Goodbye 4309

The day has arrived. We are saying goodbye to apartment living. I couldn't imagine myself anymore happier than I am this very moment.

Wait.

Rewind.

I could imagine myself happier. But that would require the use of a time travel machine in order to achieve such happiness, thus also requiring me to get in contact with Steve Urkel (who I haven't spoken to in ages, mind you) so I could use that fancy machine he created in the Winslow's basement. That was a time machine, wasn't it? Or was it a geek machine? Do any of my other 90's babies remember when he turned himself into Stefan Urquelle? He was so geeky. {enters Geek Machine} And now he is so sheiky. How did that ever end anyway? Did Laura Winslow see Steve Urkel for his inner beauty, or did she run off with the suave and sexy Mr. Urquelle? I kind of stopped watching after that. That's when the show jumped the shark for me.

 "If you want to do the Steve Urkel dance,
All you have to do is hitch up your pants,
Bend your knees, and stick out your pelvis;
(I'm telling you, baby, it's better than Elvis!)".

Sorry. I got off track there. I have a tendency to do that. In blog life, and in real life too. Where was I? Oh yeah. Moving. It pretty much blows. But there is no way around it and we gotsta do it. Thankfully I have my eyes on the prize. And that prize is one very sweet, semi-spacious duplex in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis (insert excited squeal of delight HERE!). Every time I look out into our current living room, or as I stub my toe on the sea of boxes, I just remind myself that this is only temporary. Soon we will be nestled nicely into our new abode, surrounded by those same sea of boxes. But the UNpacking is the fun part. At least for this girl it is.

What we have accomplished thus far...

U-Haul. Check. We decided at the last minute to rent one. As in we decided yesterday. I have rented one before but always felt the cost was a bit hefty. However, I feel as if we have exhausted our resources when it comes to friends with trucks (we had a few offers--thank you, friends!), therefore we decided to splurge and rent a 10 footer. Livin' large we are! Unfortunately because I called yesterday, the only time we can get one is until 8am on Saturday. This means we have approximately 13 hours from the moment we get the keys from our new landlord on Friday evening, until Saturday morning to get everything into the new place. We're midnight moving, yo!

Address change? Check. Aforementioned boxes? Packed. And unpacked. And then packed again. Note to self: Don't think you're being super proactive by packing ALL your kitchenware three weeks before moving. That doesn't make you one step ahead of the game. It just makes your fiance super annoyed. Oops. Sorry. Did I do that? And yes, that was another Steve Urkel reference. I think we are cashed out on Family Matters for one blog post, no?

But hey. Some good news. And bad news. Want the good news first? I found my camera battery charger in the midst of all this chaotic moving business. YAY!

The bad news is that the first picture I am posting (compliments of my freshly charged camera battery) is the one above. Bad, isn't it? Down right gross if you ask me. The opened tubs you see are the ones that I prematurely packed full of our dishes and such. Doh! And yes, that most certainly is a grocery cart in my living room. There is a very limited supply of them in our apartment building and when I saw that one (the one sans a square wheel--jackpot!), you can bet your butt I snatched it up and have been hiding it in our apartment ever since. Settle down. I just did it last night so don't think I am a horrid person for keeping it from my neighbs. But believe me when I say that I have absolutely zero desire to move without it's aid. I will welcome all the bad karma coming my way for hoarding the good cart until Saturday at noon. Heaven knows I have ran up and down the halls of this apartment building on several occasions in search of it when my neighbs have been unable to return it to it's proper place. My only assumption is that their legs break right after they use it. Either that or they are stupid and lazy. (Rant over)

Now. Onto some other fun and exciting things NOT happening to me this weekend.

I'd like to send out a big congratulations to the betrothed couple across the pond. Way to go and get engaged after me, and then have your wedding four months before me. I will have you know, Kate Middleton and Prince William (if that's really who you are), that the Today Show was going to have countdown to mine and Jesse's nuptials....until you two turds got engaged. Way to steal our wedding thunder. But it's fine. I am over it. Plus, the E! network just contacted us to be their latest reality TV stars. Who's laughing now, huh?!? But in all seriousness, though...Jesse and I wish you both nothing but the best. Tonight, on the eve of the eve of your wedding, we shall salute our pinky fingers straight up in the air as we sip our chamomile bedtime tea. Actually we won't. Because I already packed all of the tea mugs. Rats! Plus, Jesse doesn't drink tea. But let us just pretend I am talking in a beautiful British accent, and wishing you all the merry best on your very special day. And just remember: while you're riding around in this all day....

