The Petersen Press: Home Sweet Minnesota

Bath Crashers Sneak Peak

2012-02-05T13:10:00.002-06:00

Kyle and I took a week off in October to stay home and get some projects done around the house. The day after our 3rd anniversary, we rolled out of bed, hair in a ponytail (just me, not Kyle) and headed to Lowe's for some materials.

Here's what we saw ...

For those that don't watch DIY Network as regularly as I do, it is a picture of Matt Muenster, the host of Bath Crashers, and his tv crew. They find people in hardware stores and completely remodel their bathrooms for free! I was bummed that he was already talking to someone (assuming we missed our chance) when 10 minutes later, they came around the corner and started up a conversation.

After a good conversation on camera (well, I was good, Kyle was a deer in headlights,) an email with pictures and dimensions of our bathroom and a visit with the executive producer at the house, we were told that we made the cut. We were going to be on tv!

One month later, they showed up to tape us talking about how much we hated our bathroom and what we envisioned our dream bathroom looking like. We wanted to go for a rustic, log cabin feel, but still high-end, with muted earth tones. Clear as mud, right?!

Then, just this past January, a crew of about 15 people showed up to "crash our bathroom." Literally, producers, camera-men, a sound guy, contractors, plumbers, electricians, etc, etc. took over our home for 6 days straight to make this transformation happen.

We had several friends and family help us the first day to demolish the bathroom. Tons of fun to have some of our favorite people with us that first day. The host of the show is in the blue hoodie. (Kyle was exciting to learn that he's from Green Bay and a Badger ... somehow, everything comes back to Wisconsin ...)

It was an exhausting week. Not that we did a whole lot of work (lots of movie magic to make it look like we helped a lot) but just having that much chaos and a lot of hurry up and wait, we were wiped out. (We did enjoy the "production assistant" that brought bagels and coffee every morning and picked up lunch - kinda wanted to get his number and hire him permanently!)We were living in the basement with our friends Gary and Scott that came to help out and Paisley was at Camp Bow Wow for a few days, so life was a little upside-down. Here are a few behind-the-scenes photos ...

Bottom line - the people were great and the experience was priceless. AND ... did I mention we're going to be on tv! (and hopefully, Paisley will make the cut as well, if all goes as planned ... she couldn't have been cuter on camera.) The air date is not known yet, probably May or June, but we will let everyone know in advance so you can set your DVR's.

If you want the honest truth, the bathroom did not turn out exactly the way we had hoped. While it is full of expensive materials (copper, granite, slate) and expensive products (radiant heat tub, fireplace) ... the layout is a little weird and the design was much more bright, bold and unique than we are comfortable with. Still a huge upgrade from our old bathroom and we are grateful for the experience and the gift of a new bathroom. Nothing a can of paint can't fix! I mean, it has a fireplace in it ... I can't be that upset. :)

Here are some before shots ... you'll have to sit tight for the after shots (or we can show you in person.) We have been instructed not to post any after shots on the internet ...

Here's a sneak peak of Kyle's vanity (affectionately known as the Jenga wall) that is now in the middle of the room ... pretty amazing transformation ...

Big thanks to the crew. Everyone was super nice and fun to work with and so talented at what they do. Here's the gang at the after-party.

Big thanks, also, to all of our friends and family that helped us demo ... couldn't have done it without you and hope you had a blast like we did! Thanks to Gary and Scott for traveling to Independence for the experience and hanging out for a while ... we enjoyed having some friends to party with in the evenings.

Here's to more "stay-cations" in our future ... apparently, they can pay off big in more ways than one. :)

Ringing in the New Year - Pajama Style

2012-01-09T20:27:00.000-06:00

Kyle and I have never been big New Year's Eve partiers, so true to form, we spent this New Year's Eve going out for a nice dinner at Sunsets in Wayzata ...

... the big finish included a cappucino as big as my head ... mmmm ...

... and in our pajamas by 10pm ... pretty much perfect!

(We did stay up to see the ball drop at midnight ... give us a little credit...)

We want to wish all of our family and friends a wonderful 2012!

May it bring peace, love, health, and lots of pajama time. ;)

Santa Baby

2011-12-28T09:50:00.005-06:00

Merry Christmas, from Wisconsin!

Fisley

2011-12-21T22:09:00.001-06:00

As a Christmas present for our baby, I ordered a fancy dog bed, advertised as indestructible for heavy chewers, complete with her name monogrammed on the top (so we don't get confused on whose bed it is, of course.)

Took her a day or two to warm up to it, but she found it a cozy alternative to the floor.

Not more than a week later, we found our new dog, "Fisley," in her bed when we came home from work. "Indestructible" must not mean what I thought it did. Or, our new habit of letting "Fisley" sleep on our couch made her dog bed a bit less attractive.

Alas, we sent the bed back to Fetchdog.com for a full refund.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-17T18:14:00.000-06:00

For those of you who haven't been to our new house yet, we have a vaulted 15 ft. ceiling in the family room. I think before we even purchased the house, Kyle was dreaming of filling that room with a ginormous tree at Christmas time and boy did his dreams come true this year.

[Side Note: Holidays with Kyle's family are usually spent with his Mom's side of the clan, hosted at his Aunt Lori and Uncle Steve's place in Blair, Wisconsin. They also have a vaulted ceiling and always have a huge and gorgeous tree decorated for the holidays ... so really, Kyle has had this dream for the last 10 years or so.]

We snuck out on Sunday morning after Thanksgiving, drove about 30 minutes West and cut down a beauty in Howard Lake, Minnesota.

Here we are searchin' ... note the Coach bag on my arm ... you can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl ... ;)

This was Paisley's choice, but Kyle insisted on a 14 footer ...

Here's the winner ... chopped ...

dragged ...

and thrown in the trailer.

If you're wondering, here's how you decorate a 14.5 foot Christmas tree ... with an 8 ft ladder. Reminder for next year, put the topper on before the tree is up. This one will have to go un-topped this year.

I fussed quite a bit about getting a tree this big, but I have to be honest, it really is gorgeous and has a special (and big) way of bringing the Christmas season to life. Our Christmas list now includes ornaments as the tree is a bit sparse ... hint, hint...

Merry Christmas, from the Petersen Family.

The Mulhausen's in Minnesota

2011-12-02T15:27:00.000-06:00

(classic, right?! the only family picture we got before the batteries in the camera died!)

Kyle and I hosted my side of the family for Thanksgiving this year. We were grateful that all of the Mulhausen's made the trip! My brother and sister-in-law even brought the warm weather with them from Austin, TX as we enjoyed 60 degrees for the holiday!

The meal turned out great ... much less stressful when you have a lot of helpers. Sure, I picked out the recipes and prepped a few things the day before, but on Thanksgiving day, the whole family pitched in (well, almost the whole family, you know who you are...) - Kyle cooked the bird, Kathy and Jason took care of the herb biscuits, Kathy made her mom's mashed potatoes, my mom prepared the brussel sprouts and gravy and my Aunt Hedy set the table and poured the drinks.

Vaughn and Paisley were the entertainment of the weekend, as expected. It doesn't get much cuter than these two.

I just can't explain how happy it made me to have my entire family under the same roof, celebrating the holiday together in our new home. Those of you that have family spread across the country can probably relate, but having everyone in the same place doesn't happen too often these days, so no matter how crazy it gets, I love every minute.

Thanks to my family for making the trek to Independence, Minnesota! I only wish the holidays came around more than once a year.

VIP for ZBB

2011-11-27T20:21:00.002-06:00

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we got a little taste of the "charmed life." We went to the Zac Brown Band concert for free because our friend had met the band! We were escorted in through the back door, walked back stage and onto the floor for the show. True VIP style.

Back story - ZBB performed at Polaris' Dealer Show this past year, and part of their payment came in the form of several ATV's. Since they were back in Minneapolis the weekend before Thanksgiving for a show at the Target Center, they asked to go out riding for the day. Enter our friend Brent. He's one of the engineers on the vehicle that they wanted to ride so he was tasked with taking the Polaris CEO and Zac Brown Band on an ATV ride. Tough day at work.

Here's Zac and his dog getting ready to hit the trails.

As a way to thank Brent for his expert services, they offered him free tickets to the show. Hence, our connection. Here's Brent and his new BFF.

We had an absolute blast at the show! One of our favorite bands and as you can probably tell from several previous postings, some of our favorite friends. Brent and Christine - Thanks for making us feel like rock stars for a day! We are happy to oblige anytime you stumble into free tickets. :)

One Amazing Year, and Hopefully, More to Come

2011-11-10T16:10:00.001-06:00

One year ago today, little Miss Paisley came home with us and has been bringing unlimited joy to our family ever since. Sure, life is more complicated (and a bit more expensive!) with a puppy relying on you for everything ... but honestly, we can't imagine life without her.

Here we are picking her up in Joplin, Missouri one year ago.

Here is Kyle bringing her into her new Arkansas home that night.

Here she is with one of her first toys ... before she learned to destroy them ...

Here she is, reluctantly celebrating her first birthday a couple months ago. (her actual birthday is September 15th)

And here is the whole "fam damily," as my Grandpa used to say, on our one year anniversary today!

Can you even imagine what we'll be like with kids?!?!? :)

For those that we haven't told yet, we just found out our baby has a rare condition called Tricuspid Valve Displaysia. The vet noticed a heart murmur when she was being spayed at 6 months, and after a collapse episode in the backyard this summer, we took her to a cardiologist at the University of Minnesota for testing. Basically, there is a valve in her heart that does not open/close properly so her heart has to work overtime. She will eventually die from congestive heart failure and may only be with us another year or so. Luckily, she is in no pain and bounces around just like any other 1 year old puppy. She's just going to get even more spoiled than before, if that's even possible, and while I cry about it at the drop of a hat, we plan to enjoy each and every moment we have left with her. She really is a sweet little girl.

She has full reign of the couch and ottoman, gets a new toy at least once a week (which she proceeds to destroy as noted in a previous blog entry,) relaxes in bed with us every evening and has been promoted to the laundry room while we're at work. We plan to schedule more play dates with her puppy pals and take her on more walks, and despite my earlier plans, she ends up sleeping in our bed a few nights a week.

Our hearts have begun to break with the news of her impending fate and I can't imagine I'll function real well when the day finally comes ... but she has taught us to love with everything we have and enjoy every day ... our hearts have grown bigger because she is part of our lives. We will pray the doctors are wrong and that she will be with us for several more wonderful years, but either way, she will always be our first baby with a special place in our big hearts.

Meet the Neighbors

2011-11-06T11:47:00.000-06:00

We've been living in our new home for 10 months now, and have still only met a handful of neighbors. With busy schedules, it's always hard to meet people when you move into a new neighborhood, but it's even more challenging when everyone has a few acres and your neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks or streetlights.

Brent and Shianne always seem to be outside with their girls when Paisley gets her walks, so we have chatted with them the most. Real nice family at the opposite end of our street. I was invited to Sarah's house across the street for a Cabi Party last month (think Tupperware, Silpada or Lia Sophia ... only clothes) so that was a great way to meet a few neighborhood ladies (while adding some great pieces to my wardrobe - sign me up!)

The only neighbors we have pictures of are the ones that hang out in our backyard. News to me, but apparently there are motion cameras that you can attach to trees that have night vision and capture pictures of anything that moves.

So, here are a few of our neighborhood friends ...

We're definitely not in the city anymore ...

All But One

2011-10-23T17:09:00.000-05:00

The majority of the friends I made during my days at Ohio State lived in my dorm on North Campus freshman and into sophomore year. Good ol' Taylor Tower. Given that we were off on our own for the first time, we really developed a strong bond and became like a little family.

Fast forward 12 years (wow, we're old) and we're all in good but different places in life, and as life goes, you tend to grow apart a bit. I hadn't spoken to some of my old roommates in years when one of them called out of the blue this past spring. Alayna was in tears - our good friend Jamison had suddenly passed away. Unreal. I'm as shocked today as I was the day I first heard the news in May. He was found dead in his apartment, but we do not know what happened and can only hope he felt no pain and knew how much we loved him.

The last time I saw Jamison May was Memorial Day weekend of 2009. My high school girlfriends and I went to Baltimore for the long weekend, the city that Jamison called home since he graduated a proud Buckeye. Here we are together for what would be the last time.

Jamison was literally one of the first people I met at Ohio State. He lived in the room next door to me, and I remember going to the dining hall together with him and his roommate Kris one of the first days at school. He was always a very easy person to talk to - genuinely listened and gave his best advice or words of encouragement whenever needed. His smile was like a warm hug, his voice like an angel when he sang and most of all, I'll remember his laugh. More of a hearty giggle, really, and you couldn't help but join in.

As a way to create something good out of this tragedy, my old roommate Heather got the crew back together in mid-October for a visit back on campus - the first time some of us had seen each other in over 6 years. We had talked about a reunion forever and with Jamison gone, we only wished we had done it sooner. But, we know he was looking down on us, happy that he brought us together again and just as jealous as we were about all the cool new buildings and upgrades the students have now. So not fair.

To Julie, Beau, Susan, Heather, Alison, Alayna and Ty - damn, we look good! Truly amazing to see everyone and hope to do it again soon.

To Kris, Kevin, and Chris - we wish you could have been there with us, but mark my words, we WILL have another reunion and we won't wait another 6+ years to do it.

To Heather - thank you for representing all of us at Jamison's funeral and for rallying the group to get back together. You've always been such a dear friend to Jamison, and I know he's grateful.

To Jamison - thank you for being such a wonderful friend since we met that day in September of 1999. You were always the type of person I could look up to. I'll miss you, Jamisonian.

"Pack"ing in the Memories

2011-10-12T20:42:00.001-05:00

Almost exactly 3 years from the day we got married, Kyle and I made our way back to Door County, Wisconsin. The leaves were changing, fall was in the air, and the Packers were in town! That's right. A game at Lambeau Field is what took us back to revisit the memories from 3 years ago and make some new memories with our friends, Mike and Dana.

We got into town late on Friday and checked in at The Landmark, the resort where we had our reception! The Repka's arrived at 2am after their travel plans from New Jersey were interrupted, but we all made it safe and sound.

We started Saturday at one of the best breakfast places ever. Do you see those pumpkin pancakes in front of me?!?

The rest of our day was spent touring around Door County - driving past the church where we said our vows, the places that we stopped for pictures with our wedding party, and several of the townie bars that Kyle and his groomsmen visited the day before the wedding. :)

Here we are at The Blue Ox ... butts in saddles and a deer's butt on the wall. Only in Wisconsin.

Here we are at PC Junction bar, complete with a train that delivers your beers - genius.

We ended the night with a traditional fish boil and took in the Badger game at The Log Den, where we had our rehearsal dinner.

Sunday ... Enter ... The Packer Game! Tailgating promptly at 11am, game at 3pm, victory by 6:30pm. Done and done.

The weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful, the game was a blast ... the weekend was magical. Just like another weekend I remember in Door County a few years back ... :)

My Nanny Diary

2011-09-17T09:33:00.001-05:00

Late July:
Talked to my Mom today. Turns out Jeff and Kathy need a nanny for a week and the 'rents are traveling (yet again.) Mark my words - I WILL find a way to get to Austin.

