Thanksgiving Weekend

It has been a relaxing and productive Thanksgiving weekend!

Wednesday: Last day of work for the week and Brent had the night off from work, so he was able to come up for the night

Thursday: Slept in and lazed around with Brent until it was time to get ready to head to my mom's house for dinner at 4:00. Brent had to be to work that night at 11:00, so he was able to stay for a while, which was nice since it looks like he has to work on Christmas!

Friday: Slept in until 1:30! Couldn't believe it, guess I was tired! I then put up the Christmas tree and all the holiday decorations. 

Saturday: Ran to Wal-mart and spent way to much money as usual. Then, wrapped as many of the presents as I could. Also worked on a few crafty projects. Watched the movie 21 - not too bad except didn't care for the ending. Also watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall - a really bad movie. The acting was terrible and the funny scenes were more dumb than funny.

Sunday: Slept in again - not sure HOW I'm going to be able to get up to go to work tomorrow morning! Been working on cleaning the kitchen (having 2 dogs around really makes the floor dirty). Also doing laundry. Not much else planned for the day.

I've also been reading the Book "Twilight" all weekend. I told myself I want to read the book before I see the movie. I'm about 1/2 way done!

Now, for the annual picture of Maggie in front of the tree. As you can see, she LOVES this tradition. :)

Iowa Hawkeyes Game/Brent's Birthday

This past weekend, I headed down to Iowa for Brent's Birthday. I took Friday off from work and headed down around noon (he had to work the night before, so he needed to get some sleep). Once there, we headed to Iowa City for the Big Iowa Hawkeyes game! The game was Saturday at 2:30 pm, but we were up at 5:30 am so we could be at the tailgating spot at 7:00. It was a pretty cold day out, but I really wasn't too bad with all the layers I had on. We even had bagel breakfast sandwiches made for us - yummy!  Even though I'm still struggling to understand the fundamentals of Football, this was a pretty exciting game. Iowa played Penn State who was ranked #3 in the nation and Iowa has not had the best season this year. The first quarter things seemed promising when the hawkeyes scored right away, but the second and third quarters were brutal. Finally in the fourth quarter, Iowa pulled it out with 2 minutes left in the game and beat Penn state 24-23! The fans went nuts and rushed the field. We didn't get out of there until around 7:00 pm, so we spent about 12 hours outside on Saturday - CRAZY!! 

Tailgating in the Snow?

So, it's Brent's birthday on Sunday and to celebrate, we are going to the Iowa Hawkeyes game on Saturday. Brent is a huge Hawkeyes fan and has had season tickets for the past few years. However, this year, he decided not to get season tickets. I feel kinda bad, because I know how much he loves watching them play and seeing it on t.v. is just not the same. Although, I always try to make sure he gets the opportunity to watch it. Even when it's our weekend together and I'm not a big fan of sports of any kind.

Last year for his birthday, we went to a game and it was my first experience at getting up at the butt crack of dawn to get in line to make sure we got our "spot" for tailgating. We then proceeded to eat lots of food, drink and play bean bags. It was a pretty good time, except for the fact that is was FREEZING outside! And, here we are planning on doing it all over again Saturday, except, it's supposed to SNOW! This time, I'm going prepared. I'm wearing long johns and piling on as many layers as I can. I thought we should bring a blanket along to use in the stands because - here's the good part - the game's not until 2:30 and by that time, the sun will be behind the stands of the outdoor stadium.

So, while most of you are staying indoors and watching the snow from inside, I will be outside cheering for a game that I really don't even understand. If that's not love, I don't know what is!

Keeping my Fingers Crossed

Brent called the North Mankato chief today and found out he made the top ten! So, they will be scheduling an interview with him soon. They are hiring 2 positions, so the odds are pretty good!

New Opportunity

One of the issues we are facing in getting married is the fact that Brent lives in Iowa and I live in Minnesota. He is a police officer so we thought it would be easier for him to get a job up here, but it has been a struggle! He applied to Mankato a few months ago and never even got an interview, which is hard to believe considering he has over 10 years of experience. One thing we do know is that law enforcement is very political. It's all in who you know, unfortunately. I'm not sure if it's also hurting him that he's from out of state. Currently he has an application in with North Mankato. Supposably they were going to start interviews the last week of October, the first week of November, but we haven't heard anything. Last night, I was looking through the Waseca shopper and discovered that Waseca County is hiring. I excitedly called him and told him and he worked on his application last night. It's nice to know there are more opportunities out there. I start to get worried when the weeks keep flying by and our wedding date gets closer. I really wanted him moved up here before winter, but as along as he is here by the time we get married - that's all that matters! I don't want to be married to someone who is living in Iowa! So, we are keeping our fingers crossed and saying many prayers that something will work out SOON!

Found THE dress today!

So, today I went wedding dress shopping with my mom and Brent's mom. We had an appointment at Mestads in Rochester at 9:00, so needless to say, we were up pretty early this morning. We were the first ones in the store and had this wonderful sales lady helping us. I pulled a bunch of dresses of the racks and then proceeded to try them on. Nothing was really jumping out at me as "THIS IS THE DRESS". I was getting a bit concerned. The style I had originally thought I wanted just wasn't looking quite right. After about 10 dresses or so, I tried on this dress that the sales lady had brought in. When I first got it on, I wasn't quite sure, but the more I looked at it, I realized this was the one! It is absolutely beautiful. Simple and elegant. We added our own custom touch by choosing a brooch to attach - which just made it perfect!  It is now on order and I can't wait to try it on again as the sample size was way too big. Now, I just have to make sure I don't gain back the 10lbs I've lost in the last few months!!

We also had an appointment at Jenni's Bridal at 2:00, but decided to cancel that since I had already chosen my dress. 

I would recommend anyone to Mestads as we are getting great deals on the Bridesmaid dresses AND tuxes. They also gave me discounts on my dress and veil.