A Day In The Life

I was excited when my friend Laura invited her blog readers to participate in a Day In The Life project and I quickly signed on to showcase a day in my own life for all of you. I'm always thinking to myself I should snap a photo of all the crap random tasks I find myself doing throughout the day as a Marketing Manager on a college campus or capture the sweet, beautiful things I notice in nature or otherwise. I contemplated whether I should do this activity today - was it exciting enough? But hey, it's an average day in the life, right? Here's what it's like to be me ...

12:05AM
I woke up to my phone buzzing on the night stand beside our bed and found this text:

My cousin Jen had her baby!!!!!! Last night around 5:00pm my mom called to say Jen was in route to the hospital. After a gazillion phone calls throughout the evening, I made my mom and sister promise they'd call me just as soon as they heard any news from the hospital. And so, when Baby C (now officially named Lauren Elizabeth) arrived at 11:12pm last night, my phone began to ring off the hook in a series of phone calls between my mom and sister.

Side note about Baby Lauren (because we all love hearing about babies, don't we?): Lauren was born on October 10, 2010 at 11:12pm. That's 10-10-10 at 11:12. How neat is that?! Mama and baby are doing great, by the way.

1:23AM
I finally fell asleep after all that commotion just after 1:00am.

7:46AM
I crawled out of bed this morning at 7:46am after I'd hit snooze for over an hour. I had a hard time getting up and moving after staying up so late.

8:33AM
I finally made my way out the door around 8:33am when I realized oh s%*# I need to leave for work!
In all my rushing, I forgot to document my morning routine. It's basically shower, dress, make-up, out the door. Nothing too excited to report.

8:43AM
I arrived to work and walked into my office to find this:

You may say this is where the magic happens. Marketing magic, that is. Somewhere in the midst of all those boxes, pool noodles and a monkey in a bag (that's right, I said monkey) I have a desk with a computer. Isn't the life of a Marketing Manager grand?

10:01AM
I spend the morning sending and returning emails, participating in a regional conference call and checking Facebook like crazy for any update on Baby Lauren. Nothing new to report as of yet.

Today I did treat myself to my new favorite drink - Honest Tea Kombucha, although I didn't allow myself a slice of pizza for lunch like usual. Today begins the first day of me trying to watch what I eat. We'll see how it goes ...


2:45PM
I drive over to the student union to help with our trade show setup. Over 5,000+ people will come through the show devouring food samples from our partnering vendors. Tomorrow will be one of those days where I run until I can't go anymore.

4:45PM

After work, I headed straight for Target to buy little Lauren all the gifts my cart could handle. Nothing I love better than Target and baby stuff. I shopped circles around that place! And while I was there, I found the cutest little Halloween outfit for my niece Brookie and picked a frozen pizza. Never a good idea to go to Target hungry. Dang it, I'll have to start the healthy eating kick tomorrow...

6:43PM

I called my mom on the way home to get the latest update on Jen and the baby. Everyone's healthy and doing well. My mom gushed how sweet of a baby Lauren is. Can't wait to meet her this weekend on our trip to Nebraska!

7:30PM

Made a frozen pizza and wrapped gifts for Lauren and Brookie, disappointed in my selection of wrapping supplies and boxes. Never again will I go through another Christmas without buying an extraordinary amount of shirt boxes. I'm out and for the life of me, can't find a pack of them anywhere. Who knew? I made them as cute as I could ...

8:33PM

It's about that time ... I grabbed my computer and head to bed. My favorite way to unwind at night is to lay in bed, check Facebook and watch sitcoms. Tonight it's How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, Two and Half Men and Mike and Molly. 

9:01PM

Andi called and asked for a pickup from the airport. He flew to Chicago today for meetings and just arrived back in the Twin Cities. I grabbed Chloe, threw on some flips and ran out the door.

9:41PM
Back from the airport. Crawled back in bed.

A day in the life of me: it was as exciting as the birth of a newborn baby and as routine as an evening at home. Good night y'all!

Last cabin weekend

Today was a sad day at the cabin - the day we turned over the keys.

Andi and I drove up to Crosslake on Friday afternoon for the last time this summer. We stopped at the Onamia Farmer's Market like we have so many times over the last few months and selected fresh, local veggies. This time, squash instead of strawberries: a change in season for sure. 

Friday evening was warm and sunny. Andi and I took the pontoon for a trip around the lake. We drank wine and listened to The Power Loon, classic rock at its best. We made kabobs for dinner and snuggled up together. One of the best things about the cabin - it puts us instantly at ease.

Late Friday night, Brian and Melissa arrived and on Saturday morning we all decided it was far too beautiful of a day to spend cleaning up the cabin. The four of us went to lunch at The Wharf and spent the remainder of the afternoon fishing off the dock back at the cabin. 

We celebrated our last evening in Crosslake with dinner at the glorious Norway Ridge. As we have many times this summer, we laughed over an awesome meal with friends.

And today, we spent the day cleaning the cabin, dismounting the dock and pulling the boat off the water. Summer has officially come to an end for us and it's bittersweet. It was the best summer we've ever had.

Baby Fever

My cousin Jen is expecting her first baby any day now and all the anticipation has everyone in my family on pins and needles. I find myself stalking her blog for the latest update and texting my mom repeatedly just so I'm not the last to know all the way up North.