1 week after "Late July":
Meetings moved, vacation days blocked, ticket to Austin purchased. Nanny 911 to the rescue!

Sunday, August 22nd:
I arrive in Austin, TX to 105 degree weather. That's right - even triple digits won't keep me away from my nephew. Jeff and I grab lunch and Vaughn and I get reacquainted. He remembers what I taught him last time I was in town ...

Monday, August 23rd:
Full day playing with racecars, hammers, magnets, racecars, stuffed animals ... oh yeah, and racecars.

Tuesday, August 24th:
Repeat Monday ... add playing in the dirt out back and sweating from parts of my body I didn't know I had. Took a trip to the Splash Pad to cool off. Put Vaughn in and out of the car seat, oh, three times or so because I kept forgetting things in the house. Gimme a break, this babysitter has been out of practice for quite some time now.

Weds, August 25th
Trip to the Children's Museum. He was by far the best kid there, at least, that's what I heard ... SO good, he even talked Aunt Trace into a popsicle when we got home.

Thurs, August 26th
Austin Zoo, here we come! Vaughn's favorite was the pint-sized deer that he was able to feed. He couldn't get enough, and neither could the mini-deer. They were a perfect pair. We went home with a stuffed donkey as a souvenir. Buying things from the gift shop - that skill I get from my Dad.

Friday, August 27th
Walk around the block and past the firehouse so we could wave at the fire truck. BIG day. Spent some time on the front porch blowing bubbles. He blows more from the soap on his lips than through the little stick ... hilarious.

The days were so exhausting, Vaughn and I relaxed in the evenings with our "juice."

The weekend was full of quality time with my brother and sister-in-law. VIP seats at a local fashion show, cocktails, movies, dinner at a great taco place ... they know how to spoil the babysitter.

Bottom line - Vaughn and I are BFF's! What a wonderful opportunity to spend some one-on-one time bonding with my little nephew whom I don't get to see nearly enough. Skype is handy but doesn't always cut it. Now I can understand his language, I know his favorite foods, and he even knows my name ... Ace!

Escapades

2011-09-06T22:14:00.000-05:00

A couple weekends ago now, my BFF and her husband made the trek to Minnesota for a 4-day visit. That's right, folks ... I got Rocky to leave Ohio! It doesn't happen often, but that's what makes it so special. This was Rocky and Tom's first vacation without their little peanut, Ryan, so it was a big deal for everyone.

The weekend kicked off giving Tom a tour of the city as this was his first time in Minneapolis. He's the type (like me) that needs to see "the sights" everywhere he goes - that's an easy one, Tom. Mall of America - check. That's all we've got. :)

The weekend was full of high quality bonding - seriously, I have to take advantage of any opportunity I get with this girl ;) - but I wanted to share a few of the major highlights:

#1 - We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon on the lake. Pretty common for a Minnesota summer, but when we can be on a gorgeous lake in 15 minutes from our house with great friends and great weather ... life is good. Kyle even gave Roxanne a fishing lesson!

#2 - Rocky and Tom helped with some significant yard work (they offered, no ... insisted, promise!) Anyone who had visited in the past several months knows that we had some serious ivy that was out of control on the front of the house. Well, life was busy and we didn't have a chance to get around to it ... until the Eaton's arrived! That's right. The ivy didn't stand a chance against this crew. And we pulled out some overgrown (and ugly) Junipers. Rocky and Tom - we can't thank you enough!

Don't worry, I helped. :)

Before ...

After!

#3 - The third and final highlight will help explain this blog's title (for the fans out there) - Rock and I revisted our high school days and went to the Janet Jackson concert. We had gone together to see her on a whim back in the 90's, and it was one of the best shows we had ever seen. The fact that this was only Rocky's second time to Minneapolis for only 4 days and Janet happened to be in town - it was meant to be! Nothing like a trip down memory lane (and some killer tunes) with your BFF. :)

Thanks to Rocky and Tom for hanging out with us in Minne ... clearly we made Minnesota fans out of them!

We know it's our turn to visit next time ... but, if you ever get the itch to leave Ohio again, you know where to find us. :)

China Across the US

2011-08-25T14:21:00.005-05:00

A couple weekends ago, my Aunt Hedy made the 12 hour drive from Columbus to Minneapolis with her friend, Amira ... to pass down my grandmother's China - how cool. I am now the proud owner of a gorgeous set of China from the 1940's with enough pieces to serve 12 people, complete with crystal water glasses! Thanks to my Aunt for the delivery and thanks to my Grandmother for having such good taste. :) Perfect timing as we're hosting Thanksgiving this year and can christen the dishware in our new home.

My Aunt also bestowed upon me her set of fine silver and gorgeous bright orange Le Creuset pots and pans that she purchased long ago but was never able to use much. Don't worry - they will get a ton of use in this house as Kyle and I pretend to be chefs in our spare time. Aunt Hedy and Amira even joined in the fun while we cooked up some new recipes and enjoyed a Mediterranean feast.

Of course the weekend would not be complete without a few beers on Lake Minnetonka, so we spent a wonderful sunny afternoon at Lord Fletchers ...

... and Kyle gave rides on the RAZR side-by-side ... becoming a staple for all of our visitors. It's like Camp Petersen out here. Send your kids. Or not. :)

Paisley also had a fabulous weekend as Aunt Hedy brought her gifts as well. True to form, she demolished the first one in about 5 minutes ... here's what is left of her football and her rope before she got to it. The rope is now in two pieces, but still providing her hours of fun. Thanks, Aunt Hedy!

Paisley was so in love with her new friend - I think she must have sensed that Aunt Hedy is a cat person, and she was trying to be super lovey-dovey to change her mind. Sorry, Paisley, it's not going to work - we've been trying to make her a dog lover for years.

It's always nice to have family visit (and even better when they leave gifts) - so thanks to Aunt Hedy and Amira for a wonderful weekend! Glad you were able to enjoy a piece of Minnesota summer ... it's what keeps us all living here through the rest of the year.

A Deere With Headlights

2011-08-14T11:55:00.000-05:00

Adding to our fleet ... I am now part owner of a pick-up truck, a Razr side-by-side, and a shiny new John Deere! What is the world coming to?! Not exactly what I dreamed of when I was a little girl.

BUT ... I did dream of having an amazingly loving husband - check. A good job - check. A cute dog - check. A nice house - check. A loving family - check. Great friends - check. So, I guess I can't really complain too much. Welcome to the family, Mr. Deere. :)

Tour de Minneapolis

2011-07-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

Not only was last Saturday one of the hottest and most humid on record in Minneapolis, but it also happened to be the day that we were scheduled to celebrate a friend's birthday ... outside! You can already hear Kyle getting grouchy, right?!

We joined our good friends, Adam and Danielle, for Adam's birthday celebration on the Pedal Pub in Northeast Minneapolis. It's a 12-person bike that you can drink beers on while you pedal around town. It came with an approved DD, a cooler of beers and speakers for some iTunes ... can't complain.

We worked up quite the sweat but got a little breeze going and beat the heat ... well, at least put up a good fight. Kyle was sweating the most because I think he was pedaling hard enough for the rest of us. Seriously, I kicked up my feet on occasion because I couldn't even get any resistance on my pedals. Thanks, honey.

It turned out to be a wonderful night - a very unique way to tour Minneapolis ... some great dive bars to cool off in the AC ... and dinner on a patio along the river to finish out the night. Here's the whole crew, most of whom we were meeting for the first time that night (the birthday boy is in the center with the light blue polo and his wife is just in front of me.)

We won't be entering any bike races anytime soon, but I'm sure Lance would have been proud!

Cheese!

2011-07-18T20:29:00.000-05:00

After our Oregon Tour, I killed a few more vacation days and headed to Austin, Texas to visit my adorable nephew, Vaughn. Oh yeah, my brother and sister-in-law (Jeff and Kathy) were there too ... details details! ;)

The weather was HOT and the baby was cuter than cute. He's talking a mile a minute (but in his own language) and does his best to repeat whatever you say. In my typical fashion, I took hundreds of pictures, so he learned the word "cheese!" pretty quickly. Literally, all I had to do was take out my camera, and the little ham would stop what he was doing, look at me and yell "eeeeeee!" (his version of cheese) -- too cute. He even grabbed my camera and I showed him how to snap a picture ... here's one of his masterpieces ... focusing intensely on pushing the button.

Just when Vaughn started to learn my name ... it came out like "ace" ... Jeff started calling me Aunt Cheese. Typical big brother ... but I guess I deserved it.

We cooled off in a few splash pads around town - no other way to beat the Texas heat. And the smile a splash pad brings to Vaughn's face will just melt your heart. Aunt Cheese would take him there everyday if she could!

Like most little boys ... V loves trucks, trains and motorcycles. (Boy is he going to love his Uncle Kyle!) We are not sure where he picked it up, but whenever her hears the roar of an engine or the whistle of a train, he stops to listen like this ...

And when it rained for the first time ever on all my trips to Texas and the wind started picking up, he stopped and looked up to the sky to feel the wind in his curly brown locks. A very sensory-aware little man ...

Here we are enjoying some of the best BBQ I've ever had - great setting, great food, real Texas pit BBQ. We'll definitely go back next time I visit with Kyle. At 18 months, Vaughn has already eaten more diverse foods than I did the whole first 12 years of my life. He's not surviving on mac & cheese like some of us insisted on doing.

Here we are reading the iPad to Vaughn. Amazing that he can do the sweep with his little finger to turn the page and knows where to touch the screen to navigate back to the start. Pretty sure I still have trouble playing a DVD. (Side Note - Check out Jeff's shirt ... it says "Ohio - Come Visit Cleveland ... Or Not" Love you, Ohio, but that's hilarioius!)

My 5 days flew by. As always, I ate great food, drank strong coffee, sweat from body parts I didn't know I had, and thoroughly enjoyed quality family time with Jeff, Kathy and Vaughn. Makes me sad I won't see them until Thanksgiving, but at least we have Skype.

A bonus kiss goodbye was a sweet treat for Aunt Cheese. Vaughnie sure aims to please. Thanks, V ... and see you in Minnesota in a few months!

Oregon Trail

2011-07-14T19:42:00.002-05:00

This year, Kyle and I spent the long 4th of July weekend exploring Oregon with our good friends, Brent and Christine. It was a perfectly relaxing vacation with just the right amount of activity thrown in to keep things exciting. Join me as I give you a quick tour of our Oregon Trail ... minus the Typhoid Fever (old-school computer game reference, if any of you are confused...)

We started out in the great city of Portland - we enjoyed a couple microbreweries and endulged in the best donuts this side of ... anywhere.

The next stop on our trail was Multnomah Falls on the Columbia River Gorge. It's the second highest falls in the US and we hiked all 11 switchbacks to reach the top. Not only did we take in beautiful views, but we worked off a good quarter of each of our donuts.

On to Willamette Valley where we spent the bulk of our trip enjoying Oregon's wine country. Known for Pinot Noir and rhymes with "damnit." We did our research in advance and impressed the locals with our command of the Oregonian dialect. :)

Take a peak at the place we rented ... in a vineyard, among the rolling hills, overlooking Mt. Hood, and more room than we knew what to do with!

We toured over 15 wineries across 3 days, enjoyed some nice restaurants (and one with the worst service known to man, minor detail) and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

We spent the 4th of July on a day trip to the coast. We had an awesome seafood lunch at a cute restaurant on the beach, sampled cheese curds at the Tilamook cheese factory (yes, three of our crew were from Wisconsin, would you expect anything less?!) and finished the day watching fireworks from our deck.

For anyone remotely interested in wine tasting, I would highly recommend this region of the country. It is still in the early stages so you often meet the vineyard owners and family and are commonly welcomed with free samples and bonus tours, mixed in with some of the best storytelling you'll find anywhere.

To Jim and his daughter, Martha, at Maresh Vineyard Retreat - the Petersen's and Erspamer's will be back!

Driving Miss Daisy

2011-07-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

Kyle's birthday weekend also brought a new member into our family ... but I figured she's so stinkin' adorable, she deserves her own blog post.

Meet our new niece, Daisy!

5 months, almost 8 lbs and 100% sass.

Kyle's little sister Emily and her boyfriend, Cody, are the proud new parents of this little wonder - a mini Dachsund - so the German in me was sold from the moment I saw her.

Daisy also has a way of bringing out Kyle's secret love of lap dogs ... he's been trying to turn Paisley into a lap dog for months. My husband is a strong (often bull-in-a-china-shop) man, but it would surprise you how gentle he can be when he's cuddling with little puppies. Old softy.

Paisley didn't know what to do with this little thing. She wanted to sniff Daisy and play with her, but didn't realize she was 4x her size, so it didn't always work. Daisy, Paisley, Daisley ... things got confusing for all of us.

Paisley even had to check out Daisy's house ... perfect fit.

Welcome to the family, Daisy, and congrats on your new baby, Emily and Cody! :)

30 and Counting ...

2011-06-26T09:17:00.000-05:00

For the first (and probably only time) this past week, I was able to give Kyle a hard time for being an old man. I know, I know, I'm older than Kyle (by only 6 months) but on June 16th, he celebrated his 30th birthday, so it was my responsibility to remind him how old and frail he has become.

He came home from his fishing trip the day before his birthday ... to a new sign marking his stall in the garage ... I didn't want him to forget where to park in his old age. Welcome home, sweety!

Then we celebrated by ordering a pizza because we were too tired (and old) to go anywhere. That's right ... even though we live out in farm country, we found a pizzeria that will deliver. Thanks, Jimmy's! A few presents followed ...

The big celebration kicked in over the weekend. Last Saturday night, we had about 15 or so of our good friends over to help us celebrate. Several friends brought their kids (told you we're old) and we ate pulled pork sandwiches, drank beer and played a bit of Euchre to end the night. Everyone was gone by midnight because, again, we're old. Thanks to all our friends for coming out ... we had a great time!

We rounded up most of Kyle's extended family and had a Birthday / Father's Day brunch on Sunday. Here we are for a family style meal at Spasso. The price wasn't too bad since Kyle got the senior discount. ;)

After brunch, the family came over to see our new house. Perfect opportunity for more birthday cake ...

Kyle took his grandparents for rides in the new Razr Side-by-Side ... yet another of Kyle's toys. At least this one was free from Polaris.

We also seized the opportunity to put some relatives to work in the garden. (we may be old, but we're not stupid) Thanks, Aunt Sue! You can come back and work in the yard anytime. ;)

Happy 30th Birthday to my Favorite Old Man!

Looking forward to counting with you for many more years to come!

Jerseylicious

2011-06-11T19:03:00.000-05:00

For the long Memorial Day weekend, our friends Mike and Dana flew in to visit from the great state of New Jersey. I decided that's the way to enjoy Memorial Day - stay home and have friends come to you. We focused on having a good time all weekend and showing our friends all that Minneapolis has to offer. Other years we either travel (exhausing) or spend the time running errands and doing projects (also exhausting.) We tossed around some Snooki jokes and a few "you betcha's" and ended up having an absolute blast exploring our new home state with the Repka's.