RIP, fair Lady Diana.

....I will have the privilege of paying fifty nine cents a mile to ride around in this luxurious gas guzzler.  

To all of you who are still reading this...I hope you have a swell rest of your week, followed by a pleasant and stress free weekend. And yeah, for those of you with nothing on your calendar this week--I am making that slow roasted buffalo chicken for our volunteer movers. So feel free to stop over for a samich and brewski. But carry a few boxes too. Thanks!

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Goodbye 4309

Wedding Weekend Warriors: Part One

Happy Easter everyone! Or as my funny fella says, "Happy Wester!" I wanted to share some photos of our progress with the barn. Once again, I am sorry for the less than quality photos. They are all compliments of my crackberry camera phone. Still no sign of my regular camera battery charger. I am hoping it shows up after we get settled into our new place. If not then I might need to cave and buy a new charger. OR someone can buy me a new fancy cam. That would be grrrreat! (Jesse, are you reading this? Birthday month kicks off in a little more than a month from now!!)

This was our first official weekend on the farm solely devoted to the revamping of the barn. I say it was a successful one. Good ol' fashion farm family fun!

The grounds are beginning to look a bit more wedding ready. Except for the mud. A cumulative of close to 100 inches of (now melted) snow, combined with spring rains has a tendency to make everything pretty mucky. My dad assures me that things should dry up nicely, though. In fact he told me (and I quote), "It will probably be popcorn fart dry by the time of your wedding." Not really sure how dry a popcorn fart is but I am guessing it's pretty dry.

I saw this window and have a vision for implementing it into our rustic glam wedding decor. I might need a few more of them. I am hoping Carla can give me a hand in finding a few more of them. Carla, are you reading this?

See all that wood there? Most of those pieces are 75-100 pounds each. Jesse and I carried them across the hay mow and out the window down to my dad. I didn't get any action shots (I was too busy being buff) but I promise it really happened. I was quite proud of myself. You can take the girl out of the farm, but I guess you can't take the farm out of the girl. I have memories of throwing down bales hay out that same window with my dad one Father's Day several years ago. Father-daughter bonding at it's finest.

See the middle window? I call it the nose. I think the barn look like a face. Two eyes, a nose, and a big gaping mouth. Am I the only one who sees that? Anyway, that middle window was where we were handing the wood down to my dad from. My mom is a genius and discovered the lumber when they did their basement remodel. She had a small piece of the wood cut so that she could fashion it into a mantle above the fireplace. How cool is that?

Here is a picture of the mantle to give you a better idea of how she transformed an old piece of lumber, formerly used to fence in the cattle, into a beautifully varnished mantle above their fireplace. I told you she was a genius! We're hoping to stick with this same concept and attach a similar, but much longer bar/ledge against one of the interior walls of the barn. A perfect place for our guests to set their beverages on when they want to kick up their heels on the adjacent dance floor.

Two of the weekend wedding warriors. I spent a good hour knocking down cobwebs yesterday. There are years, upon years, upon years....UPON YEARS of cobwebs in that barn. And it was so gross. And I was mildly majorly dramatic about it. My first bridezilla moment maybe? But despite the ickies, this whole thing has been such a fun adventure. I love the time we all get to spend with each other, and that everything we're doing is enabling us to throw a kick butt party this summer with all of our friends and family. And the best part of all? I get to marry my best friend the same day. It's going to be awesome. 

And finally...Miss Crapple Dog. She is in her element when we let her galavant all over the farm. She is currently a muddy hot mess, though and in desperate need of a bath.

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Wedding Weekend Warriors: Part One

Just for Kicks

Guess what starts in one week from tomorrow???!???

Here. I will give you a little hintski.

Any guesses??

Nope. Not a no pants party.

Not a gay Vikings reunion either.

Still want to keep guessing? What? You just want me to come out with it already? Ok. If you insist.

