New Roommate!

The roommate has arrived! My friend Ryan (female) is going to be staying with us until mid-December. She is a student at Winona State who will be student teaching up here in Champlin this semester. She's originally from Chicago, but WSU doesn't have any contracts with schools out there. She didn't want to stay in Winona or Wisconsin, so she got placed up here. She's hoping to find her own apartment at the end of student teaching, but who knows.

She arrived yesterday afternoon and the two of us worked ourselves out unpacking her car! Fortunately, Nemo gets along great with her. He would actually prefer to be in her room. It could be that her room is still kind of new to him (we usually leave that door closed) and it also could be because he likes her!

Amid all of this, we're also trying to get ready for our trip to California next week. We leave Thursday (probably in the morning) and get back Sunday afternoon. Anna and I will be doing our own thing in Anaheim, while the boys are at BlizzCon exploring all the fun WOW things. It'll be nice to chill out at the pool and do some sightseeing and all that fun stuff. It's not a long trip, but better than no trip!

Not to mention on top of everything.....tomorrow is my birthday! I'm the big 2-7! Officially late 20's. I can't complain, I've been getting all kinds of coupons and stuff to get free things for my birthday. Desserts, meals, coffee, lots of fun stuff! We went out with Pat and Kara on Friday night for dinner at Bella. It's a restaurant near our house that was YUMMY! Today we're doing lunch with my family at Don Pablo's. Then tomorrow Ryan and I are getting pedicures, the 3 of us are going shopping then doing dinner at Burger Jones in Minneapolis. Should be a fabulous birthday!

Colroado or....bust??

Well, we're finally in the relaxing part of the summer! I just got back from Colorado Springs, CO on Monday. I was at the CODA International Conference for 4 days. CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults, which I obviously am. This was my first conference, this was the 24th conference for the organization. It was the best time I've had in a long time. I wouldn't say I've struggled with being a Coda, but going to the conference definitely opened up my eyes to the "deaf parts" that I have and how those make me who I am today. I met so many great people not just from the U.S. but from the WORLD! The conference was here in MN in 2006. I had just finished my first year of ITP and wasn't really sure what CODA was all about and if I was ready to start that journey. Then it was in Spain, then Indiana. Finally, in Decemeber, I decided the 2009 conference would be the time to start! Not to mention, my college roommate Lauren lives there, so that was a big incentive! I feel like a new person. I've had the chance to meet people like me, and share stories, experiences, struggles and successes. Next year's conference is in Fremont, CA, and I'm already saving up for it!!

I always knew I was a Coda, and thought I knew what that meant. I still don't completely know what it means for me, but I now have so much more insight into the last 26 years that I can really begin to embrace that part of me and get to know myself better. Everyone's Coda experience is different, some more negative than others, and I've had some struggles in my life. But the only thing I can do now, is look back on those struggles and see how I came out of them and realize that I'm a better person now that I found CODA and have so many more people I can go to if/when those struggles pop up again. I'm feeling really good about myself and things can only continue to get better!

What does the summer bring for us?? Well, the Aquatennial Block party is Friday night, we always go with friends. We really don't have much going on except seeing friends, finally enjoying our weekends (now that I'm not needing to work weekends), and just hanging out until our trip to California in August! Happy July!

A Visit From Olympia, WA!

WOW! It's already July! Well, we have had quite a busy last 2 weeks of June. Bobby went to Winona that weekend of the 19th for Steamboat Days and got to see old friends and have some "guy time". Then, my college roommate, Julie came to visit!! She was here June 22-25. It was not long enough! We had lunch with Pat when she got here on Monday then had a relaxing night in. Tuesday she got some alone time with Stefanie then we all had lunch together. We got to have dinner with my parents that night, which was nice. In college her parents were like my parents and vice versa so she wanted to visit with them for a bit. Wednesday was all about us! We went to Maple Grove, did some shopping and had lunch at 3 Squares. It was FABULOUS! We met Karen for dinner and rented "Nights in Rodanthe". Thursday we drove to Des Moines, IA to meet her parents. She was going to Illinois for a friend's wedding that weekend, so we decided to get a few more hours with her and just drive her instead of her flying home. It was great to see her parents, they are a riot! I was incredibly sad to have her leave, but grateful that she was even able to come out here. Next summer, I'm going to try and get to Washington and spend more time out there than the last time.