Turns out that "having a drink" is a great way to catch up and explore different areas of town ... so, here are a few group shots of the four of us ... drinking our way through Minneapolis.

Rooftop bar of a swanky new place in Uptown ...

Patio on Lake Minnetonka ...

Bar in the 'burbs with live music ... (Kyle's favorite)

Dive bar by our house ... notice the caboose in the background ... classy ... (Tracie's favorite, so I must be classy as well)

And even at the movies ... we were seeing The Hangover Two so it was a requirement that we were drinking ...

For the parents and adult readers ... keep in mind that there were THREE days in the weekend, so the drinks were responsibily spread out over the course of time. For the friends and younger (but over 21 readers) ... you know you want to visit now - we'll show you a good time!
***

We even found time to catch the horse races at Canterbury Park.

Beautiful horses ...

... and cute asses. Dana and I enjoyed the show.

We ended the weekend with a great home cooked meal and S'mores by the fire as we christened our fire pit. It really felt like we were camping rather than hanging out in our own backyard - love it!

Paisley fell in love with our guests, as she tends to do.

"Mom, can't they stay?!"

You know the weekend is a success when one day later, you've already booked a second trip to hang out again. Thanks for making the trip, Mike and Dana, and see you in Wisconsin in October!

Watch Out World

2011-05-25T18:35:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Kyle and I were in Madison for his cousin Nate's graduation. I have to admit, it was a little touch and go there for a while ... but Nate turned things around and surprised all of us by earning a college degree in only 4 years. He followed in his cousin's footsteps and will be working for Coyote Logistics in Chicago, starting this July. We are so proud. If he excels as a logistics professional (which I'm sure he will) Kyle and I plan to take full credit. If he falls on his face, we had nothing to do with it. ;)

Congratulations, Nate! And, welcome to the real world! You will soon learn that it's not nearly as fun as college life. But, it'll have to do.

Death and Destruction

2011-05-07T11:37:00.000-05:00

Yes, she looks sweet ... but our little Paisley has unleashed her inner "animal" on her toys - pun intended.

Here she is with what used to be her stuffed dog, Hopkins. Paisley had been using Hopkins as her pillow since she joined our family, always being gentle with him. Apparently, she wasn't sleeping as well as she wanted to so she took it out on her pillow.

Poor Hopkins, scattered around Paisley's crate ...

The headless chicken, which you are all familiar with from a previous blog ...

Here's what's left of her bear, her very first toy. She pulled a Dahmer and ate his face ...

Her Princess did not get the royal treatment ...

She broke her alligators neck within the first 5 minutes ...

And, while we all know most toys are made in China these days, no joke, we found a chopstick inside of this one ... I guess you could say Paisley has a secret love of Chinese food ...

She is still a sweet little puppy, just very passionate about playing. We're just thankful she hasn't waged war on our furniture ... yet. :)

I mean, look at this face ... she can basically get away with anything ... and she knows it.

Easter Babies

2011-04-29T20:36:00.002-05:00

After a quick visit to Ohio State for work last week (so quick, that I didn't even pull out my camera!) Kyle, Paisley and I hit the road for Easter in Wisconsin. It's so nice to be close to family again - only a 3-hour drive to see Kyle's family and a big airport with direct flights to see my family. Amen.

Holidays are always more fun with little ones - both the two-legged and four-legged kind. We took full advantage capturing all the cute baby moments.

Here are Kyle's little cousins Ciana, Hallie and Spencer ... and the creepiest Easter Bunny I have ever seen.

Just try not to smile when you look at this adorable pic ...

Here's me and our baby ... she humors us on a regular basis ...

Here's Kyle and our baby ... enjoying the sunshine ...

And Brett, teaching his cousin, Paisley, how to play ball ...

Here's the classic shot of the weekend ... in the words of my friend, Casey, this picture will be included in the slideshow when Spencer graduates ... ask Kyle, this is how they do it in Wisconsin!

We took a few family shots - the Petersen kids (well, not technically ... we didn't have Paisles and Cody is not official ... yet ... ) But we sure are one good lookin' bunch, huh?!

And, our little Petersen family. Paisley still needs to work on her modeling ... I guess this is her GQ pose, gazing into the distance ...

Even though Kyle and I are almost 30 and 30, respectively, we are still lucky enough to get Easter baskets. Here I am modeling the present that was in my basket ... unfortunately, you can't read the phrase stitched on the hat, but it says "City Girl Livin' the Country Life." Ain't that the truth. Thanks, Kathy! Can't promise I'll wear it out (just can't seem to find an outfit to go with it) but I will cherish it always. :)

Kyle's hands are full of cousins in this one. Ciana, on the right, is our God Daughter. They really keep the family occupied, and we just don't know what we did without them.

And even thought we didn't see him this holiday, we have to include another favorite baby of ours ... our nephew, Vaughn. Here he is playing with some of the gifts that Aunt Tracie and Uncle Kyle sent for Easter. (those names do have a nice ring to them, don't they?!) Thanks for sending some pictures, Kathleen!

We sure do miss this little baby and can't wait to see him again soon! Skype is great, but I can't seem to squeeze his little cheeks through the screen, so it's a little less than optimal.

Thanks, once again, to Aunt Lori and Uncle Steve for hosting another holiday and to our cousin, Jenna, for giving up her bedroom! Now that we are Northerners again, we look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Like Father Like Son

2011-04-08T18:00:00.001-05:00

We had a nice visit with Kyle's parents this past Sunday. With only a little over a 2-hour drive, they are able to make it over pretty easily to spend an afternoon here and there.

As always, they arrived with some gifts for little (spoiled rotten) Paisley. She proceeded to rip the head off of her new chicken in, oh, about 2.6 minutes. But, boy, were they an exciting 2.6 minutes. We were tempted to send the toy back to the manufacturer and let them know it was defective.

I've determined that Paisley likes her men ... Kyle is her favorite in the household, she was obsessed with my Dad when he visited, you already heard in the last blog that she's dating our friend Brent, and this weekend she proceeded to jump right into Mark's lap without a second thought. I guess I taught her well.

Before they headed back to Wisconsin, we got the boys posing by their new babies. Only a few weeks before Kyle got his new black Chevy Silverado truck his dad got a new black Chevy Silverado truck from the same dealer ... Uncle Steve, who works at a dealership in Wisconsin and has been outfitting the family with vehicles for years. How cute are they?! Thanks for hooking up the Petersen boys to ride in style, Uncle Steve. Hopefully, they helped you hit your quota this month!

The verdict is still out, but I gotta tell you, those heated seats sure are cozy. ;)

Thanks, Mark and Kathy, for all the help around the house this past weekend, the toys for Paisley, and of course, the Special K bars ... half chocolate frosted for me and half plain for Kyle. I guess Paisley gets the "spoiled rotten" part from us too.

Poison'd

2011-04-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

What better way to celebrate the first day of 50 degree weather in Minnesota, than to go to a local bar to see a Bret Michael's show?! Yes, you read that right. Kyle and I dragged our friends, Brent and Christine, to see Bret Michael's in concert. He was playing at a bar only 15 minutes from our house - how could we pass that up?!

Here's our friend Brent, warming up for the show with his girlfriend, Paisley. Seriously, I think she's in love. Brent would like us to point out that the mullet is just part of the concert attire for the night ... he doesn't normally look this redneck ... well ... close, but not quite. I mean, not everyone can pull off a mullet quite like he did so he must have some "inner-redneck" in him somewhere.

Here are the boys ... rockin' out at the show ...

... and the girls rockin' out at the show ...

... a little more of the mayhem ...

... and here's Mr. Michael's himself ... the one in the cowboy hat and muscle shirt ... hot ...

The show was actually really entertaining. The opening band was decent and Bret didn't skip a beat rocking out on stage. I can't promise we'll race out and buy tickets to the Poison reunion tour this summer (although, stranger things have happened) but I know we'll catch some more live music at the Medina Ballroom. Who needs downtown when we have townie bars and entertainment like this right at our doorstep?! I'm sold on this country livin' thing! (as long as I'm no more than 20 minutes from a Target and a movie theater ... but that's for another blog post)

Enter ... The Dreaded Pick 'Em Up Truck

2011-03-30T17:24:00.000-05:00

We all know Kyle is an all-around man's man - die hard sports fanatic, handy-man, outdoorsy ... you get the idea. But all of that meant nothing unless he got his hands on the quintessential manly accessory - the pick 'em up truck. That's right! I married a man that moved me to the country and will be driving me around in a pick-up truck. What?!?!

I'll fess up ... I'm LOVING living in the country of western Minnesota! Arkansas was a nice transition away from city life and now, I couldn't imagine living any closer to the madness of downtown Minneapolis. I love the peace and quiet, the beautiful scenery ... feels like we are on vacation every day ... until the dishes and laundry snap me back to reality.

So, I promise to check back in and let you know how I feel about this truck after I give it the old college try. I did require that we get the crew cab to ensure there is ample room for passengers in the backseat so I feel good about that. And, the options Kyle got include heated seats so that will help win me over.

Oh, the life of a city girl in the country ... having to deal with a brand new shiny vehicle that looks a little different than I'm used to. Life could be much worse. :)

New Home, New Blog

2011-03-19T13:08:00.001-05:00

Thank you for being patient as I took a nice 2 month vacation from blogging! I promise you, nothing about it felt like a vacation. Kyle and I have been crazy busy with repairs/upgrades to the new house, shopping for furniture, unpacking (yes, still!) and demanding new jobs. Now that the snow is finally melting, we feel like we can kick things into high gear to really get settled in. We are just beginning to see our yard for the first time, and we can tell already that Paisley is going to be in heaven!

We have also mixed in a little fun these first few months back in Minnesota. We are grateful for all the wonderful friends we have in town. We have made it a priority to spend time catching up with everyone and have loved every second of it!

A lot has happened these last few months that we won't get a chance to blog about, but wanted to at least capture in writing -- Kyle's sister was our first visitor (thanks, Em!) -- the Packer's won the Superbowl (we had to pinch ourselves a few times!) -- we had to deal with a mice issue in the basement (promise you, they are all gone, or I would have moved out by now!) -- Kyle's parents came to visit and his dad got stuck in a ditch driving up the driveway (you didn't think we'd let that one slide by, did you, Mark?!) -- Our dear friend, Mark, had to endure chest surgery (he's on his way to a full recovery, thank goodness) -- Kyle went on a snowmobiling trip for work (not much work going on there) -- Paisley had successful spay surgery (and didn't seem to notice by the next day) -- my parents came to visit (just missing the start of Spring, sorry Mom and Dad) -- and Kyle jetted off to Vegas (and is there as I type!)

There you go - all caught up! Looking forward to continuing our journey and sharing our special moments from our new Home Sweet Home in Minnesota. :)

Figured I'd include a couple Paisley pictures so you can see how big she has gotten. She is now 6 months old, close to 40 lbs and just as sweet as ever.

Here we are the day we picked her up ...

And here we are about 3 weeks ago trying to mimic the same pose ... notice a difference?!?

Only in Arkansas ...

2011-01-26T19:00:00.000-06:00

I've been scheming up this blog ever since we moved down to Arkansas ... and it will be the final book end to the 2-year "Adventures in Arkansas" phase of our lives.

Being Northerners, we noticed lots of things that are "different" down here (remember, different is good) ... but things that we most likely wouldn't encounter up North. We've compiled a list of some of those things and taken liberty to generalize ... no harm intended ... just a little fun. We still love all our Southern neighbors and friends! We're calling it our "Only in Arkansas" blog, when in reality, it's probably more like "Only in the South...." Sorry, I don't have a picture for each one and am surely forgetting a few good ones, but at least you get the idea.

1) More churches than people in most cities and even the Ten Commandments printed on the back of pick-up trucks ... Only in Arkansas ...

2) Sonic Drive-in's on every corner and each one is packed with cars at all hours of the day ... Only in Arkansas ...

3) Not only are cows and hay bales across the street from major corporations and fancy new chain restaurants, but the hay bales are transported on the highway just inches from the ground, giving the impression that they could drop at any moment .... Only in Arkansas ...

4) The phrase "might could" is intentionally uttered out of the mouths of otherwise intelligent people (as in, "She might could come along" or "You might could go to the store after work") ... seriously, it's a common expression ... Only in Arkansas ...

5) Summers sure are hot in these parts and when push comes to shove, duck tape a window air conditioning unit to your car if your AC system has gone out ... Only in Arkansas ...

6) Directions given not by street names but by the establishments you will pass along the way; however, "turn at the Walmart and it's right next to the Sonic" is never very helpful given that they are both on every corner ... Only in Arkansas ...

7) Big sale on roast beef sandwiches at Arby's for the many Fast Food lovers in the area: please note the fine print that states "maximum of 250 sandwiches per order" ... Only in Arkansas ...

8) No this is not a barn or an empty warehouse, but the B Terminal at the Northwest Arkansas Airport ... Only in Arkansas ...

Kyle and I enjoyed our 2 years in Arkansas, some days more than others, but we will forever cherish the experience and are glad we took a chance on a new opportunity.

Time to roll the credits on this one ... but not without our thank you speech ...

*****

Thanks to everyone who supported us on this journey, thanks to everyone who made their way down to visit us, thanks to everyone who even thought about coming down to visit us as we know schedules are busy and you would have made it happen had we lived there longer, thanks to those that experienced Arkansas with us through this blog, thanks to the state of Arkansas and all the great people for being so welcoming and showing us a beautiful part of the country, thanks to General Mills for providing us a great life experience at the beginning of our marriage (but got us back to Minneapolis on our 2-year timeline!) and most importantly, thanks to my husband and best friend for sacrificing so much over the past two years to support my career and join me on this adventure!

*****

We've enjoyed sharing our lives with you and have been persuaded to continue blogging from our new home in Independence, MN. We'll be taking some time to get a little more settled into our new life, refresh the look of the blog to start our new chapter and probably start posting again in another month or so. Same website, new look, perhaps a little less frequent on the updates, but we'll still be just a click away. :)

Whirlwind Tour With a Side of Christmas

2011-01-12T20:52:00.000-06:00

Let's see ... the last time I blogged, we were still residents of Arkansas and little Paisley had only been to 5 states. A lot has happened in the last month. We are once again happy residents of the great state of Minnesota and our baby has now visited 8 states in her short 4 months in this world. My apologies for taking a month hiatus from the blog, but once you hear our recent schedule, I think you'll understand.

I'll be honest, it's exhausting even thinking about how hectic our schedule was for the last month, so I'm going to keep it simple for everyone's sake.

We have wonderful friends that gave us a proper send off in Arkansas before we left. First is me with my work friends from the various peer companies I worked with (sorry to the "Brian's" on either end who the waitress proceeded to cut out of the picture.) Brian, Bryon, Brian (seriously, I answered to Brian while I worked down there,) Tricia, Jennifer and Alex - you are all wonderful people and I am lucky to have crossed paths with you all. I hope our lives will cross again soon!

Then Kyle and I with our General Mills gang at the Catfish Hole, before hitting the bars on Dickson Street. Another amazing group of friends we will always cherish ... thanks for making Arkansas such a special place for us.