It's kickballin' season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So fa-lippin' excited to get the whole gang back together again. There will be a few people who will be noticeably absent. Huff 'n Nam, Sweden, Frenchie, and Claire the au pair. We'll miss you guys. You're irreplaceable (I sang that in my best Beyonce voice btw). And Pa....we know you're a little laid up right now too. But we expect you to come to the games once you're feeling better. Bring Tone Bone too, a'ight?

Here's some We Got The Runs history on our team, written by Jesse. And here is a wrap up I did shortly there after (after we lost the championship game--sad face).

Now. Let it be known that I knew only two people (our fearless captain, Ma, and the injury prone Huffster) when I started playing last year. But now I know them all. Quite well in fact. In an effort to get to know them better I decided to implement a player spotlight and each week I would unload twenty or so random and/or semi-inappropriate questions at a player of my choice. I plan to carry that over to this season and start a player spotlight as a new Friday feature on OBFFW. Be prepared to meet the outrageous cast of characters I am so fortunate to call my teammates and friend.


And now for some photographic proof as to how wacky cool we all are on We Got The Runs.


(OBFFW is experiencing technical difficulties. Please enjoy this imaginary instrumental elevator music as we attempt to fix the problemo)

OK. Sorry. I lied. Apparently the pictures were so cool that they completely blew out our interwebs connection.

Hold tight. I'll have them up by the time I feature our first player spotlight. And please, just humor me and pretend you're super excited about it, mmkay?

PS-we move next weekend. Minneapolis or bust, baby. If you're the praying type, please keep us in your prayers. Here's hoping we're still engaged by the end of the month.

PS part two-I have been working out like a crazy lady the last couple weeks. Buff Bridal Booty Camp is in full swing, and I have even managed to shed six pounds (basically I have shed a newborn...or a Bobo). The two bouts of flu I experienced this past month may or may not have worked in my favor. Jesse has been working out too. It's probably my new favorite thing to do with him. ◦

Just for Kicks

No Lion. It's that good.

Lauren here.

I decided to take Jesse on a date tonight. After getting some unfortunate news from Uncle Sam this afternoon I felt like he needed a little pick me up. I wanted it to be a surprise so when I sent him a text at around four all I told him was to be ready to roll on out as soon as I got home from work.

And ready to roll he was. When I pulled up in front of our soon-to-be history apartment complex he was standing outside awaiting my arrival. Black socks, Adidas sandals. The whole works. My guy was dressed to the nines and anxiously anticipating his surprise.

He got into the car where I promptly blind folded him. With my Old Navy hoodie.

It wouldn't be a true surprise if I let him see where I was driving, right? So off we went for our 11.1 mile adventure. Jesse blind folded. Me not blind folded. Obviously. That would be dumb. And scary. And a tad bit dangerous.

Where were we going?

I'll let Jesse take it from here. But first, a bit of a spoiler alert. If you can't tell from the picture to the left, Jesse was quite elated 11.1 miles down the dusty trail. Yes, I was even bestowed the Hot Sizzle Fiancee title (one that I plan to defend to the death) after everything was said and done. Yep. I done good. I'll be honest, though. I would have been completely entertained with just driving around with a blind folded Jesse. Imagine the way your dad grumbled the first couple times he rode shotgun after you got your permit. That was Jesse tonight. Pure comedy.


Jesse here.

Today best exemplifies one of the few times in which a grown man can actually be surprised. This can only be done by A) blindfolding him and driving to his favorite restaurant, or B) secretly showing up with an 82" high def, plasma screen, 3D, hyper-color TV from Ultimate Electronics (RIP 1986?-2011).

The young lady definitely came through in Pujolsian fashion today with the former.

The burgers were mighty tasty, but it was the napkin holder menus that
mostly appealed to Lauren.

I was jogging my memory and came to the conclusion that I had not been to the Lion's Tap since around 2004. If memory serves me, I believe it was my nephew's birthday that brought us there. It was a much simpler world back then. America was just starting to learn about T9 texting. Gas was a price in which working class human beings could afford. And if you had the interwebs on your phone, my goodness, you must have had a Rolls Royce parked out front of your house.


