April Photo Dump

As I make an April photo dumb I can hardly believe that this all happened in April, Easter seems like an eternity ago and I know it technically was in March but the last day so you get an Easter picture anyways. April has FLOWN by to say the least! I can't hardly believe May begins tomorrow. Tomorrow I can officially say I am getting married next month - crazy town!

Easter with my family
Love them all!

My colleague and I made a video for Synod Assembly -
we think we are funny & made a Batman parody

Seriously love, Love, LOVE getting mail - especially when
it means people are coming to visit me
RSVPs for our wedding coming back

While the snow is super pretty and if this was November I'd be loving it
however I am 100% over these April storms

At a bridal shower back home they made a "flat Marc"
and I think it is hilarious and so I had to have a picture of both of them
note the extreme height of flat Marc compared to real Marc

Dakota - because what's a photo dump without at least one picture of her

Sweet Linnea and Gustav - she is learning how to share the balls with the puppies

I think I am going to attempt to do a monthly photo dumb on the last day of every month. Crazy to realize this all happened in this last month.


What was your highlight of April?

Has spring finally come where you are at?

New bike

I FINALLY DID IT! I got my new bike. Here are some pictures from last night's ride. It is a Trek road bike, she is a serious improvement from my bike circa 8th grade, semi cracked from the ridiculous old lady who hit me last year.

Marc & I
He is actually a serious bike rider and knows what he is doing
I am just learning the ropes

My view of my bike

The snow is FINALLY melting away

I love that we rode our bikes out to the middle of no where and were running into gravel roads

It was a wonderful ride, I need to learn how to ride with my feet clipped into my pedals, it should be fine once I get the hang of it, I am still a little slow getting in and out of them but I am catching on. My butt was a little sore after last night's ride - I actually think we only went 15 or so miles but it is a different set of muscles than I am accustom to using. I am excited about it and am up early so I can ride my bike to work today.


Do you enjoy biking?
Do you cross train in any way?
What is your favorite non running workout?

Running Misc.

The treadmill and I are not friends any more. We have spent too many wintery days bonding - who knew April would still be winter. I can't talk myself into more than about three miles or so on the treadmill before I seriously go nuts. I hate it. I am ready for spring and snow free and ice free days. I have been putting in lots of time on the elliptical and lots of miles in the pool. I am not trained very well for Fargo. It frustrates me. BLAH. However I still have a few weeks - so I am going to do what I can and call it good.

I have begun to revamp my running playlist again, it is time again
Current Running Playlist:
Touch the Sky -  Brave Soundtrack
Learn Me Right - Brave Soundtrack
When Will My Life Begin - Tangled Soundtrack
We built this city on rock and roll - Starship

God is great beer is good, people are crazy

Princess and the Frog
Come on Eileen
Stronger
Brown Eyed Girl

What's on your playlist? I need some more songs to add.
What races are you training for at the moment?
What race are you most excited for that you are currently registered for? (mine is the Wine and Dine Half Marathon)

Conversations

Last night I hung out with a group of sixth grade boys from the congregation I serve, they are hilarious. Seriously, I love middle school kids. While a midst our great conversation about communion we had several other conversations. Let me set the room for you. I am sitting on the floor with eight sixth grade boys in our entry way to our office (a fairly big space), they are secretly trying to hide their ipods/phones in their pockets to text their friends and "girlfriends" and think I have no clue, randomly a fart is let out or a piece of gum is accidentally dropped from their mouths, not to forget the kid who is obsessed with the office chair keeps spinning in a circle at any given opportunity. Their feet must be touching for who knows what strange reason and they are all suffering from extreme "shiny object" syndrome - oh look a shiny object - and are in complete vitamin d with drawl due to the lack of sun and opportunity to burn off all this energy since mid-October when the snow began to fall and hasn't stopped since.