And the new amazing cowboy boots my friends gave me as a going away present ... I will cherish them forever!

My new job was set to start on December 13th ... my plan to drive North the weekend prior was foiled by Snow-maggedon 2010 so I cashed in miles, flew to Minneapolis, rented a car and lived with our good (and very generous) friends Adrian and Josh for 10 days. It was fun to have roommates again and act as a nanny to their adorable son, Austin. They even helped it feel more like the holidays running a cookie factory in the kitchen and going to see Santa. I can't thank you guys enough for the hospitality!

After one frantic month of notarizing paperwork, scanning important documents and coordinating all that goes along with buying a home, we closed on our new house in Independence, Minnesota on December 22nd. Or should I say I closed on the house, since Kyle was holding down the fort back in Arkansas. :)

Due to the recent addition to our family, I then flew back to Arkansas and we hit the road to Cleveland for Christmas. That's right. A 14 hour roadtrip to start and end our holiday - sounds relaxing, huh? For once, we did have good weather and clear roads so we were happy.

Christmas came and went quickly. I was sick as a dog with a sinus infection but we enjoyed some QT with my parents, brothers, sister-in-law, nephew and aunt ... having everyone home at the same time hasn't happened for the Mulhausen clan in quite some time so we had a professional document the event.

Since our trip was so short, I was only able to squeeze in a few hours with my two best friends, Rocky and Lisa ... but I always cherish my time with them and take it whenever I can get it!

And, here's our little nephew, Vaughn, looking just as cute as ever! I couldn't spend as much time with him as I wanted since I was sick but I just love him to death and am counting down the days until I can see him again.

We got him his first laptop ... he's already very familiar with them from Skyping with family since he was only days old ... but he really loved the sounds and flashing lights on this one.

14 hours back to Arkansas to pack up, load the truck and say goodbye to our adorable house on Shelly Drive. It served us well for the past 22 months.

Our last photo together in our empty house - took the same shot before we left the old house in Hopkins. I'm a fan of starting traditions ... I think I get it from my Dad who used to sing "Tradition!" ... from the musical Fiddler On the Roof. See, Dad, I was paying attention back then!

To beat the ice storms that seem to always be brewing in Iowa during the winter, we completed the 10 hour drive the same day they loaded the truck with our belongings. We escaped all the bad weather, including tornados in Arkansas, and arrived at our new house at 2:30am on New Year's Eve. Enter the dreaded twin air mattress...

3 days on the air mattress, 1 night at a friends' house to ring in the new year, 1 plumber to de-winterize the house so we had running water 12 hours after we arrived, 4 inches of snow, 1 semi, 1 U-haul, and 2 tow-trucks later (don't ask) ... all of our belongings arrived at our new address, and we were free to start making our new house a home.

Here's Kyle with our good friends Steve and Mark on New Year's ... the helmet was a joke, we weren't really drinking that much ... seriously, we're too old for that. :)

Sound exhausting at all?!?! Throw in figuring out a new job, selling a home, dealing with mold mitigation on the new house, scheduling the cable and internet guy, dealing with mice in the basement, transitioning a new puppy to a new climate and new surroundings ... and it's enough to make your head spin. Even Paisley was wiped out.

We are ECSTATIC to finally be settled in to our new home and have NOTHING on the calendar for a really long time. So, feel free to come visit ... cause we're not going anywhere!

The Graduate

2010-12-15T21:22:00.000-06:00

Little Paisley is now 13 weeks old, and just yesterday, she graduated from Puppy Kindergarten! I can't believe how well she is doing, especially at such a young age. She knows sit, stay, down, leave it, drop it, and come. She has a little trouble with the command "relax" since she is so energetic all the time (she takes after her Mom,) but we're making progress everyday.

I was out of town working in Minneapolis, so Daddy was there for her big day.

She completed some agility exercises (aka - puppy obstacle course) ...

And was presented with her diploma.

****

We are SO proud. :)

30 and Loving It

2010-12-09T20:34:00.001-06:00

I turned 30 years old today. Can you believe it?!? I know, I'll be carded until I'm 60.

But, I'll be honest, I have never been happier in my life. A great husband, a new puppy, moving into the house of our dreams back in Minneapolis, a recent promotion, moving closer to friends and family, an adorable little nephew, the list goes on and on. I am truly blessed and so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life.

Life (really) is good. ;)

Miss Paisley Petersen

2010-12-07T21:18:00.000-06:00

We have officially been dog owners for one month now, and we thought it was time to show off our new baby. She's growing like a weed and won't be a little puppy for much longer! Similar to her parents, she has been living quite the busy life these past 4 weeks.

Here we are picking her up at the breeder on November 10th, 2010. Her life would never be the same. I think she was the lucky one as her sisters will be show dogs and her brothers will be companion dogs. She gets a life of fun being spoiled (rotten) by her new parents!

Here's our baby's favorite pose - frog legs. Starting to think we should have named her Kermit.

And ... Daddy giving her a bath for the first time. A little timid on bath number one but she's grown to love the water. It'll be fun to take her out in the boat and do a little doggie paddle in the lakes of Minnesota!

Wasting no time, at 9 weeks old we started taking Paisley to obedience classes. She is really doing well and can sit, stay, lay down, come, leave it (when she shouldn't get into something) and drop it (when we need to get something out of her mouth.) It requires diligent practice everyday, but Kyle and I have been thoroughly committed. Here she is working on her commands with Dad.

Our amazing trainer, Deborah, also hosts "puppy socials" every Sunday afternoon. Sounds cheesy, but it's a great way to get Paisley to learn how to play nice with other puppies and feel comfortable around a variety of people and breeds. She is definitely a bull in a china shop (like someone else in our family ...) and tends to bully some of the other pups with her non-stop energy. She's not real good at pacing herself - she goes a million miles a minute and then crashes hard. Here she is playing with her bff, Josey.

Speaking of crashing hard, here she is passed out in my arms. While we have been crate training her to aid in house breaking, she does like to sleep in your arms or on your feet (any warm body part will do) whenever she gets the chance.

After being away from our new baby for 8 days working up North, I came home with a new stuffed toy for her to play with - a Minnesota wolf. She loves it! Little does she know what Minnesota will soon mean to her.

Paisley got her first taste of Minnesota when Kyle and I had to drive to Minneapolis the day after Thanksgiving to look at a house (the one we are currently purchasing - more to come in a future blog!) Here are the Petersen girls scoping out the new digs!

During that Minnesota visit, Paisley also got to experience snow for the first time. She picked up her feet real high wondering what was going on and shivered uncontrollably when I first picked her up. She did "warm" up to it after a while and by the end of the day, she was busy eating it. Good thing, because it's going to be a regular part of her life from January on.

Just like Mom and Dad, Paisley is a jet setter. She is only 3 months old and has already been to 5 states. Here she is helping Mom pack her suitcase. She just can't wait for the 16 hour car ride to Cleveland for Christmas! (As long as she sleeps the whole car ride like she did to Wisconsin, Kyle and I will be excited too!)

Paisley has settled into our family just perfectly. So much so, that I'm not even sure what we used to do without her. I had wanted a dog for years and was always wishing that I would have just taken the plunge ... now I know why I didn't ... because our dog wasn't ready until November 10th of this year. We just had to find her!

We Are Thankful ...

2010-12-04T19:45:00.000-06:00

... for a puppy that likes to sleep in the car ... seriously, Paisley was out the entire 12-hour drive to/from Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. Amen!

... that after we move back to Minneapolis we will NEVER drive through the horrendous state of Iowa again! Here's the parking lot on Highway 35 with the freezing rain during our drive up on Wednesday... adding 2 hours to our already long drive. Never fails, Iowa has miserable weather whenever we drive through.

... for a puppy that tells us when she needs to go potty during car rides. Here I am running around with her on a tiny patch of grass we pulled over to during the freezing Iowa rain. Good times.

... that my mother-in-law made Special K bars (with Chocolate for me, without Chocolate for Kyle.) I know, it's a non-General Mills cereal, but believe me, if you tried one of these things, you would understand.

... that my father-in-law actually got a weekend off work at the Police Department to celebrate Thanksgiving with us! Here's Kyle and Mark ... and cousins Nate and Spencer (our little ring bearer, holding up black olives as his eyes!) -- We'd also like to make a shout out to our cousin Nate for landing a job after he graduates! Another logistics professional in the family. Congrats!

... that Aunt Jodi and Uncle Patrick brought two beautiful girls into the world this year so that my husband can get more practice with babies. :)

7. ... that Hallie and Ciana had cute baby headbands that we could use to dress up Paisley. Adorable, right?!

8. ... that Kyle has adorable grandparents that have adopted me, and that Grandpa Joe is feeling better these days. I love having grandparents again!

9. ... that Uncle Bill and Chris drove over to meet Paisley (they didn't mind seeing us either!)

10. ... that I was in Minneapolis for my friend, Lora's, annual Thanksgiving feast this year. (how about this list, Lora!)

Long story short, we have a lot to be thankful for! (If you didn't make the list, it's only because we didn't have a coordinating picture from this year's Thanksgiving holiday, but we still love you! And, I purposely left out pictures of Paisley's Auntie Em, at her request.) We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving in Wisconsin this year and look forward to future holidays with Kyle's side of the family that don't include 10+ hour road trips. ;)

Baby Announcement

2010-11-11T20:48:00.000-06:00

Meet Paisley!

***

Born September 15, 2010 in Joplin, Missouri

Lovingly welcomed into Petersen Family on November 10, 2010 in Bella Vista, Arkansas

Soon to be a Northerner (shhh...don't mention the S word!)

Notice the tag ... already a Packers fan. :)

Homeward Bound

2010-11-07T08:36:00.001-06:00

It is official. The Petersen's are moving back to Minneapolis!

***

Just last week, my promotion was announced ... I will be the new Logistics Manager for our Research and Development facilities in Minneapolis. Our ticket home.

In some ways, I can't believe we have lived in Arkansas for 2 years already ... in other ways, it feels like we've been trying to get back to Minneapolis forever. It is with mixed emotions that we will soon close this chapter of our lives and settle back into life in the frozen tundra.

5 Things We Will Miss Most About Living in Arkansas:

Our beautiful (and cheap) house that has everything we need and more.

The complete absence of traffic

Friday nights at our favorite little pizzeria, Gusano's

The delicious BBQ

The great friends we have made ... although, many of them should be following us to Minneapolis eventually

5 Things We Will NOT Miss About Living In Arkansas:

Having to do ALL of our grocery shopping at Walmart

The corny local commercials that play repeatedly on every channel

The constant work travel that has kept us apart for so many days ... weeks ... months ...

The 100 degree humid summers that seem to last forever

The ginormous spiders, slimy snakes and other scary creatures that call the South home

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Arkansas and are thankful that we made the leap 2 years ago. We'd like to think we took full advantage of this experience - exploring a new part of the country, meeting new people, trying new foods - and thank everyone who made our time here so meaningful.

In terms of timing, I will be back in Minneapolis for a week in November for training and house-hunting. My new gig starts December 1st, with a week back in Arkansas to wrap things up and celebrate my big 3-0. Kyle (and the new pup) will hang back in Arkansas into January ... hopefully giving us enough time to find a new house and move directly from one house to the next, avoiding temporary living and storing all of our things. Let's also hope that Kyle has enough time to house break the new pup before she meets the Minnesota winters.

It's good to (almost) be home. :)

Two Years and Growing

2010-10-28T20:50:00.001-05:00

Kyle and I just celebrated our second anniversary on October 25th. We kept it low key, as I was traveling back from work in Minneapolis that day. We traded cards and went for a nice dinner at Fred's Hickory Inn ... a local supper club down the road. We had a great time and are more in love than ever. I always like to say "I get to have a slumber party with my best friend every night of my life" ... (minus all the travel that keeps us apart.)

Here we are leaving dinner at Fred's. Life is good.

Well, my friends. Life just got even better.

Kyle told me he had something planned for us on Thursday evening. I needed to cut out early and be home from work by 4pm. I absolutely love surprises, and for once, I tried not to guess what it was, for fear of spoiling it. In all honesty, I had NO idea what was coming.

After driving north for about 30 minutes, Kyle pulled a package from the back seat and said "Happy Anniversary, honey." I told him we weren't planning to do presents this year and that he shouldn't have, but really, who am I to argue, right?!? He had a card that said "hope you're ready to grow our family" ... along with a mini dog collar. WHAT?!?!? Then I opened a few Labrador books he had wrapped. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?

Without me ever suspecting, (and I'm pretty nosey, so this is a HUGE accomplishment!) he had been researching breeders since June and had found a great one in Joplin, MO ... about 45 minutes north. He had communicated with her and arranged to surprise me with one of Elizabeth's litter of 5 pups, born on September 15th. We had been talking about getting a dog for years and could both agree on a Lab, so it was a perfect choice. Here's mom and, in the words of my friend, Greg, all 5 of her "dog babies."

From the surprise and shock and excitement of it all, I felt like I was going to throw up ... but I kept it together and we met the breeder, Carolyn, and her family, played with the 5 pups for a while, met the mother, Elizabeth, and picked our favorite. They were designated by a small spot of paint on their rear-ends ... and I chose the little green one. An adorable little girl.

And here's the winner ... zonked out from all the excitement ... looks like me at about 10pm every night, so it's a perfect fit ...

She will come home in 2 weeks ... get excited to welcome the new little Petersen. I know we are. :)

Pink is the New Black

2010-10-22T08:32:00.000-05:00

This year, I've heard October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month) referred to as "Pink-tober." So, in honor of Pinktober, and the fact that one of my girlfriends has never seen the chick flick Legally Blonde (a tragedy!) ... I hosted a pink party at the house ... much to Kyle's dismay. I whipped up a batch of my mother's homemade mac & cheese, and everyone showed up wearing pink. We gossiped faster than any man could keep up with, sipped pink wine ... and welcomed Elle Woods into our family room for a showing of Legally Blonde on the big screen.

Needless to say, Kyle stayed upstairs in his office on his computer the whole time. He was a good sport and took some photos of our fabulous group. When you look this good, there's really not much more to say. :)

Piegergogies

2010-10-09T17:22:00.000-05:00

No. The title of this blog is not a typo. My father has been known to make up words and this is his name for a pierogie, the Polish dumpling. For as different as Kyle and my father are (Kyle hunts and fishes, my dad goes to the symphony and plays the accordion) they both have an affinity for creating their own language. My dad eats piegergogies and Kyle doesn't go grocery shopping, he grocerizes. Go figure.

Living in Cleveland, and being 98.6% German, we grew up enjoying lots of ethnic fare. While I complained about most of it when I was little, pierogies fit nicely into my plain-Jane "buttered noodles" phase ... the blander the better. Amen that my taste buds eventually came around. Pierogies are much better smothered with sour cream and sauteed onions ... mmmm mmmm.

Thanks to my sister-in-law's mother, Loretta, for sharing her homemade pierogie recipe. And thanks to my husband for enjoying the process of cooking and being up for a challenge on this one. We made quite the mess in the kitchen but the result was delicious!