It was tough to explain to my fiancee, the Lion's Tap neophyte, how good these burgers are. So I simply sat there with my burger in front of me and let her eat the first bite, and then the second. She didn't even have to say anything. I knew that going forward, we were locked in to at least one trip a year from now until the day my teeth are in a jar.

Then I bit into my bacon double cheeseburger. How do I explain it? It's much like hearing one of your old favorite songs on the radio for the time in a dozen years (Right Said Fred anyone?), or when you crush a softball over the fence off the fat guy that stole your Old Milwaukee from the bench 4 years ago. It never gets old.

Although this feast put a serious dent in our recent calorie-counting crusade, it is worth it every once in a while. It'll be back on the workout-wagon tomorrow so we can avoid having our bride and groom's attire from being labeled "Met Life" and "Goodyear".

I almost failed to mention the 1919 root beer that was flowing on tap. I'm quite glad they charge you by the glass or else I would have had about 74 instead of one.

Once, a keg of 1919 root beer exploded on me when I worked at the liquor store. Stickiest mess ever, but I've long since made my peace with it. If that were to happen again though, you better believe I that will stage a serious boycott.




And in closing, today's lessons:

1. Lion's Tap = always good
2. Surprise trips to Lion's Tap = superb
3. 1919 Root Beer = yes, please
4. Fat opposing softball pitchers = beer thieves
5. Gas Prices = brutal
6. Yankees = biggest scumbags on the planet (I know it wasn't part of the story, but I never got to rip into them yet since they broke our Japanese import's leg)




$100 to anyone who hits this guy in the eyeball with a 97 MPH fastball.

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No Lion. It's that good.

Just a spoonful of sugar...

Jesse and Apple accompanied me on an afternoon nanny gig today. As you can see from this picture, they both did a marvelous job of helping me keep order with three little ladies and their four (yes, FOUR) playdates. For those of you who aren't quick with the math stuff, that is SEVEN children in my keep this afternoon. The fourth and final one to wander over proclaimed, "My dad is watching that green jacket golf thing. It's boring. Is it OK if I play here?" Of course she asks this as she walks through the door, kicks her shoes off, and runs upstairs. Um...sure? What's one more, right? Hey, and at least this one remembered to take her shoes off.

I love my job. I suppose that's pretty obvious considering I am willing to babysit seven little ruggies on my day off (the bonus is getting to bring my hottie boyfriend future husband and our cute dog-ter along with me). I love it even despite the youngest one getting a skinned knee, followed by an Oscar award worthy meltdown performance. It's all in a day's work for this modern day Mary Poppins. And I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

It's a rather long story as to how I got into my current gig of nanny extraordinaire. I will try to keep it simple. In short: I quit a very secure job at mother Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota, moved to Georgia for a guy (who does that?), got a ridiculously cute puppy (pictured above with the guy I did not move to Georgia for), decided to move back to Minnesota a short six months later (oops!), applied for a nanny job after discovering a posting for it on this little, unknown (to me) website, and got hired by a fabulous family in Minneapolis. Boom. I became a nanny. The extraordinaire came later. After lots of trial and error.

 Exactly how fabulous is this family that hired me? They didn't officially meet me face to face until the day before I started working for them. Of course they checked my references and interviewed me extensively by phone while I was still in Georgia. But I still think they took a mega risk having not met me in person first. However, I am so forever grateful that they did take that risk. Working for them opened up my eyes to what my passions are. I love children, and seeing life through their eyes. It's such a gift. And to think, they pay me to do this! And they let me bring my dog to work with me! Could it get much better than that? I continued to work for them for over two years until they no longer needed a nanny (insert sad face here). Their three daughters will forever and always be my first nanny loves. It was them (and their four playdates) that I sat with today, and I relish in every opportunity I am given to see them. After I finished with their family I used some sweet networking skills (I truly believe it is sometimes all about WHO ya know, and not WHAT ya know...ya know?) and was able to make a smooth transition to another amazing family in Minneapolis. I stayed with them for a little over a year until they, like my previous family, no longer had a need for a full time nanny (insert another sad face here--are you seeing a trend here?). I still work with them once a week and in addition have snagged a  gig with yet another great family. They have a sweet ten year old daughter, and a delightful, ever changing baby girl. And in a few weeks they will welcome a little baby boy as well. Baby girl and baby boy will be a year and a few days apart in age. It's sure to be a crazy show, but I think we are all ready for it. Or about as ready as we possibly can be.

