Our next project

Chris is gearing up for his next house project.  He scored a new bathroom sink at an incredible discount.  This puppy will replace our pedestal sink (no storage and no flat surface) sometime in the new year. Yay!

The holiday season

Somehow the end of the year is quickly creeping up on us.  I have no idea how next week can already be Christmas!  And it’s finally COLD here!  Currently we’re sitting at 3 degrees, with a wind chill of -10.  Yikes!

This past weekend we attended Chris’s annual Military Ball.  Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures!  I tried when Chris was receiving an award for his service at the Republican National Convention, but there were too many big burly men standing at attention!  During dinner I got a crash course in reading Army rank from the patches everyone’s right arms.  Some of it stuck, much of it was confusing (A single chevron, a chevron with a “rocker”… a chevron plus a rocker and an eagle in the middle…)  In case you’re ever curious I found this cheat sheet…

Yesterday my dad and I braved the latest snow to do some Christmas shopping at the Mall of America.  We made good time and hit up some good stores out there.  We ended with a trip to Target and a late lunch at a local café.  Our annual Christmas shopping trip is one of my favorite traditions of the year. 

In the next couple of weeks we have a lot on our plates!  Chris is finishing up finals this week, we’re both busy at work and next week Chris has jury duty!  We also have several family holiday parties to plan/attend and at work we have our big family New Years Eve Party on the 31^st.  (Chris often volunteers for our winter events and spends the evening hauling supplies all over the park!)

Until next time- stay warm! 

Snow bingo part 2

The image didn’t attach the first time…

 

Snow Bingo!

As we’re gearing up for our first real winter storm of the season we also have to hear all the weather reports that change every 10 minutes.  Here’s a game we may start playing this winter… Snow + Bingo= SNINGO. 

Virgin's bower

After some sleuthing around yesterday it was determined that this very cool plant is Virgin's Bower, or Clemanis virginiana.  We found it on Pike Island where the Minnesota River meets the Mississippi River.