Pole-less Position

2010-10-09T11:26:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, we decided to take advantage of the perfect fall weather and enjoy a little outdoor activity. We joined our friends Greg and Chaney, loaded up two cars (clearly, we were roughing it) and headed almost 3 hours southeast to explore Mt. Nebo. Quite the view.

Here we are at the top of the mountain - Kyle and me, doing my best Kyle impression. I'm not really that tough, but I have been watching quite a bit of Man vs. Wild and Dual Survivor lately, so I was ready for some adventure.

The adventure was off to a slow start when we discovered that our camping plot was literally 2.3 ft. away from the playground. Our idea of a peaceful weekend in Arkansas's natural surroundings did not include screaming kids so we headed back to the visitor center. We were able to trade in our plot for a hike-in campsite, about a mile off the beaten path. Now the adventure began with our multiple trips hauling our gear down the mountain.

The guys headed up the path for the last load of gear, so Chaney and I decided to get a head start on setting up camp. Now, I haven't set up a tent in a while, but I'd like to think I'm a smart girl and can figure out what I need to do. "Hey Chaney. Am I an idiot or aren't there supposed to be poles for this thing?!" At first we thought it was a mean joke by the guys so that the girls would be unsuccessful at setting up camp, but we soon found out that Greg's friend that lent us the tent forgot to give us the poles. Just hilarious.

Luckily, it was still early enough in the day (and we were in Arkansas,) so Greg was able to cruise down to the local Walmart and bring back our fancy new house. Constructed perfectly (with poles) by Chaney and I.

Kyle tended to the fire and whipped up a tasty pot of chili. (You just can't keep a good man out of the kitchen.) We had a lovely evening full of good tunes, good conversation by the glow of the fire, refreshing brews and a critical ingredient of any campfire ... S'mores.

I actually slept really well, for being on the cold, hard ground. Kyle suited me up with a nice sleeping bag and sleeping pad at the REI sale a few years ago so I was camping in comfort (and style, I mean loook at that gorgeous shade of pink!) I had layered on so many clothes while we were hanging out by the fire that I had to unzip my sleeping bag in the middle of the night so that I didn't roast to death, but other than that, pure comfort.

Here we are in the fresh, brisk morning air. I can't say that we smelled very fresh, though, since our clothes still smell like campfire smoke after repeated laundering. But, we sure are cute in our little caps, huh?

We spent the morning exploring some of the hiking trails. Quick photo opp by one of the signs to prove how hardcore we were ...

... and we snapped Greg's cute mug by another sign at the campground. That's right, ladies. He could be all yours! He likes long bike rides, a good cup of coffee and cooks a mean gumbo. Email me for more details. :)

We felt pretty good about our adventurous weekend, until we saw this guy setting up his hang glider to jump off the top of Mt. Nebo. Guess we weren't as hardcore as we thought.

Another great weekend, brought to us by Arkansas: The Natural State.

Kitchen War Zone

2010-09-30T21:03:00.000-05:00

Since moving to Arkansas, we have discovered the joys of internet shopping. You have to take measures into your own hands when you are 2 hours from a Coach Outlet or a Bass Pro Shops. :)

Kyle has even graduated to the next level of online shopping with his addiction to Woot and Steep and Cheap - websites with rotating deep discounts that get you to purchase things you don't need within a specified time limit. QVC, anyone?!?

Anyway, the point is to say that it's no longer a surprise when Kyle brings a package in from the porch with his newest toy. Until the most recent package that arrived with ... wait for it ... a Terminator Blow Gun. A who what?!?

Apparently, last time he was in Minneapolis, he hung out with a friend who also has one of these contraptions. I won't name any names, Brent, but Kyle really had fun playing around with it and decided he needed to own one. Hence, the war zone that is our kitchen.

On Wednesday night ... Kyle showed me his skills, blowing little spikes out of this long tube thingy, aiming at a target on the counter. I literally had to announce when I needed to go through the kitchen so that he'd put the weapon down and put his hands up before I walked into the line of fire.

Needless to say, I have put a sign in the backyard warning our little squirrel friends that a predator is on the loose. Let's hope the squirrels are better educated than the locals and heed the warning to keep their distance. Does this look like an innocent face to you?!?

"Toto, I Have a Feeling We're Not In Wisconsin Anymore..."

2010-09-23T21:19:00.001-05:00

Mission Accomplished:

... I finally got Kyle's parents out of Wisconsin! :)

While they are not the world travelers that my parents are ... they were gracious enough to drive clear across the map to come visit us in the land of Arkansas. Quite the adventure, as you'll soon see.

We started out with an exotic meal of catfish, of the fried and non-fried variety, at The (famous) Catfish Hole. It was a hit! Kyle's mouth literally starts watering days before we even get to this restaurant, so we knew he wasn't a problem. Mark and Kathy, however, were pleasantly surprised - not only with the catfish, but the unlimited hush puppies that accompanied the meal. True midwesterners ... we love anything that's deep fried. (preferably on a stick, but we'll take it in any form.)
.

Saturday, the Petersen boys hit the lake for a day of hunting the mysterious beast of Arkansas ... fish. Mark must be a good luck charm because they pulled in more fish that day than any other day Kyle has been out on the lakes of Arkansas over the past 18 months! Thanks for showing my husband how it's done, Mark!

We were so proud of the boys, that we decided to go get pedicures to celebrate. It was an honor to join Kathy for her first pedicure ... EVER! We did it up right with massage chairs and all. Except, we forgot to get the camera out while in those amazing chairs (relaxing our minds as well as our bodies,) so here we are drying our toes and reading up on the latest celebrity gossip.

Time for a good homecooked meal. Kyle's parents had never seen us work our magic in the kitchen before, and I think we really wow'ed 'em. We sort of have our dinner dance perfected. Kyle usually handles the main course and I coordinate the sides ... and clean up the whirlwind he creates along the way.

Our timing was perfect, and we feasted on some amazing tenderloin, roasted vegetable casserole (or should I say "hot dish,") salad, biscuits and wine. Mark even admitted it was some of the best steak he had ever had! Now, if you know my father, you'll know that he uses that phrase for absolutely everything ... but Mark is a very tough judge. He is a man of few words so when he decides to tell you that something is the best he's had ... he means it. Nice work, Kyle!

Then it was off to the Arkansan Safari for some real adventure. If you recall, one of our first blogs detailed our very first trip to this crazy drive-thru zoo with my parents. You'll see my Dad is quite the "petting zoo connoisseur" and had camels and other large animals actually IN Kyle's Trailblazer. Brave or crazy ... we're not sure.

Well, we were also brave during our visit ... courageously staring down the animals, right in the eyes with a fierce look on our faces ...

Okay, you caught me ...you'll notice the glass between us and the animals in every shot. Give us a break! We wanted to keep Kyle sane this time around and keep all of our extremities intact ... and I didn't want to scare Kyle's parents out of ever leaving Wisconsin again ... so we had to take it easy. This time, the camel stayed on his side of the car.

We also made time for relaxing on the couch with some football, hit up our favorite pizzeria, took a tour of The University of Arkansas campus and did a little shopping.

We really had a great time with Kyle's parents and are SO grateful that they ventured out of Wisconsin to see us. It was nice to explore Arkansas and spend some quality time together outside of our traditional holiday trips, which are always too busy and always too short.

The family bonding was great and all, but the highlight of my weekend was being awarded my trophy. :) Yes, that's right. I am the Champion of last year's Klimek/Ladsten/Petersen family Fantasy Football League! No, I'm not joking, people. Kyle trained me well. I plan to "repeat the feat" this season and am already on my way with a 2-0 season in progress. We'll have to find a place for this beauty in our new Minnesota home this winter.

Thanks again, Mark and Kathy! We really enjoyed the adventure!

Birthday Babies!

2010-09-15T20:33:00.000-05:00

As many of you know ... my ... ehem ... second 29th birthday is coming up in December. This past weekend, I got two of the best early birthday presents EVER! (better get to work, Kyle.)

My Dad was out of town visiting my Aunt Hedy in Cali so my Mom decided to jet out to Austin and visit her little grandbaby. As an early birthday present, she bought me a ticket to join her for the weekend. A-MAZING! I couldn't ask for a better gift! 3 full days with my little nephew is pure heaven.

...and hanging with my Mom, Brother and Sis-in-Law wasn't so bad either. :)

Pretty typical of my visits to see Vaughn, I took hundreds of pictures. Literally, hundreds. Somehow, I didn't take a single one of the entire family together, so I'll have to share separate shots of each family member ...

Here's my big brother, Jeff, showing off his stylish faux-hawk ...

Here's my Mom reading a book ...

Here's my adorable sister-in-law getting ready for work ...

And here's me, taking a nap after a long day of babysitting ...

Good thing I took some time to get shots of the family ... it would have been a shame if I only focused on Vaughn every second of the day. :)

Here's our favorite little Schnitzle watching his first Buckeye victory.

And for my Mom's belated birthday present, we took Vaughn to a photo shoot with his Nana. He's what you would call "a ham for the camera."

I would say, my Mom and I had some pretty fabulous birthdays.

My second gift pales in comparison to a weekend with Vaughn, but I do consider it my baby ...

So, thank you to my Mom for the ticket to Austin. I had a wonderful weekend and am already counting down the days to Christmas in Cleveland with little Vaughn-da-loo! And thank you to Jeff and Kathy for my two favorite babies ... Vaughn and my new Coach bag. They both make me smile. :)

PS - Kyle spent his weekend on the couch with close to 48 hours of pure football, with some frozen pizza's and Dorito's thrown in for good measure. For everyone's sake, there are no pictures to document the event. I must admit that in between the football, he found time to clean the whole house, so I can't complain! Love you, honey!

Lazy Labor Day

2010-09-06T18:15:00.000-05:00

It doesn't happen often - but Kyle and I actually took advantage of a 3-day weekend to ... STAY AT HOME! That's right. We didn't travel for once. No road trips, no planes, no visitors ... we just stayed at home, enjoyed each others company and played around in Nortwest Arkansas.

For those that follow our blog regularly, you probably could have guessed that we hit up our local pizzeria, Gusano's, on Friday night. Nothing beats it. We plan to take on the 30 inch pizza challenge (they are now accepting teams) just so we can become part of their decor and get our picture on the wall. Only in America.

We took care of some homeowner duties (less than blogable,) took the boat out for a cruise (you've all seen it before) and cooked some good recipes (if only this thing was scratch and sniff.)

On the more exciting end of things, we celebrated our adopted state and rooted on the Razorbacks in their first game of the season.

Tailgating is universal and Kyle and I generally fit right in on game day ... but this time, I had to put in a little more effort. Football in the South is more of a fashion show for the ladies than I'm used to - they do their hair, wear heels and cute outfits and lots of bling. I even saw a few dresses! Quite a change from the midwestern beer-guzzling, ponytail and sweatshirt girls up North. I did my hair, put on a cute red tee and some bedazzled sandles and blended in pretty well, if I do say so myself.

We had some good seats, courtesy of our good friend, Greg, in the snazzy striped polo. Chaney and Greg are two of our best friends from the Gmills office down here and they happen to be locals (Greg from just west of Memphis, and Chaney from just across the border in OK) so they are good at making sure we soak in the Arkansas flavor.

In our nice view of the field, you can also see our nosebleed seats from the game we went to last year ... the very upper deck on the far left (where no one is sitting ... they know better.)

After the game, we caught a country concert by the Randy Rogers Band, from Oklahoma. Really good tunes, but even better t-shirts. Here I am after the show with my new threads.

"This Guy Digs the Randy Rogers Band"

We also took advantage of the non-100-degree weather and checked out the War Eagle Caverns. We took an hour long tour into the caves. I had to keep a close eye on Kyle ... somehow, he always ended up with the other kids exploring every corner each time we followed our tour guide into a new cavern. Here he is, contemplating darting through the opening to see where that light is coming from. When we add a mini-Kyle to the family, we'll have to keep him on a leash.

Apparently, this area of the country (and more specifically, these caves) are full of bats. I have to admit, they are actually kind of cute when they are sleeping. Had this guy let go of the ceiling and started flying around, I would have a much different opinion.

We're pretty talented with the arms length photo of ourselves ... Kyle holds it perfectly and we finally learned that we don't have to lean our heads to the middle to fit in the frame. We're even super cute in a deep dark cave, huh?!?

A perfect long-weekend at home ... farewell to the hot, humid days of Arkansas summer ... welcome football, cool(ER) weather, fall colors and all around our favorite season!

Arkansas or Antarctica?

2010-08-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

While we're having fun living down South, Kyle and I have confirmed the fact that we appreciate our 4 seasons up North. This summer has proved to be a torturous one ... high 90's and humid for the vast majority of the time. The past few weeks have been in the triple digits! It has been so hot that Kyle hasn't gone fishing since the beginning of June - now THAT is hot!

Needless to say, you'd never guess the weather was sweltering outside if you saw me hanging out at the house. As my mother-in-law can attest to, Kyle takes after his father and keeps the house just north of frigid.

***

Here I am, relaxing with a book on a hot August day in Antarctica ... I mean, Arkansas ...

Cancer's #%$ Has Been Kicked

2010-08-21T13:43:00.000-05:00

I've had fun blogging over the past year and a half, and I hope you've all had fun reading it. I try to focus the entries on exciting experiences or joyous moments we've had in our lives. While the stories often make us all smile, they do tend to seem a bit trivial at times. I've decided to take a break from the light-hearted fun, and focus on a more meaningful event.

I'd like to dedicate this blog to our good friend, Mark Thurbush.

His wife, Claire, is one of my best friends and was a bridesmaid in our wedding. Mark and Kyle have become BFF's (and Fantasy Football Junkies) over the past several years. This past March, Mark was diagnosed with Follicular Lymphoma. His father had just been diagnosed with cancer about 6 months earlier, and he and Claire were just settling into their new roles as parents to adorable little Reid. The news was like a swift kick to the gut ... we simply couldn't believe it.

The past 6 months, Mark and Claire have spent countless hours at hospitals and doctors appointments, enduring chemo, radiation and a myriad of other tests. During the long, exhausing, life-changing experience, they blogged about Mark's progress to keep family and friends informed. Kyle and I (and hundreds of others) have been glued to that website day in and day out ... not only for status updates, but for inspiration

For those of you who don't know Mark, he has always been the type of guy that makes friends wherever he goes. Always a smile on his face, a glow in his eye, and a laugh never far away. The "C Word" didn't change any of that for Mark. He kept flashing that smile, always joking around with his hardworking doctors and chose theme songs like "I'm a Survivor," "Don't Stop Believin," and "We're Not Gonna Take It" as the new soundtrack to his life.

Mark's attitude not only helped to get him through this tough time, but he helped the rest of us get through this tough time as well. With the shock of the diagnosis and for many, being so far away from the Thurbush family, it was easy to feel down. But, Mark wouldn't let us. He kept on smiling, joking around and so relentlessly fighting the disease that the rest of us couldn't help but feel inspired. "Why am I complaining? What's so difficult about my life? Look at Mark ... smiling and making jokes while he battles cancer." While we supported Mark during his battle with cancer, he unknowingly supported all of us through our life challenges.

