The New Year is HERE!

I don't have much to say right now but I am really feeling this new year. With the new puppy and baby on the way all I really have right now is thanks for the gifts in my life.

Ugh I missed this... I totally want to go next year!

Weihnachtsfest - Biwabik's Winter Lighting Festival - held the first Saturday in December, has been part of the town's holiday tradition for the past 18 years. Activities commence at 11 a.m. with a children's musical presented by area youth. You can stroll down Main Street checking out craft tables at the local church, Senior Center and the Bavarian-themed City Hall Complex.Near the town's Carl Schuster Memorial Park, step up to the Weihnachtsfest Candy Haus, where boxes of homemade sweets are for sale. You can also purchase tickets here for horse-drawn trolley rides through town. Lunch at the Park Pavilion features the region's ethnic specialties: sarmas (meat and rice rolled in cabbage leaves), pasties (similar to a hot meat pie) and Italian beef sandwiches - all accompanied by music, perhaps a local polka band or the high school jazz ensemble. Later, browse the bake-sale tables for homemade cookies, cardamom bread and Slavik potica (a walnut-filled sweet bread). At 6 p.m. everyone gathers by the park gazebo to sing carols and watch as the switch is flipped and the entire park is instantly set aglow with sparkling white lights. Afterward, fireworks illuminate the dark winter sky.

I want to learn to knit

Okay so I have been saying this forever and I have absolutely no time on my hands BUT now that I have confirmed that I am pregnant...yep it's true we confirmed it last week. (HOWEVER WE HAVE NOT SHARED THIS INFO WITH ANYONE SO SHHHHH)
I have a feeling I will need to learn how to do something to keep me busy until the day comes that doesn't require me to sand down old furniture and so on. That and I love to sew but it requires me to have a lot to carry around which knitting would not require as much.
Any pointers let me know.

Babies

I wish I could say this outloud however everyone seems to have a big mouth. Jon and I have talked about children many times over the years. There is always someone who wants them and someone who doesn't. We have never been on the same page at the same time with kids. Recently we have decided that we have gotten too old to keep waiting, but I am still scared.
If I start to apply at cop jobs now it could take a year or so, then a year of probation, then a year or whatever off (you don't want to get preggers right off probation). So realistically if I want a career first I would have to wait until I was nearly thirty. Jon just turned thirty and we both feel we are not getting younger. We have been together for over seven years so what's the wait?
I guess I am affraid of becoming a frumpy soccer mom who let's herself go and whines about everything. I know that sounds horrible but most of the women in my family have gone from being moderately sized to huge and I don't want that. I know it sounds pretty vain but it took me years to get my body and my health under control and it is scary to think I could lose that. Again I know it sounds totally vain and selfish.
I would love to have children tomorrow. Mostly I am just scared because it is such a permanent thing...you can buy or sell a house, get married or divorced, but a once you are a parent you are always a parent. I think about kids lots, what their names would be, who they would look like, and I can't help but stop and look at baby clothes.
It's just all so scary

If only it were that easy

Ah, my heart is always bigger than my brain. I feel so defeated, I wanted a puppy so badly for so long...thinking I was ready for the commitment and it would help make me ready for babies was dumb.
June is so sweet but she is growing so fast and when I see her in the early afternoons she is so rowdy. She doesn't listen and she is teething and biting and doesn't want to snuggle...it doesn't help that I am getting a regular 6 hours of (interupted) sleep. I love her so much and I just feel like I am not a good dog mommy because she is not getting enough play time.
Ugh

We're taking a trip...

I am so excited, I am going to see my Grandma soon!!! We are leaving on Thursday and are driving to see her in New Mexico. I can't wait to take our road trip. It has been over 5 years since Jon and I have taken a trip together.
We will be starting out in New Mexico, then jetting off to Las Vegas, then going to see some dead presidents in South Dakota. Uh it will be great!
Hopefully we will get a little sun before having to come back to cold and snow. :-)

Our Newest Addition

We got her!!! So I filled out some adoption paperwork weeks ago on this adorable little girl named June Bug.

We were so excited however, they took a while to get back to us so we thought we were going to be too late again. BUT then the call came two weeks ago today! They called and said we could come look at her. We were so excited....but (yep another but) she had just one little health issue...she had ringworm. Worried and not knowing anything about ringworm, other than it can be transferred to humans I tried calling my vet but they didn't answer. Saddened we thought we should at least go see the little girl before we made up our minds but that we should not get our hopes up.

The second we saw her we fell in love. She came up the steps and greeted us with her little face and that was it, we were done. We went outside and sat on the patio and she instantly crawled up in my lap and began covering me in kisses. Then Jon, feeling a little jealous, called her over to him to do the same. We still weren't sure about the ringworm so we spoke to our vet the next morning and gave them a run down of what they were doing to treat her and our vet gave us the green light. So we took her home this past Friday.

Oh how she has grown in just over a week. Her ringworm is nearly all gone (it was only about the size of a quarter on her hind leg) and she is just a spitfire. I included some pictures of her now at home. She is so small next to Thunder, she just loves him so much it is adorable. It is taking some getting used to, having another dog in the house. Jon is having a bit of trouble getting used to all the extra work. I am just loving every minute...good, bad, and otherwise.

Fall is Coming

Ah, how I look forward to every season. The fall is come, the leaves are changing, the air smells great, and it's time to start wearing snuggly clothes again.
I think we are going to the apple orchard on Sunday. I love going there, it is in Jordan and they have the best apples and treats. We just walk around for hours picking apples, riding the hay bales, and playing at the petting zoo.