All this baby talk definitely stirs the urge to have one of my own, but I'm trying to be patient and focus my energy and enthusiasm on Jen and her baby. While doing so, I'm concentrating on all the things I want to do before I get pregnant. Here's what I've come up with so far:

• Drink lots of Diet Coke. Three a day, maybe. (sounds healthy, doesn't it?)
• Buy a box of red wine ... and drink the whole thing. That's right, I said box.
• Reveal at my hips sticking out - hope these puppies are hidden in my future (temporarily, of course)
• Hit snooze ... again and again and again. Just because I can.
• Stay up on my tan this winter.
• Take a few more trips, just Andi and I.
• ... and on that note, make a few of those trips last minute whims because we're not responsible for anyone other than a 5 lb. pooch and she's up for anything.
• Marvel at my clean house. Not a thing out of place.
• Focus on my husband with lots of date nights and QT
• Color my hair - no roots here! 

Anything else I should squeeze in before my time comes a callin'?

Composting Update

Apparently, it doesn't take much to get me excited.

Check out my compost pile:

I've been diligently working to build up a good pile this summer and I finally filled up the bin. I'm excited at how *beautiful* my compost has become. It's amazing to see how much waste we've diverted from our kitchen every week by simply throwing our food scraps into this bin. Not to mention all the grass clippings and fall clean-up leaves and twigs. I worried about filling up the bin this summer but seriously every time I have, the pile has decomposed enough to add more scraps. 

Goal for spring: to use my rich compost to plant my flower pots and vegetables. I love being green.

Work it, Girl.

Andi text me this afternoon and asked if I wanted to go to a yoga class tonight.

My ititial thought? Nope. I haven't been to an organized exercise class in over a year. Before our wedding to be exact.

But then I realized this meant my husband would  be coming home early tonight. And, we'd be able to spend time together doing something good for us. (lately it seems like we've been spending QT drinking bottles of wine and bitching about our jobs).

I said yes.

And I'm glad I did. Oh man, do I feel like a new person. Why haven't I done that in over a year again?

Laziness, I suppose.

It felt ah-mazing to stretch and breathe and relax and sweat. All good things my body needed.

CorePower Yoga: you have me hooked.

The Best Present Ever

I've been meaning to circle back with you all for months about the awesomely wonderful gift I got Andi for our one year anniversary. It absolutely killed me not to tell you about it in June when I experienced it and then I gave it to him .. and time passed ... and life got busy ... and well, you know how that goes. Any-who, I racked my brain for months this summer trying to dream up a cool, unique gift he wouldn't forget for our most important wedding anniversary - the very first one. Complicating matters, I was determined to follow the traditional anniversary guide and that meant some part of my gift had to be paper.

I thought about booking a weekend vacation and wrapping the directions or confirmation page into a card, but he's really the trip planner of our family and I didn't think I could pull a trip off successfully without him figuring it out. I really wouldn't know where to start. I thought about buying him a family tree print from Etsy or making something myself, but none of that seemed cool enough for our special celebration. One day in June, in a conversation with my sister-in-law, she told me about a few friends of hers who own a photography business and host boudoir photography sessions once a month. As soon as she said it, I knew it was the most perfect gift I could give him. It's romantic and fun and sexy ... and best of all, he would never expect it in a million years.

What I didn't expect was just how amazing the experience would be for me. Oh my, I've never felt so beautiful.

I made an appointment with Boodwah Photography and met them in downtown Minneapolis about a month before our anniversary. Getting there was quite the battle as I do not do well driving downtown by myself but once I arrived, I was absolutely at ease. I spent the evening with Kristina and Megan - two of the most adorable ladies in the world who were both so professional and so flattering. I was pampered by having my hair and make-up professionally done and then spent the next hour basking in the spotlight. I've never felt so wonderful.

Well, that is until I received my photos a few weeks later. I still can't believe these images are of me!

In all, I received about 75 photos that are absolutely to die for. I'm not showing them all to you here but click over to the girls' website for a glimpse their work.

I decided to display the images in a handmade book I bought from Etsy. I wrapped the book in a glamorous gift box and felt like a kid at Christmas when I gave it to Andi on our anniversary. He was absolutely blown away. Absolutely blown away.

I can't decide who enjoyed this gift more. Andi loves the photos and tells me all the time how much he likes to look at them. And truthfully, I'd never felt so good about myself. I felt powerful and sexy and absolutely gorgeous. Best present ever. Not sure how I'll top this with next year's theme: cotton.

Last minute cabin trip

Andi and I made a last minute decision to drive up to the cabin this weekend. After working my 4th consecutive Saturday, I really needed to get away to rest and recharge ... even if it was for less than 24 hours. We threw a few clothes into a backpack and hit the road. I'm so glad we did.

The Minnesota fall colors were in full bloom and the landscape was absolutely gorgeous on our drive North. Once we arrived, we stopped in town and bought a take n' bake Chicken Alfredo pizza from Rafferty's (my favorite!), a few bottles of wine and rented Hot Tub Time Machine. Andi started a fire and we curled up on the couch for the absolutely perfect date night.

Lake O'Brien

Road to the cabin

Next weekend we're heading up for one last time to clean the cabin and turn over the keys. Oh man, am I going to miss this place! We've had the best summer up here - so many memories. I hope we'll be able to rent this cabin - or another one - again next summer.

On our drive back yesterday, we stopped and took a few family photos in the fall leaves. There's this cute one of our little family ...

And I can't help but post this one ... can you say senior picture?