Last week, Mark got his test results back after 6 rounds of chemo ... IN REMISSION!!!

What a wonderful gift! It's like Christmas in August! I join everyone when I say thank you to all the doctors, to God, to Mark's family and friends, to Claire ... but I'd also like to say thank you to Mark. For inspiring the rest of us. Showing us what a positive attitude can do. Showing us how to keep living your life even when you've been dealt a poor hand. We're so excited to share more great memories with the Thurbush family when we move back north.

I'm not telling this story to bring anyone down ... I want everyone to use this story as a reason to stop and smell the roses. Slow down a bit and enjoy the little things. Find the silver lining and stay positive. Life is too delicate to be taken for granted. So, I guess my blogging isn't trivial at all ... I'll continue celebrating life's little moments and hope you join me!

**For those whose lives have been affected by cancer and want to support the fight, feel free to donate to our good friend, Mark Thurbush - a true friend and inspiration. He'll be participating in the Lymphoma Walk in Minneapolis this September and has a goal of raising $5000 for cancer research.

http://pages.lightthenight.org/mn/TwinCiti10/ImaSurvivor

Hummingbird Hostel - Part Two

2010-08-09T20:11:00.000-05:00

About this time last year, my dear husband broke down and published his first post on OUR blog. The topic he chose for his masterpiece was my insane love for hummingbirds -- poking a little fun at my obsession. Ha-ha.

Fast forward one year ... and Kyle is just as crazy about these little birds! Seriously! He's too manly to admit it, but that's why it's my turn to "out" him ... blog-style. One word - karma, my dear.

I spotted our first hummingbird of the season the last week in July. Literally, 5 minutes after I commented that their season should be starting soon. Well, they brought more friends this year, and we have probably 20+ hummingbirds whipping through the trees in the backyard and fighting over the feeders!

This time, it was Kyle that suggested we get an additional feeder! You heard right. He ran out to Lowe's to buy a third feeder and perched himself on the deck with our good camera on the tripod to capture some of the show. He even made the comment, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could put a mini-camera on a hummingbird's head to see what he does all day?" I can't make this stuff up, people!

Thought you guys (or y'all, as they say down here) might enjoy a little glimpse of the world out our back door over the past several weeks.

I'm no longer teased for my obsession ... it was apparently contagious, and Kyle has caught it! I love you, honey!

S-H! --- O-E!

2010-08-04T18:40:00.000-05:00

My new creation ...

I'll be running at Buckeye speed in no time. O-H!---I-O!

Thanks, NikeID.com!

Our Rock Garden

2010-08-02T18:42:00.001-05:00

So, I'm not a big fan of landscaping. I mean, I love how it looks, I just don't love creating it. Probably because I haven't taken the time to learn the craft - See our Halloween post last October to learn more about my "half-ass" approach to things to help explain my perspective. :)

As most of our visitors can attest to, our mini-plot of landscaping by the front door leaves a little to be desired. All I can guess is that our contractor threw in whatever plants/bushes/trees he had left to fill it in. There is no pattern and the chosen plants just don't make a whole lot of sense.

(and this was after hours of weeding...)

If we were calling this our home for an extended period of time (or had tended to this chore when we first moved in) we probably would have dug everything up and started over. But, we're not (and we didn't) so we just needed to make it look presentable.

Despite the 95 degree and super muggy weather, Kyle and I spent one of our first wide open weekends in Arkansas (together) doing landscaping. The cursing that ensued made us question our decision, but the final result was pretty rewarding.

Here's Kyle installing a rack for the hose. I'm sure there's a more technical name for it, but the person that might know doesn't do much of the blogging. Ahem ...

Here we are putting down the weed cloth to act as a barrier for those pesky weeds. Oh, the life of a homeowner ...

...and laying down "decorative" rock ... after our 4th and final visit to Lowe's for the day. I would have gone with mulch (cheaper and easier) but my go-big-or-go-home-husband wins again.

Let me just tell you ... the picture of the finished product does not do this justice ... Had I documented the flower bed WITH the weeds, I think it would have helped. For your everyone's sake, tell us how much you love it next time you're over. :)

Almost Famous

2010-07-22T21:38:00.000-05:00

Northwest Arkansas is full of amazing charity groups that receive amazing support from local businesses. I'd like to think all the corporations donate money out of the goodness of their hearts, but the real reason is this - Walmart will not mingle with suppliers outside of work and will not except any gifts (or even a cup of coffee at a meeting) ... so the only way to build relationships with Walmart associates is to sponsor and/or participate in charity events that Walmart associates are also supporting.

Enter ... The First Tee Celebrity Golf Tournament. First Tee is a great group that puts on programs for young kids to teach them character building skills through the game of golf. General Mills is a major sponsor for this event, during which we bring in 20 celebrities to play golf on various teams with Walmart associates and any other corporations that want to buy their way into the mix. It's great that we raise so much money for the First Tee Organization, but again, there are ulterior motives going on, so I can't feel 100% warm and fuzzy about it.

Since we were the presenting sponsor, it was our job to coordinate the celebs ... and they needed volunteers to chauffeur them around for the weekend. I graciously signed up, purely out of the goodness of my heart. :)

I was the chauffeur for Brady Quinn, former Notre Dame and Cleveland Browns QB who now plays for the Broncos, and his girlfriend, Alicia Sacramone, gymnast on the women's silver medal team in Beijing. I picked them up at the airport on Friday, took them to and from the golf tournament on Saturday, and back to the airport on Sunday. Tough job, I know, but someone had to do it!

Here I am with my prized possession from the event ... my family will recognize this t-shirt ... it was passed down from my oldest brother, Jeff, to my middle brother, Jason, to me ... it is faded and full of holes and absolutely the coziest piece of clothing ever ... and now it is signed by Brady Quinn! Kyle is just as excited as I am because he absolutely hates this t-shirt ... and with the autograph, I have decided to retire it. (Little does he know, I'm gonna frame it and hang it on the wall so he doesn't get away from it entirely.)

Here I am grabbing pics was some of my favorite celebs ...

Me and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 4 time Olympian (1984-1996) and gold medalist in heptathalon and long jump. That's me on the right. :)

Me and Darron Sharper, former Packer ... this one was at Kyle's request ... but I didn't mind.

Me and Seth Wescott, Olympic gold medalist in snowboard cross in 2006 and 2010. I had him sign a Wheaties box because his picture made it on the box after the Vancouver Olympics. He was a super cool and very layed back guy. He even came out with us for drinks on Friday night. That's just how I roll!

And, last but not least, the star of the show ... and the cute butt in my car ... Brady Quinn! Really polite guy and easy to talk to. He was super cute with his girlfriend (who came up to my shoulder so he could pretty much put her in his pocket) ... always asking if she was okay, if she needed anything. I guess he even surprised her and changed his flight to meet her in Chicago to fly down together. He even texted me after he got on his plane to fly home ... a little thank you note for driving them around all weekend. In other words, ladies, I got his digits.

What can I say, it's a rough life that I lead. I mean, I'm practically famous.

A Blessed 4th of July

2010-07-21T20:00:00.000-05:00

Kyle and I traded another road trip in for two tickets to fly to Minneapolis for the 4th of July holiday. We spent a wonderful 4 days in Wisconsin with Kyle's family. It reminded me again of how lucky I am that my husband's family is so wonderful ... and I'm not just searching for brownie points (although, they never hurt!)

Here are the stars of the show - Kyle's little cousins, Hallie and Ciana, at 3 months old. Adorable, huh? (The cute little runt on the left is our new God Daughter!)

And here are the girls getting baptised by Father Ed, Kyle's great-uncle who presided over our wedding almost 2 years ago. Pretty neat!

Here we are with Ciana, proud new Godparents! Breathe, mothers. I know anytime people see Kyle and I with a baby they get to thinking ... ... ... We figure there are more than enough babies to go 'round for now! We want to get this aunt/uncle/godparent thing down first. (but we do look good, huh?)

This picture looks like two sets of twins ... but it's me and Abby (Kyle's cousin) and the twins after their baptism. We let them chill in their diapers for the afternoon after swimming in their ginormous baptism dresses all morning. They earned it!

Here's another pair of look-alikes ... sisters, Grandma Dot on the left and Aunt Berni on the right ... feeding little Ciana. They even have coordinating outfits on, I mean, how cute is that?!?

Kyle's Uncle Bill and his girlfriend Chris, and Kyle's Aunt Mimi and her boyfriend, Jeff, even drove to Eau Claire to see us. We're excited to move back to Minneapolis, but, boy are we popular when we live far away! (Here we are with Mimi and Jeff ... sorry, Bill and Chris ... we'll have to remember to get a picture together next time!)

After enjoying our time with family and celebrating the baptism, we headed up north to Kyle's hometown of Chetek for Liberty Fest. For those of you from small towns, you know the drill ... parades, street dance, beach party ... being more of a city girl, this stuff is always fun for me. We hit up the drive-in for some amazing root beer and cheese curds and stopped at the local bar on the lake for a brewski.

I even purchased some beers for the evening from my very own sister-in-law! Yes, she's kind of a big deal. Not only is she working in a consignment store in Eau Claire, but she's also selling liquor to the locals in Chetek. Thanks, Em! The Leinie's was delicious!

Kyle and I enjoyed 4th of July with Emily and her boyfriend, Cody, out on the chain of lakes around Chetek. We watched some of the ski show (not nearly as good as when Emily was on the team) and listened to the music pumping at the beach party. It was nice to spend a little quality time with Em and Cody and the weather cooperated for most of the afternoon.

The weekend ended with a campfire at the house with the whole family. Here's Kyle hard at work to build the fire for us ... just before he douses it with lighter fluid ... I think he missed Boy Scouts. :)

Happy Belated 4th of July! Thanks to Aunt Jodi and Uncle Patrick for choosing us to be Ciana's Godparents (we're honored,) and thanks to Kyle's family for a wonderful weekend!

The Rechtin Family Reunion 2010

2010-07-14T19:00:00.000-05:00

At the end of June, I cashed in some frequent flier miles for a short trip to Ohio (sans Kyle as he didn't have the vacation time to burn ... he used it up on some trip to Europe or something.)

First up, I was able to see my best friend, Rocky's, new baby, Ryan Thomas, born one month earlier. ADORABLE, huh!?!??!

She has packed her Tom Boy roots away to become an adorable new mom. In fact, I was visiting on their 4th wedding anniversary so, naturally, we celebrated with some margaritas! Don't worry, we left the baby with Grandma and Grandpa for safe keeping. Congrats to Rocky and Tom! You are a beautiful couple, and I know you'll be wonderful parents!

And here are the three amigos together again, me and my two best friends from growing up, Lisa and Rocky. The three of us have posed together a million times throughout our lives ... but this is the first time we've done it with one of our "mini-me's" in the shot.

Since I was home for family time, I had to get in some quality time with our dog, Sandy. Kyle and I have been talking about getting a dog for years, we just can't agree on what kind or when. I suggest we just steal this one ... she's pretty perfect!

Then it was off to Cincinnati for the Rechtin family reunion ... my mom's side of the family. More specifically, northern Kentucky ... but we get fewer jokes if we just say Cincy. :) My mom grew up in Fort Thomas, right across the Ohio River. We used to spend every Easter with this side of the family, and I truly have some of the best childhood memories from those trips.

Let me fess up, I love my relatives and all ... but I was really influenced to make the trip because my favorite little man, my nephew Vaughn, was going to be there! I told Kyle about the reunion and it took him about 16 seconds to figure out why I wanted to go so bad. But seriously, how can you say no to either of these cute faces!

Our first night we hit up the Hofbrauhaus! I totally didn't plan it this way, but I just mentioned the Hofbrauhaus in Cincinnati in my previous Germany posting (remember, it's second rate to the original) but I'll tell ya, for the area, it's a pretty fun place to go for some good German food and some better German beers! Here's my Dad anxiously awaiting our dinner.

Once again, me with an obscene amount of German food in front of me ... I'm seeing a pattern. This time, the food was actually all mine, only they gave me the wrong side dishes 3 times so I got to keep all the mistakes! Don't worry, I shared (my food, not my beer.)

Vaughn even got in on the action! It's the German in his blood ...

Here we are on Cousin Tom's new toy ... a refurbished fire truck from Ft. Thomas. He took us all on rides and honked the fancy horn. Reunions tend to be a little light on the entertainment so this really was a highlight. Impressive, huh?!?!

Here's little Vaughn doing his best Beyonce impression ... with the wind flowing through his hair ... (or maybe it was just the fan blowing in his face so he didn't overheat, same difference.)

And here's Vaughn, hanging out with Uncle Jason - all smiles from both of the boys.

And the Mulhausen kids hanging out with our little cousin, Hayden.

My mom even surprised us all with matching t-shirts with our names on the back. (I said surprise, I didn't say in a good way ... kidding, Mom ... I am actually wearing mine right now.) It was so special to have us all together. Being a family that is spread across the map, it doesn't happen very often. I only wish the other half of me was there to enjoy it. Next time.

Ich liebe Schnitzel und Bier

2010-07-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

The final country on our world tour was Germany (saving the best for last!) This stop was not initially on Beth's "must see" list ... but I had to include it given my German roots, and the fact that my best friend during my studies in Denmark lives in Munich. Needless to say, Beth was impressed.

Here is my friend, Patrick, and his girlfriend, Nadine. They were gracious enough to let us stay two nights in their gorgeous apartment.

Not only was it gorgeous ... but it was across the street from the park where they hold the annual Oktoberfest! Yes, literally, right across the street. Kyle and I WILL be coming to visit someday to experience this beer fest together in the fall. I was lucky enough to attend during my "studies" in Denmark, but I know Kyle would have a blast.

Here I am with my first authentic German meal. That's one happy German girl! While I do eat like a trucker (See That Girl Can Eat blog from last December) that big plate in front of me was for all three of us to share. :)

Patrick took us on a tour around the city. Loved this shot of the bakery with all the pretzels and one of our many lederhosen sightings. It was a holiday in Germany that day, Father's Day and something else, so there were more people wearing lederhosen around town - hilarious. Those are the leather overalls for those not familiar with this wonder of fashion.

Our hiking nightmare apparently followed us to Germany where Beth and I posed with this statue of a wild boar. We came. We hiked. We conquered. (yes, we're very confident now that we're back in civilization! Good little boar ...)

Here is the famous cuckoo clock in Marianplatz (the main city square.) The little figurines dance every hour.

Here's a random work of art known as The Running Man. I'm the one in the front. :)

Here was a sight we were not expecting. Let me set the scene. It was no more than 50 degrees, with a constant misty rain falling. We wandered to Englischer Garten (their massive version of Central Park) only to find a bunch of guys surfing in the river. Somehow there is a huge current right by this bridge, so the guys suit up in wet suits and catch waves with a crowd of spectators. Pretty fun to watch.

My favorite part of the trip was a visit to The Hofbrauhaus. The historic beer hall in town with a live band playing polka music, beer flowing like water and pretzels the size of your head. AKA - Heaven. Cincinnati is the sister city of Munich and has its own (second-rate) version of the Hofbrauhaus ... fun, but doesn't hold a candle to this place. -- I'd like to take this moment to brag about my father ... he played accordion at The Hofbrauhaus on our Germany trip back in the summer of 2000, and he blew them away! --

Here's the pretzel girl, my dream job, with above-mentioned pretzels the size of your head.