Friday, I headed to Brule, WI for the 3rd annual Girls' Weekend. My friend Allison, from high school, has a family cabin up there. There was 8 of us, mostly from high school and then a couple friends of Allison's from college. We checked out the local bars, went to a winery and of course, did a canoe trip! My week off from work was fabulous but went much too fast!!



Now it's July! We're going to enjoy our July 4th weekend this year! Last year Bobby was working nights and didn't get to have any fun with our friends. Tonight we're going to Karen's, tomorrow is Millie and Jeron's then Josh and Anna's, and Sunday I'll be going to the Taste of Minnesota with some of my girlfriends!

Have a happy and safe 4th!

Weekend with Family!

We just got back on Monday from a weekend long trip to New Jersey to visit Bobby's family.

We left early Friday morning, and our first stop was to see grandma and grandpa Murtha. We got to see their new apartment and have dinner with them at a really good little Italian place. Saturday, Pat's brothers drove down and we all had lunch at a fun diner near the grandparents' home. After that, we drove to north Jersey to see John's side of them family. We went to Uncle Tom and Aunt Toni's house for pizza. Aunt Jo flew up from Florida, so it was fantastic to see her! On Sunday a bunch of cousins along with Uncle Bill and Uncle Mike came over and we had a lunch BBQ. I finally got to meet cousin Jen, her husband Rob and their 8 month old son Ryan! After lunch we took a short drive to see "Aunt" Karen and her family. We had a BBQ at her daughter and son-in-law's place. Lots of yummy food! It flew by, but we had such a great time catching up with everyone and just spending time with family! It was definitely a TON of food!

Next time, Bobby and I want to stay an additional few days on our own so we can drive to New York and spend some time there for our vacation. Even though I enjoyed myself, I was sick the whole time! Thursday I woke up with a horrible sore throat, which got worse overnight. Friday, I was stuffy and felt gross. The sore throat went away but my cold was getting worse. Aunt Toni had laryngitis while we were there, and now I'm thinking I got it. Yesterday I felt all around awful. Today I physically felt much better but I can barely speak, so that's no good. I had to leave work early in order to rest my voice so I can work the rest of the week.

Overall a great trip! Always sad to leave them!

Memorial Day at the Cabin

Well it's Memorial Day weekend! Which used to not have much meaning for us. But now that things are better financially and we didn't have any plans, we decided to go to my family's cabin....with Nemo! It was just us and my parents, Jeff was at Mudfest as usual.

We left Friday afternoon and got up to McGregor in enough time to eat dinner, let Nemo explore, and crash early! Saturday, my day started early since Nemo was walking around waiting for one of us to get up and let him out. I think he's starting to realize that I am the "morning" person to let him out, so he usually just hangs out around my side of the bed until he either hears my alarm, or I just wake up. My mom is a morning person too, so I got to hang out with her. Some pictures of Nemo exploring:

Saturday was a little chilly, so once we got outside, Nemo immediately found the warm sand and chilled out there for a while. Bobby was able to help out by chopping wood. There wasn't much lawn left to mow, so I didn't do much to help out. Nemo got along really well with my parents. We got an extra pair of socks from my dad to use to play with. Nemo did have an issue with my parents walking back into the cabin and not remembering them. He pretty much established claim right away.