Photos! We all love photos, right? Sorry that they are crappy mobile uploads. Feel free to buy me a new fancy camera, ok?

Oh, and these little kiddos are all taking part in our wedding day. Five kids in our wedding party!??!? Are we crazy? Probably. But we'd have it no other way.



My first loves back in 2009.

Same uptown girls in March 2011.

Bringing Jesse to work is the equivalent to letting the kids drink 17 cans
of Mountain Dew. Jesse loves it.

This one right here...

Is now this one.



Love. Her.

Love these two little sassy pants too.

.

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Just a spoonful of sugar...

I gotsta GO!

I am starting to do some of those tedious wedding tasks. The one I plan on crossing off my list tomorrow? Porta potties for our wedding guests. My goal is to combine the hilarity of image one, with the mass quantity that image two provides, along with the classiness and spaciousness of image three...and then hopefully that will result in some sweet photo ops that image four boasts of (Emily, our dear, fearless photog, are you taking notes? I need a picture like this!). Bottom line: I want my wedding guests' bathroom experience to feel like a party time, and not just a potty time.

I will be sure to update you all on what we settled on. But rest assured that there will be lots of hand sanitizer, perhaps even a mason jar or two of cut flowers to keep things smelling so fresh and so clean, clean...and an unlimited supply of toilet paper. And I will even do my best to keep the fiber content in the food we serve you to a minimum that evening. However, if you feel a number #2 coming...it's OK. Everyone Poops.



source



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I gotsta GO!

Feeling The Love: Nick & Katy Style

Jesse and I were very fortunate to be a part of a loverly wedding union this past weekend. Jesse's high school classmate/college buddy/former roommate, Nick got married to his Texas sweetheart, Katy. It was a beautiful 50 degree April day, and we were surrounded by equally beautiful people. Now. Let it be known...some of our group is already grazing in the 30s and plus pasture (just days away from donning diapers and dentures). And a few of us are getting painfully closer (I am still a little more than two years away, thankyouverymuch)...but we still know how to get down with the best of them. Mind you, most of us could barely walk the next morning after our extensive cutting of the rug, but we still brought that house down. Just you wait. There's pictures to prove it.

But before I share the pictures I need to tell you something. A bit of a bridal confession if you will. I haven't been feeling very weddingly (is that a word?) as of late. I finally came to the resolution that I am missing the bride gene. And I was getting to the point where I was OK with that. But then it happened. It clicked. After spending an entire day fully engulfed in all things wedding, I can honestly say that I am back on board the bridal train (Chugga, chugga. Chugga, chugga. Choo! Choo!). Nick and Katy's wedding got me back into the spirit of holy matrimony again. We're just under five months out from our big fat farm wedding so their wedding was just the kick in the pants that I needed, and just in time too (I gots lots to do, yo!). In true Texas style, I symbolically tip my cowboy hat to Katy. She did a phenomenal job planning, and saw to it that every last detail was tended to. It most certainly paid off too. Their wedding was practically perfect in every way.

Now. Some photographic proof of how awesome this wedding was. All of the photos you are about to see were taken by Nick and Katy's wedding photographers. I got permission to post them but you should also go check out their website and see all of the other remarkable work that they do. These guys were there well before the wedding began, and I still saw them happily snapping away several hours into our dance party. You can definitely tell they have a passion for what they do.

The first looksie. How gorgeous is her dress?

Some of the wedding party clowin' around. The blond guy? Hotttt!

For cute, right? This is Katy's godson, acting as ring bearer. Precious.



Every group of friends has one. We claim this one.
 We call him Jungle.



That's my future husband on the dance floor. See how good these
photographers were? They were able to capture a picture of him during his
.06 seconds of rug cutting. And Heather...LOVE this pic of you. So glad
you're my bridesmaid.



And another obligatory Jungle shot.

Who is that girl flashing the universal love sign? Looks like the rhythm is gonna
get her. Oh wait. It definitely got her. Someone, please help her.
HELP. HER. NOW.

What? You want more Jungle? Oh he'll be back.

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Feeling The Love: Nick & Katy Style