We finished our visit to Germany and our 2 weeks running around Europe with a huge schnitzel dinner. It's breaded and fried pork or veal, usually served with potatoes. And, of course, beer. "Ich liebe Schnitzel und Bier" means I love schnitzel and beer. Ain't that the truth!

Thanks to Patrick for being our wonderful host in Munich. Thanks to all my friends for hosting us and showing us around your beautiful cities. And, I'd like to thank Beth for being such a great travel partner ... running ourselves ragged through 5 countries, with smiles always on our faces!

A Milan Minute

2010-07-11T15:47:00.001-05:00

We made a quick stop through Milan on our way to Munich. Literally, we were there for less than 24 hours, but another great city to add to our list - too good to ignore in the blog review. We met up with my friend, Wanda, who hosted us at her apartment and took us to dinner with a group of her friends.

There was a ginormous downpour in the middle of the day, so Beth and I snuck into a tiny restaurant to stay dry. Boy, did we stumble into heaven. Adorable little place with a cute little waiter anxious to take care of us. Amazing wine and the best cheese plate we'd had our entire vacation (and believe me, we had a lot of cheese plates!) It was one of those unexpected "life is good" moments.

We toured the Duomo ... the second largest cathedral in Europe, behind Notre Dam and just breathtaking.

We also wandered through The Galleria ... an open air mall of sorts, full of fancy stores and ornately decorated with mosaic floors. There is also a tradition to put your heel on the, ehem, balls of the bull on the mosaic in the floor ... spin around three times and make a wish. If Beth wished for an amazing trip, I'm pretty sure it came true.

Electric Fences and Wild Boars

2010-07-06T09:52:00.000-05:00

After our time in Rome, Beth and I took the train to the Northwestern coast of Tuscany ... to visit 5 small fishing villages directly on the coast called Cinque Terre (meaning "five lands" in Italian.) This spot was a new one for me, and let me just say, it should be on everyone's bucket list. One of the most gorgeous places I have ever visited!

First I'll share some of the more breathtaking shots ...

We sat at the bar on the lower left corner to enjoy some local wine. Spoiled rotten, I know.

I mean, the scenery is like a painting ... I practically look superimposed! Wouldn't happen, I don't have the Photo Shop skills. :)

We even gave it our best shot to blend in with the locals and hung our laundry out to dry!

Next we move on to the story of our marathon hike, the inspiration for the strange title of this blog. It'll all make sense in just a minute.

This spot in Italy is known for it's hiking trails, but due to all the rain before we arrived, the most famous coastal trails between all the towns were closed. There were several winding trails up in the mountains, but we were not sure we wanted to attempt those, so we picked another town about halfway up the mountain that had an olive press and winery we wanted to explore.

Enter the very vague sign posted for what we thought was the trail to the little town. The trail was called Groppo, which was the name of the town, so we assumed it would stop there before continuing on up the mountain. Our first mistake.

Here I am enjoying the view. We are literally up in the vineyards that cascade down the mountains with a gorgeous view of the sea in the background. Notice the smile. At this point, we clearly do not realize what we've gotten ourselves into.

Literally over 3 grueling hours later ... we have made it to the top of the mountain (after realizing our blunder, it was easier to keep going up then to try and retrace our difficult steps) ... only to find a fence ... with a sign ...

You read correctly ... our path ran us right into an electric fence! Seriously?! Beth started throwing things at it to see if it was active. No sparks. We finally noticed a gate that we carefully stepped through. Not sure if we were now on the inside or outside of whatever the fence was surrounding, but we were thankfully not electrocuted in the process.

Here was our next view ... over the side of the mountain next to our path ... encouraging ...

At this point ... we realize that we got on the wrong path and based on our sketchy map, estimated that if we stayed the course, we would loop back around to the starting point after a good 6 hours or so. Given that the sky was full of dark looming clouds, we figured that was not our best approach. But again, retracing our steps was not an option since we were practically climbing straight up the whole way.

Now on the "other" side of the fence ... I notice this sign on another gate ...

Are you kidding me?!?!? It now appears that we are on the wrong side of the fence and it is Wild Boar territory!! We are both freaking out on the inside but keeping our composure on the outside so as not to further freak out the other person. I seriously have visions of Man vs. Wild episodes in my head ... what would Bear Grylls do? Can wild boars climb trees? Will they be attracted to my bright white rain coat? We even argued about whose idea it was to go on this stupid hike. Dear God ... we are going to be eaten alive and no one will even know we're gone.

Now on the opposite side of the "wild boar gate" ... we notice a dirt road and decide it has to take us somewhere. We swear that God dropped it there for us right at that moment ... I mean, we're honest, hard-working, nice girls ... worthy of being saved, right? We followed the dirt road for another hour or so as it criss crossed halfway back down the mountain and we spotted civilization! Amen!

We make our way to this small town atop a hill and sit at the bus stop for the tourist shuttle that will take us back down to the coast. Ironically, there was a picture map of the area hanging by the bus stop with a picture of a wild boar amidst the forest on the mountain top. He looks a lot cuter than the one I was picturing in my head ...

Needless to say, we made it out alive and treated ourselves to a huge pasta dinner and a bottle of wine that night. Nothing like making memories in the boar-infested mountains of Tuscany!

When in Rome

2010-07-05T21:45:00.000-05:00

Beth and I spent a large portion of our travels in the beautiful country of Italy ... 2 days in Rome, 3 in Cinque Terre and 1 in Milan ... which amounts to - NOT enough!

Rome was full of ornate fountains,

super cute girls eating the best gelato ever,

quaint restaurants with delicious pasta and wine (and hot waiters - sorry, ladies, we forgot to take a picture,)

men in uniform (good) with massive guns (bad) on the streets,

fancy stores with clothing we couldn't afford,

and you guessed it, more rain (as you can see in the pic of The Vatican below.)

We even caught up with our friend's brother, Jay, who is studying in Rome and was gracious enough to give us a tour around the city for the afternoon.

We had a blast in Rome but really needed more time to do the city justice. We took advantage of the 2 days that we did have - walking around town (in the rain) so much that I had to leave my favorite shoes behind. I'm sure they don't mind living the rest of their lives in Italy - I know I wouldn't!

One more posting of Italy on the way soon ... then to my German roots ... and it's back to our lives in the States. Life really is good.

Birthdays in Minneapolis

2010-06-23T09:22:00.000-05:00

WE INTERRUPT THIS EUROPE TRIP REVIEW FOR ANOTHER SPECIAL REPORT:

Our recent trip to Minneapolis!

So, we finally overlapped our work trips to Minneapolis last week. It only took us 18 months. But, as good as I am about documenting our lives ... I didn't even get a picture of the two of us! I flew into town for work on Kyle's 29th birthday. Unfortunately, I will never be able to tease him for being old since I've got 6 months on him. :)

In between our days in the office, we took full advantage of seeing friends.

Rebekah and Jim are now expecting! Leave it to me to only get a picture from the neck up. ;) She has the most adorable little baby bump. Congrats, you two! Baby Archer is due in November.

We had a cookout at Adrian and Josh's house and enjoyed our time with their little boy, Austin. He just turned one and had a pirate party to celebrate last week.

The big event was a surprise 30th birthday party for Claire on Saturday. Her wonderful hubby, Mark, planned the whole day - starting at the spa and ending with a surprise dinner on the rooftop of a restaurant downtown. Due to some adult beverages, it also included a few splashes in the fountains of Minneapolis.

(Claire thought we were on the road back to Arkansas when she noticed me during the first surprise)

(The six of us, including Claire and her sis, a friend from college, a neighbor and two of her Gmills friends ... one of those from R-Kansas!)

(The above mentioned fountain splashing)

(our very own Kyle is on the right in the blue)

(The happy couple, Claire and Mark. Surprise accomplished!)

(The downtown skyline from the rooftop bar that we visited after dinner - boy do I love this town!)

After yet another 10 hour drive back to Arkansas, Kyle was greeted with a birthday celebration, including a decorated office and several gifts. It was a happy ending to a very happy trip.

Happy Birthday, Kyle!!!!

The Rain in Spain ...

2010-06-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest, Barcelona is not as pretty during a torrential downpour. We only had 1 day / 1 night to spend in Barcelona (less the 3 hours we lost in the airport in Paris) so we knew it would be tough to see the city - but we didn't account for solid rain the entire time. As seen in this picture, our raincoats were our favorite accessory.

While we didn't get much of a flavor for the city, we did make sure we saw the most famous of sights that Barcelona has to offer - La Sagrada Familia. It's a temple created by well-known architect Gaudi. Construction began back in the early 1800's and ... get this ... it's still being built! That's right ... they expect another 20 years before they are finally complete. Not only was the temple breathtaking and absolutely massive, you really felt like you were a part of history stepping inside while construction was still going on around you. I've seen a lot of "touristy landmarks" in my years of traveling, but I have to say, this was definitely one of my all time favorites. Beth and I plan to go back in 20 years to see it after completion.

If you look closely at this diagram ... the colored portion of the temple is the completed portion, and the portion outlined in black is yet to come. I can't even believe how big it is going to be ... because it already consumes a ginormous city block.

A gorgeous 3-hour train ride along the coast took us to Valencia, the home of my friend Luis who also lived with me in Copenhagen. (Valencia - pronounced Balenthia in the local Spanish dialect) Get ready ladies, he's a Spanish Stallion!

He gave us a tour of his beautiful city, including the bull fighting arena in the center of town. Seriously, he was like "...and here is our bull fighting arena." As if it's totally normal! Well, in Spain, it is.

The city has a very modern section with a cutting edge Science Center and Opera House as well as the traditional old town with all the history. The weather was gorgeous, and Valencia more than made up for our soggy time in Barcelona.

We continued our strategy of eating through Europe and indulged in some juicy oranges (get it, we're in Valencia, people!) and endulged in a ginormous paella. Apparently, it's lunch fare, but Luis let us order it for dinner so we didn't miss out on the experience.

We were impressed (or disgusted, as the case may be) by the dent we made in this thing! I think that's the American in us.

If you've traveled with me at all, you know I like the secret-behind-the-scenes type shots that people don't even know you are taking. Well, Beth got me good on this one! Really cool shot strolling in Valencia. Funny that there's a Farmacia in the background (Pharmacy) as I had to find one of those in just about ever country to keep myself pumped with allergy medicine. I did not realize that Spring allergies are International - note to self, plan the next big trip in the fall.

Here is the gorgeous central market in town - with fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, spices ... absolutely amazing place to do your daily grocery shopping. Take note of the woman with the mini cart on wheels in the picture ... and if you're ever shopping in a fresh market in Spain - make room for those carts. The old ladies will literally run you over. Beth caught the evil eye from one little Spanish grandma.

Here is the old gate to enter the city, back when it was walled. You can even see holes in it from gunshots during the Civil War.

And, my Ansel Adams shot. I feel so professional anytime I set it to black and white or sepia tone - I just feel professional using the word sepia. I have as much artistic talent as my brothers have in their pinky fingers, so I do what I can.

We climbed to the top of the St. Michelina tower ... making sure to stretch at the top. (We learned the hard way when neither of us could walk the day after climbing Bunker Hill Monument in Boston on a previous trip together.)

Another country complete! And after 3 days here in Spain, Beth demonstrates one of our least favorite, but necessary tasks. If only we could backpack through Europe without having to haul the backpacks. (Similar to my request for Kyle to drive me to my massage, but that's a whole different blog ...)

Italy ... here we come!

A Piece of Paris

2010-06-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

Bonjour, my dear blog readers!

After a 2.5 hour train ride, Beth and I arrive in Paris. After getting lost in the train station (give us a break, it's huge and all in French!) we finally found the lockers to store our bags for the day and set off to tour the town.

Beth has dreamed of visiting Paris since her French class in 7th grade, so this trip has been a long time coming. Here she is, living her dream at Notre Dame!

The Eiffel Tower is just as gorgeous as you would imagine. It's almost surreal to see it after its many appearances in movies.

Word to the wise ... it's an absolute zoo getting to the top of the Eiffel Tower - a "goat-roping festival" as my husband would say. Long lines with pushy tourists, squished like sardines into tiny elevators, and a bit anti-climactic peering at tiny white buildings below through a metal cage. In our opinion, not really worth it. (Sorry if I've crushed your dreams, but seeing it from the ground is breathtaking.) Here we are at the top!

After a long first day of "playing tourist," we met my friend Sophie at her apartment in a suburb of Paris. Sophie and I lived in the same dorm while studying in Copenhagen, so we were able to stay with her for the weekend. So nice to avoid the hotels and get a little local flavor. She and her husband Ced recently had their first child, Alexandre, the chunkiest little baby ever! SO adorable! And pretty hilarious to hear his little toys speaking French - they sounded so refined.

I didn't even realize, but Sophie worked at P&G ... the same company Beth works for! It was fun that their P&G lingo translated across the pond and we even swung buy to get a picture in front of the P&G Paris Office.

Our second day in town was May Day, a holiday in Paris, so most places were closed. We strolled along the Champs Elysees (famous shopping street,) saw the Arc de Triomphe, and ate lunch in a charming square with artists, called Montmartre. As most of my family and friends can attest to, I'm a bit slow at making decisions ... so after close to an hour wandering around the square deliberating about which painting I wanted to purchase, I came back to my favorite artist, only to see my favorite painting being purchased before my eyes. That darn lady came out of nowhere! Here's a face Kyle is probably familiar with ... (I learned it growing up as the baby in the family!)

We went out to dinner with Sophie and Ced to a fancy restaurant on the Seine River. So fancy, I got to inspect my lobster before they dropped him in the boiling water. Poor Beth - she's a vegetarian but held up very well as I said goodbye to my soon-to-be-dinner.

Mmm Mmm Good ... Good thing I lived in Boston for a year so I knew how to eat a Lobsta!

In thanks for hosting us for the weekend, Beth and I covered the tab. Let's just say, if I knew how much that bottle of wine cost, I would not have left two sips in my glass. :)

Our last day, we visited the palace and gardens of Versailles, home to the monarchs of France prior to the Revolution. (Louis XIII and all his Louis successors) The gardens were expansive, but we were surprised they only included hedges and no flowers. The fountains were gorgeous and the skies that day looked like a painting.

Here is the busy Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace.

We shared a cab to the airport with Ced the next morning, as he was traveling for work. We scheduled an early early flight so that we could take advantage of as much time as possible for our one day in Barcelona. What happens next? A three hour delay! The French had a lot more patience than I've seen from any American passengers with a ridiculously delayed flight. Very short on updates, but we finally made it out of Paris.

Thank you to Sophie, Ced and Alexandre for an amazing weekend in an amazing city!

Join us next in Spain - Barcelona and Valencia.

The Tale of Two Cities

2010-06-03T10:38:00.000-05:00

Kyle and I flew to London for the last couple days of Kyle's adventure. While we loved the location of our hotel, just along the northern edge of beautiful Hyde Park, it felt like one of those tiny rooms on a cruise ship. Here I am, touching two of the walls at once.