We took a trip to town to get some Dairy Queen, then grilled after we had ice cream, LOL. Played a fun game of Uno Attack, and went to bed early again. Was woken up early again this morning, had a yummy homemade breakfast and then took off around noon! Overall, great weekend up north, but I'm glad we can spend part of our holiday weekend at home. Now we know Nemo can handle the cabin and we're no longer concerned about bringing him up there. Although he did get a little bit rowdy once we tied him up out front and he had some free reign to run around. And when I say rowdy, I mean he ran around so fast that the rope got caught around my ankles, giving me some nice rope burn.

I think Nemo had a good time! We're looking forward to bringing him up there again!

I really need to update more....

Sorry all! I'm getting worse and worse at updating this!

Last week was Mother's Day weekend. Since Pat has successfully completed chemo and radiation and is just finishing up herceptin treatments, we decided to walk in the Race for the Cure at Mall of America. We had a team of about 20 people who were walking or running on our team "The Queens' Court". Pat and her girlfriends call themselves the "Queens". Since we had some husbands participating, we thought "The Queens' Court" would be more appropriate. We did the 5K walk and it was a BEAUTIFUL day! We had such a great time and the walk went so fast! We really appreciated all of our friends who walked and took time on Mother's Day to support Pat and all other survivors who walked! Afterwards, we had brunch at Pat's house, which was yummy, as always!

We came home to a "remodeled" room courtesy of Nemo. He managed to push out the entire front panel of his metal kennel, got out, chewed up our blinds, ripped apart one of Bobby's belts, peed and random other things. Oh and he locked himself in the room. After calming down, we went to my parents' house to have dinner with them. We brought Nemo to meet the family and he did really well. We found a barrier to put up between the main level and the basement, so Nemo could roam around a little bit.

Nemo has since gotten out of his metal kennel again. We put padlocks all around and he still bent the metal back enough to crawl out. Needless to say, that kennel went back and he's back to his original hard-cover kennel. Our obedience teacher recommended Benadryl for his separation anxiety. Last night, Karen brought her dog, Buster over for a playdate. We gave him Benadryl before they came and he was perfectly tame. Same thing happened when Pat came over today to meet him. So we're hoping that when we go out tonight, the Benadryl will calm him down while we're gone, not just when we're here. If the Benadryl is not successful, we'll have to bug you all for more suggestions!

Overall, things are going really well. Bobby started his summer class on Thursday and decided he prefers morning class, thank goodness! That means this fall he'll have, at most, one night class (assuming he can't get a morning class on Fridays), and we'll actually see each other more than we did before! We're going up north next weekend with my parents, and summer will have officially begun!!

Nemo: One month later

Well, I've finally posted a picture of Nemo! (check him out to the right...) He's been a member of our family for a month now. He's doing great! After obedience class, he's started taking better walks with us. Much more focused on the walk and less focused on sniffing everything, everywhere. We had some problems with "accidents"....and almost always only when I was home alone with him...never when Bobby's home alone with him. That has gotten better over time, thank goodness. Took him to the vet last weekend and he's in great health! He does have some problems with separation anxiety. Nothing major where he's hurting himself from banging up against the kennel when we're gone. But definite whining and crying for a long time after we've left. So the vet, who is holistic, gave us herbal drops and pills to mix into food. The drops are given to him daily and the pills are for when we're both going to be gone for a long time. Just to relax him a little. He's a high energy dog so I think that contributes to it a little bit. We definitely love him and can't wait to see him continue to get used to us and feel more at home here.

Today we took him to Petco to see some of his Homeward Bound friends. Because he was up for adoption for so long, the volunteers got really attached to him. They were so excited to see him today, and he was happy to see them too! We'll try to make it a monthly thing to bring him back. They were a big part of his life for a year and so it's important to us that he still gets to see them. Although, when we walked in and he heard all the barking of the other dogs, I think he briefly wondered if we were leaving him there. Of course we weren't, but still.... :)

On another note, yesterday was my one year anniversary at Sorenson. I can't believe a year has gone by already! This year was so different from the 2007-2008 year.... and definitely much better. I love my job and can't wait to have more yearly milestones!