekend to visit my grandma who was in the hospital. I talked to her on the phone the Wednesday before Easter and didn't feel so well after hearing her so I decided to make a visit. She was doing much better than what I had pictured in my head. Here are some photos from my visit.

Me and Grandma Luv

That face shows how she felt about that pureed food....yuck.
Dad and Grandma Luv
Aaron and I trying to take a picture with grandma. It was a little crowded in there.

I think she looks so sweet in this photo.

And in true Grandma Luv style, she gave me the tongue before we left.

Happy Sunday!

Attention Golfers: Don't Throw Clubs!

This is reason #1 to never throw your golf clubs. Jon went golfing on Friday with some random guys from the club and ended up with a 3 wood in his forehead after one of them missed an easy shot on the 18th hole and decided to chuck his club. Seriously?!?

And seven stitches later...

Lots of Sammies

I’m on a committee at work that plans a fundraising/volunteer event each month. I wanted to share our recent activity because I really enjoy the work we do and it was so fun and easy to organize!

A local men’s shelter, Simpson Housing Services, accepts donations of sammies (a.k.a. meat and cheese sandwiches) that they freeze and give out to homeless men when they leave the shelter each morning. We had originally planned to make 400 but found out they can only handle 200 at a time so we found another shelter, St. Stephen’s Housing Services, that would be willing to accept the rest of our assembled sammies.

We had an overwhelming response from people at the firm and ended up making over 700 sammies with our supplies!! We found another shelter that would accept our leftovers and I’m glad we did or we would have had cheese sammies up to our eyeballs!!

The event was really quite easy to organize. I sent out an e-mail to the entire firm asking for donations of bread, cheese and meat. Then we set tables in our conference center for two hours and asked people to stop by to participate in the assembly line for a few minutes. I’m actually quite amazed because it only took us about an hour to make the 700 sammies….take that, Subway!

We also took a field trip to the men’s shelter in the afternoon to drop off the sandwiches and take a tour of the facilities.

Did you know?? There are approx. 9,000 – 10,000 homeless people on the streets in Minneapolis/St. Paul on any given night. And almost 1,000 of those people won’t be able to find a shelter/bed. Hearing stats like that and actually seeing the inside of a shelter makes me so thankful for what I have in life. There are so many things that I take for granted every single day. :)

Here are some photos from the event:

These are the assembled sammies. We put each individual one in a baggie and put the baggies back in the bread bags.

And last but not least...some of the amazing people that helped make this a successful event! :)

Let's Play Ball!!

Baseball season is officially beginning…tonight! This will be a special night because it will be the last home opener for the Minnesota Twins in the dome. Next year they’ll be in the brand new stadium!! It’s a little sad because I will no longer be able to wear a t-shirt and jeans to the games. I’ll have to bundle up in long johns and a winter coat for the first couple months of the season. Who decided that an open air stadium was a good idea in Minnesota?!? I understand that it will be true baseball outside but come on…at least have a retractable roof so we can still enjoy the game when it is 20 degrees in the middle of April!!

Here's the Metrodome. This is currently where the Twins and the Vikings play.

This is what the new stadium will look like. It will be called Target Field...named after Target like every other building downtown. :)

I had a relaxing weekend and really enjoyed it! Friday night Jon and I went to a delicious brazilian steakhouse, Fogo de Chao, with his coworker and coworker’s girlfriend. I love meeting new people and I LOVE a good piece of meat so it was a perfect night.

Saturday I went to Jess’ bridal shower – she is a good friend and roommate from college. We played some really fun shower games and I even won a game!! I wasn’t being competitive at all….haha. We also got to see her family and meet her fiance’s family so overall it was a great time. On a side note, I am annoyed with Target’s gift registry. This is the second shower this month that someone else bought the same gift as me from the registry – AND we didn’t even buy them around the same time. They need to figure out that registry system. A friend of mine, Sarah, works for Target Corp. so I’ll have her get on top of that. :)

On the way back home from the shower my friend, Sally, and I stopped at the Albertville Outlet Mall (otherwise spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E). I am very proud to say that I did not purchase a single thing, except for a sandwich at Subway. And Sally has been on a no spending rule since last June and I must say I am very impressed that she has stuck to it!!

Nothing exciting planned for this week except the Twins home opener tonight. I just realized I have only two weekends left until my sisters wedding. Wow…that came up very fast!!! I’m making something for them for a wedding gift and just realized that I should probably get that started if I want to have it done in time. And that also means I only have two weeks left to perfect my golden (fake) tan...actually more like a freckly burn. We all know that I don't tan. :)

I hope everyone has a great week…GO TWINS!!