Our first mission was to hunt down some delicious fish and chips. I know us Americans get a bad wrap for our french fries, but I'd bet they eat more "chips" in Europe than we - seriously, they are a side dish for just about every entree in some countries.

We explored all the major sights and really fell in love with the city. Kyle did not expect to like it because of its size, and I didn't remember much of it besides seeing Big Ben and the Doc Marten store on my high school trip ... but we were both pleasantly surprised and wished we had more time here.

I know what you're thinking, "cute picture in front of London Bridge." And you would be right that this is a cute picture. But, we are actually standing in front of the Tower Bridge. Very common to mistake the two. At least you got the important part right. :)

Here we are in front of the London Eye - aka a ginormous ferris wheel. We didn't find time to go for a ride.

Kyle in front of Big Ben and a famously British phone booth. Really, people still use those things? I think they just keep them around for tourists like us to take silly pictures.

Kissing my Prince Charming in front of Buckingham Palace.

My favorite part of our visit, surprisingly, was the Churchill Museum and War Rooms. Clearly, not a place I would have seeked out but it was on Kyle's list so I obliged given that I had two more days here with Beth. It was just so surreal to be walking through the underground hallways and rooms where Winston Churchill and his men developed their strategies during World War II. We even saw Churchill's private room with a phone that would call direct to President Roosevelt. Very interesting visit.

Here is one of the underground deliberation rooms used by the British during the war - so crazy.

Then it came time for my dear hubby to head home. I jumped on the train to head to the airport with him and got him checked in with both of our bags. I was now going to live out of my backpack for the next two weeks. We had such a wonderful time together, and I have to admit, I shed a few tears as he walked through security to his gate. It brought back so many memories of our days dating long-distance, where we had to go through those goodbyes much more often than I care to remember.

Like the professional traveler that I am, I took the train to another airport in town to pick up my college friend, Beth Blue. Since Kyle didn't have enough vacation time to stay longer than 2 weeks, she came over to tour around with me for another 2 weeks, visiting friends from my study abroad days in Denmark. This was her first time in Europe so we packed every last minute. So glad she was able to join me! We decided we are BTB's - Best Travel Buddies. We've been to Boston, New York, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, and twice to Orlando together. We added 5 countries to our list, and plenty more destinations to come!

We hit up some of the same sights while riding a double decker bus - then we added some girly flavor. An afternoon tea party on the top floor of a high class department store, Fortnum and Mason. I do say, we had a lovely time. Just splendid!

We even caught a musical in Picadilly Circus ... Billy Elliot. Breathtaking show - literally. I thought the show started later than it did, so we were literally sprinting to the theatre and crawling over people to get to our seats during the opening scene, completely out of breath.

London was a beautiful city, and we lucked out with much nicer weather than the norm. I was lucky to get a man's view of the city (visiting war museums) and a women's view (with tea parties and musicals.) It really was like two cities for the price of one.

At this point, it was goodbye to my husband and hello to Beth and a jam packed 2 weeks of travel ahead. Next stop: Paris.

18 lbs of Pure Sugar

2010-06-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

WE INTERRUPT THIS EUROPE TRIP REVIEW FOR A SPECIAL REPORT:

Memorial Day with Vaughn!!!

We hit the road last Friday for the 8.5 hour trip to Austin to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Kathleen, and their adorable son, Vaughn – our favorite little nephew!

I did most of the driving to give poor Kyle a break as he hits the road for Minneapolis this coming weekend. (It never ends.) While the drive was long … it was all worth it when we saw him smile at us for the first time. Are you kidding me?!?! I could feel my heart melt right then and there. I’m just in awe at this little munchkin – who turned into a little man since we saw him last February. He's literally double the size ... 5 months going on 15!

Vaughn rockin' his baby ear protection for all that live music he's going to catch in Austin.

Bonding with Uncle Kyle ... I mean, is he cute or what? Vaughn is adorable, too. :)

Skyping with Grandpa back in Cleveland. He's been doing this for 5 months already, so he's clearly a pro!

The Mulhausen kids squeezing into the webcam shot for Grandma to take a Skype picture.

I took the liberty of branding our little peanut ... I think he needs to do commercials.

Continuing with the theme of dressing him up like a doll, here is Vaughn in his new kilt from Scotland! (He wants to be like Uncle Kyle) It's for 2 year olds so he'll have to grow into it.

Sitting at the table for family breakfast, praying for a bite of waffle!

Hanging with Aunt Tracie and Uncle Kyle.

In the midst of all the baby fun, Jeff took us to see a Roller Derby match. My dream since I watched the movie Whip It and was enamored by this quirky sport. Dusty Doublewide was my favorite … I am unable to share some of the other names as I’d like to keep this blog clean.

Kath and I even found time for a pedicure, while the boys watched Vaughn. Spoiled rotten and loving every minute of it.

Kyle and I got to enjoy some trashy beers at Freddie's Place on our last night in town.

We had to drive back on Monday and with traffic, it took us close to 10 hours. All the while, little Vaughn was enjoying his first pool party! He really is a sweet, smiley baby - 18 lbs of pure sugar and boy do I have a sweet tooth!

Dirty Dublin ... Literally

2010-05-23T20:41:00.000-05:00

After our week in Scotland, the airports reopened right on time, and we flew over to Dublin, Ireland. Russell and Fiona have friends that are trying to sell their flat in Dublin and were willing to rent it to use for the weekend. Really amazing place and in a great location! We were lucky to have so much room to ourselves ... a kitchen to make breakfast in the morning, a washer/dryer to finally do some laundry, and a couch and tv to veg out a bit. I even tried to get in some exercising with the resistance band I packed, which Kyle thought was hilarious. How else is a girl supposed to keep her figure with all that beer?!?!

I'll cut to the chase and say, if you don't like beer, don't bother going to Dublin. Most of our trip centered around brewery tours, pub tours and sampling good beers. Good thing I'm German and had no trouble keeping up!

Within 2 hours of landing in Dublin, we were off to the Guiness Brewery tour. The final stop of the tour is a "free" pint (after the $15 entry fee) at the Gravity Bar at the very top of the building - with 360 degree views of the city. Not exactly breath taking, given Dublin is a bit of a run down blue collar town ... but still a lovely spot to relax for the afternoon.

We stopped at the Jameson distillery, but given that they no longer distill at this location and the fact that we toured multiple distilleries in Scotland and could probably have given the tour, we settled on a drink and a swing through the giftshop. Take a look at the picture of Kyle sipping his whiskey for another "gift" we discovered in the background. How could you not feel a draft?!?!

We enjoyed a pint at The Brazenhead - the oldest pub in town. Looks like some fellow Clevelanders had done the same as there were police badges of Cleveland suburbs posted on the wall. Us Clevelanders sure do get around ... do you blame us?!?!

So, there you have it. The three big tourist events were all related to alcohol. But wait for it ... our favorite day was a rural pub tour. 9 hours, 6 pubs! I wasn't kidding about that beer thing.

The Irish countryside was beautiful, the people were friendly, the pubs were cozy and the beer went down easy. Our tour guide, Shane, was fantastic! Kyle sparked up conversation with a local and in no time was playing a round of Irish pool. (same rules smaller table) We heard some live music, ate a good traditional meal, and even poured our own pint of Guinness (perfectly, I might add) behind the bar. Not to worry, mums, Shane dropped us off at the door to our flat and we safely tucked ourselves in for the night.

We had a nice time in Dublin, but we decided it was not our favorite city. It was quite dirty compared to Edinburgh (and most European cities I've visited, or even US cities for that matter) and very expensive. Even more so than London, we would soon learn. I think we just allotted too many days to the city. Had we chosen to rent a car and see the countryside, I think we would have been happier. But, we did have time to relax in our own apartment and get ready for our next adventure in London!

From Whisky to Gravestones?!?!

2010-05-20T19:41:00.000-05:00

Euro Post #2. Scotland (non-wedding)

Kyle and I spent a total of about a week in Scotland ... a few days before and after the wedding. I was lucky enough to explore the country with my mom back in the fall of 2007 and was SO excited to revisit this beautiful place with Kyle.

I have to say, out of all the places I've traveled, Scotland is definitely one of my favorites. To the point that I'd skip seeing new places to revisit and continue exploring all that Scotland has to offer. That's saying a lot for me. Maybe this explains part of my attraction to Kyle as he has some Scottish blood. ;)

Both of our checked bags arrived in Scotland. What a relief! For those of you that don't know, Kyle's first trip to Europe was back in December of 2003 to visit me at the end of my study abroad program in Copenhagen. He arrived, but his bags didn't and boy was he pissed. While his temper has mellowed with age, I still didn't want to test the waters. To add to our luck, the Icelandic volcano hit the very next morning ... so we got in just in time. And while the airports were all shut down for a week, we were playing around in Scotland, so no interruptions for us!

Our amazing friends, Russell and Fiona, hosted us at their flat (apartment in British speak) for 5 days. Super sweet of them considering they had a wedding to prepare for! Here's a picture of their flat and our entire crew reunited. Us, Russell & Fiona and Liam & Bethan - it was the 6 of us that traveled to Florida together last May.

We toured Edinburgh (beautiful, friendly, clean city) for a couple days, enjoyed the wedding festivities for a couple days, a day of rest and recovery, then went to the eerily deserted airport to rent our car and tour whisky country up north. I had driven on the "wrong side of the road" before in Ireland for a week during my study abroad program and for 2 weeks with my mom, but you never get used to it. Similar to driving in the states, Kyle proved to be better on the windy, country roads and I could better handle the busy city driving.

We stayed at a fantastic B&B in Speyside, the heart of whisky country, in the northern Highlands of Scotland. Among several others, we toured the Glenfiddich distillery, one of Kyle's favorites. They were very generous with their samples (even more so since our tour guide was a Packer's fan!) but don't worry, I was the DD so Kyle was able to enjoy his whisky. You can see the "enjoyment" in his eyes.

Russell's Aunt Brenda and Uncle David, who sat at our table at the wedding, actually live 20 minutes from our B&B, so they met us at a local pub for a few drinks. Super nice of them to show us a little more local flavor ... we're talking about a one room pub that fit the bar, a fireplace, 8 people and one dog ... max. Now that's local flavor!

Here's the 82 year old bartender, Joe. Kinda looks like another cute little Grandpa Joe we know! He owns the place and used to run it with his wife before she passed away. He lives on the other side of the building and closes up shop whenever his last customer leaves.

Our last day in Scotland was spent driving to Ochiltree, just south of Glasgow, to visit the cemetary where Kyle's great-great-great-great grandfather was buried. His Grandma Mary traced their roots and visited Ochiltree back in 1995, just before she passed away. So, not only were we walking in the footsteps of his ancestors, but we were tracing his Grandmother's steps on the same journey. Very moving experience and gave us the itch to do more tracing of our roots. Singen, Germany, here we come! (That's the Mulhausen side of the family, if you couldn't guess)

Kyle is holding the picture of his Grandma Mary doing the same pose that he is doing. Very cool.

Thank you, Scotland. We promise to come back and visit again someday. I mean, technically, we are Scots ... and we've got the pictures to prove it!

A Guy, A Girl and Two Skirts

2010-05-15T15:16:00.000-05:00

The moment you've all been waiting for ... our very own Kyle Petersen wearing a kilt!!! He wears it quite well, I might add. Must be his Scottish blood ...

[Plenty more where this came from ... I am charging $5 per copy if anyone wants official bribe material.] :)

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So, we are finally both back in the country and full of the most amazing memories and pictures, ever! We had an absolutely outstanding time in Europe ... but it is nice to be home.

We will do our best to give you a taste of our travels in several blogs over the next couple weeks. All I can tell you is that the pictures are amazing, but just don't do it justice - I recommend you all plan a trip to get over there someday. It's worth it. I might have a Coach bag (or two) and more shoes than I know what to do with, but the bulk of my money goes toward experiences, not material things. 10 years from now, will I look back and think, "Boy, did I love that black leather purse I carried around in 2010?" No ... but we will never forget the beautiful wedding in Scotland, all the people we met, friends we visited, places we saw and memories that we made on our European adventure of 2010.

I'm going to focus this posting on the wedding in Scotland. Again, the impetus for our trip was the wedding of our dear friends Russell and Fiona that we met on our honeymoon in Jamaica. We were honored to share their special day, but it also gave us the kick in the pants we needed to take a European vacation together ... and, to get Kyle in a kilt!

Here's Kyle getting fitted for his kilt the day before the wedding ... jeans and all. He was such a good sport about the whole thing. I think he was secretly excited to wear a skirt, but don't tell him I said that. :)

Rehearsal dinner the night before ... not a typical Scottish tradition, but Fiona grew up for a while in the states so they adopted a little American flavor. Kyle tried haggis for the first time! Father of the Bride is on the far right and the couple in the back middle are Russell's parents.

Here's the wedding location ... Dundas Castle. Just stunning, from the outside and inside.

Here we are at the top of the castle during our explorations when we arrived at the castle. We were like little kids running around to see everything. We stayed in the Buttercup Room, which was just "lovely." (After hearing this word so frequently in the UK, I've decided I need to use it more often. And "brilliant" is another adjective I'm bringing back to the states. Much more classy than "awesome" and "cool," don't you agree?)

Here's Kyle getting all suited up. Right down to the special tie of the shoe.

We had a short panic attack when we realized that they didn't show Kyle how to put the tie on and everyone else seemed to have a clip on. Cruel joke to give the American the old fashioned kind! We ran into their wedding coordinator who graciously helped us out. Check out his ear piece. This guy was no joke ... like the wedding planner, Franck, played by Martin Short in Father of the Bride - classic.

Kyle and the groom before the ceremony. Handsome couple.

The ceremony was held in the Auld Keep ... fitting 60 people, max. Braveheart was playing as we waited for the ceremony to begin ... gave me the chills.

The happy couple after they were officially announced as husband and wife!

One of the few differences between this celebration and most American weddings we have attended ... they cut the cake with a sword! I'm sure Kyle would have loved to do that back in Door County!

Our dinner table, following a fantastic cocktail hour. We sat with aunts, uncles and family friends. Everyone was so welcoming. Not more than 2 minutes after we sat down, Jock (the man to my left,) passed around a flask of whisky!

Here we are at the bar during the reception. Several more people arrived for the party and dancing in the evening. Do you see how many kilts I am surrounded by?!?! Lucky girl, I know.

The evening started with a live band playing traditional music, and Kyle and I got pulled up on the dance floor to learn several traditional group dance. But the later hours in the night were accompanied by all the classics we would hear back home ... here's Kyle and Russell rocking out to Journey.

And here's our customary photo with the happy couple that we like to get at all the weddings we attend. Good lookin' crew.

The celebration ended with a night cap in the library before retreating to our rooms. We were greeted with a tasty Scottish breakfast in the morning before leaving the castle. What an absolutely amazing celebration and unforgettable experience! We are so happy for our friends Russell and Fiona and grateful to them for inviting us to share their special day. We only wish we had met sooner so that they could have partied at our wedding in Wisconsin!