Speaking of this weekend...I couldn't be more excited I am acutally going to get to clean my house! We have been in camping/wedding season for too long. It started with camping over the last weekend of June, then went straight into the 4th of july, then started all the wedding shenanigans. The last one was last weekend and it was a really good time but man am I broke and exhausted. I really want to clean my house, it is terrible right now.

I am also looking forward to finishing some dressers I bought. See, I bought these two dressers that were antique (nice name for old) and I have been slaving over the one removing layer by layer of crusty paint (seriously couldn't the previous owners have just sanded it then painted it instead of painting crusty layer after layer?). That one is the smaller of the two and I will be painting it white. It's pretty cute it has the original glass knobs and everything. The other one is wooden and that one is the easier of the two and I will be painting it black and have pewter knobs to match the end tables I already did.

So I guess I don't really have much going on. My dad goes in for double hernea surgery tomorrow. He is a stuborn old mule and he thinks he will be just fine but in reality both herneas have been festering for over a year and with his previous heart attack and bad eating habits I worry. That's tomorrow so we'll see...lots of time in bed with the tv and a few books for him.

A New Addition To the Reicherts Clan

Okay so Jon's older brother is getting married this Saturday and though I am glad for them it sure has been inconvenient for us. We have had to shell out money for the suit to wear (which when he was in our wedding we had to pay for his tux), the dress for me to wear, a hotel room (though to their upset not at the $200+ a night place the wedding is at), gas money down there because it is out of town (in a town that neither of them are from), the bachelor party that we had to pick up his older brother for, everything included in the bachelor party, and now it gets better....
The best man (jon's other older brother) who we had to pick up becaues he didn't have gas money to come to the bachelor party we again have to find a way to go get him because he has no money for him and his kids to get to the wedding. Jon's little brother is already paying for the hotel room so they can stay on Saturday but now they want us to go up north 1.5 hrs to get them to drive south 1.25 hrs then let them stay in our room Friday because they don't have one. WHAT?!!? Then the brother getting married thought Chris (the youngest) could go get them Friday drive back from Red Wing to Bloomington (another 1.25 hrs) and stay at MY house without us (no thankyou the oldest has 5 kids who taunt my dog and have never not broken anything) just so Chris can take them all down to Redwing 1.25 hrs Saturday before the wedding... Oh and Chris is driving MY jeep.

WTF!!! Joe (the groom) should go get them himself and NOT put it on us because we are all (jon, chris, and I) already paying dearly for their wedding and for the oldest to get his shit together. Did I mention that Joe has a larger company vehicle than my Jeep that he gets FREE FREE FREE gas in?!?!?!?

Serioulsy, what more can people ask of me?
Oh and I may have forgot to mention that after the weekend of basically giving Joe and Rob (the oldest 2) money we woke up Monday to find that our refridgerator has died and taken our food hostage. So we had to go out and spend $1,000 to get a new one on the spot (the vacation money we had to finally take a trip together with).

DUMB DUMB DUMB

Cupcakes

I love cupcakes! However, I have been having a problem maybe someone knows how to fix. I make my treats super moist but when I make them this way it makes it really hard to put the frosting on. Think, think, think, I am trying to find some way to get the frosting to stay on and look delicious without taking up all the top of the cake.
Nevertheless, spring is here and with the weather warm and sunny I really get cooking. Something about waking up to a beautiful sunshiney day makes me just so happy. Hopefully soon I will be adding some pictures.

Help

So I must be doing something wrong... every time I go and post a new blog it does not show up unless I click on the month then it magically appears.
Ugh!!!

Tribute to Redheads

Okay so I am clearly I am partial to redheads...being one of them but did you know:We Redheads make up 3% of the world's population? That makes Red hair the rarest natural hair color! Though commonly thought of in the United States as being an Irish trait, many redheads -- particularly those of us in Minnesota -- attribute their hair color to German, Scandinavian or English heritage. However, some of us just pretend we're Irish on St. Patrick's Day.Because the gene for red hair is recessive, having a red-headed child requires both parents to pass along a mutated version of the MC1R gene. Genetic carriers, therefore, aren't necessarily redheads, making generational gaps fairly common.Indeed, numerous reports and rumors have circulated declaring redheads a dying breed. Researchers generally agree, however, that while red hair may become increasingly rare because of intermingling among varying ethnic populations, the gene itself isn't going anywhere. So never fear we are not going anywhere...for now. :-)

Earth Week

So I have decided that my my contribution for earth week will be to save paper and start my diary online. Now I currently do lots of other things to help make our happy little planet a little better but each year I try to add something new.
My husband and I are big believers in trying to make the planet a little better for our children...I just wish my parents would have done the same.I understand that not everyone believes in global warming... okay fine but I don't understand what issue they have with at least trying to make the place a little better? It's amazing how everyday I see people go out of their way to use more energy, literally! On a daily basis I see people take several extra steps just to hit the handicap button to open the door. Really? Do you need to use the extra energy to open that door...how about opening it the old fashion way saving energy and extra steps?
I am glad to see more places every day are adopting a greener attitude. Though my husband thinks it is shameless that people are marketing things that are "green" in order to attract more buyers. I guess I feel that if nothing else it maybe conveys the message that green is important to those who maybe wouldn't believe in it.So, turn off that light when you leave the room, say pass to the bag at the store, and recycle that bottle...even one little step is better than nothing at all.:-)