I am not their normal mentor - however their normal mentor couldn't be there and so I steppe in because I love the chance to hang out with the different groups of kids. We began discussing our highs and lows for the past week.


boy a: my high for the week is I got a girlfriend
boy b: WHO?!
boy a: [insert name here]
boy b-h: oooo, ahhhh, wow, etc.
boy a: my low for the week is after 2 days 11 hours and 17 minutes she dumped me
boy d: WHAT?!
boy a: and do you want to know what she did?
boy h: yeah dude
boy a: (spoken in a ridiculous melodramatic voice) after lunch today she gave Lucas a piece of gum
boy f: wow that's low
boy a: AAAAAANNNNNNNNNDDDDD after power hour I saw her talking to my best friend, six lockers down from my locker
boy b: you have to be making this stuff up.... no girl is that mean

a little bit later in the conversation this conversation happens which totally doesn't fit in at all with what we were talking about and we had long since dropped the girl conversation by at least twenty minutes

boy f: guys I figured it out
rest of the boys: what did you figure out - this communion stuff (what we were talking about)
boy f: no - what!? not that - we just need to start dating seventh grade girls
boy c: you can't get a sixth grade girl to date you why would you think you can get a seventh grade girl to date you an what's the difference in sixth and seventh grade girls
boy f: think about it....
boy g: seventh grade girls are taller than us!
boy f: yeah but seventh grade girls aren't dumb like sixth grade girls - I swear I am only dating seventh grade girls for the rest of my life
boy d: why?
boy f: seventh grade girls are older and can stay out late and they always have the better gum
rest of the boys: this totally makes sense
boy a: wait when you are in tenth grade you are going to date seventh grade girls
boy f: noooooo then I'll date seniors.
rest of the boys: ahhhhhh



Seriously these boys crack me up in more ways than I can articulate. They are wonderful and I find the minds of sixth graders hilarious and totally illogical.

Surreal

Today I am off to Fargo to go try on my wedding dress again (seriously haven't seen it or tried it on since October). The wedding/being married stuff is becoming real really fast. It is a bit nuts to say the least. While I am excited to go try on my wedding dress and all that fun stuff I am also excited to hang out with one of my friends for a few hours and eat yummy food.

It seems strange that things are finally falling into place and everything is really happening. We are 43 days away from wedding day, I am jazzed, I am ready to be done with this strange period of transition, I am ready to be done with the planning and the craziness of it all. I am ready to be married and on with it. Although I am super super super excited to see family and friends I have my fingers crossed that from when they start arriving till Sunday afternoon goes slowish and that I take at least 10,000 photos (I LOVE pictures) and that I have the mental capacity to remember it all! [Yes, I know this is a utopic dream - but I don't care]

Living in a small town I always get jazzed when I get to go to a bigger town so that I can have a wider variety of food. The problem always comes in only selecting one place to eat.

Perks of going to the big city:

• great yarn shopping
• yummy food
• friends are near
• chances of running into people from work is lessened
• I remember that I don't like a ton of people and am happy with my little town

Downfalls of going to the big city:

• I have to drive
• I sometimes dream of living closer to a city (2.5 hours to big cities in nearly every direction sort of sucks)
• it pretty much sucks up my whole day

Unrelated side note: I did get up earlyish and got in a great run with my sweet puppy - the distance isn't quite what I would like to be at right now and the transition from the treadmill to the road is always a roughish one for me.

Any tips for transitioning back to running on the road?

Anything exciting happening in your world today?

Do you have to go somewhere to get to the "big city" or do you live there?

Any good runs happening out there?

Guess Whose Coming To Dinner

It has been on my bucket list for quite some time now to learn how to roll sushi. I am totally and completely and utterly clueless when it comes to how to make it. I have some friends from seminary (Jakeypoo and Molita) who are sushi rolling pros and I have been saying for the longest time that I want to learn because I LOVE to eat sushi but hate the price not to mention the closest sushi place to me is a solid two and a half hours away. Which when you are craving sushi may as well be half way around the world. Anyways.

The church I serve three times a year has a fellowship event called "Guess who is coming to dinner" and people sign up to host the event at their house and then others sign up to be guests and you don't know who is coming to dinner until you show up. It is such fun and people around here love this even, I seriously think they would do it every other month if we would coordinate it - which maybe we should but that is a whole different topic for a different day. Anyways. Marc and I signed up to attend. We were assigned to a families house and we I brought dessert - I made a four layer cake - it was delightful in my opinion. Anyways.

The family who was hosting and Marc and I have been saying we both want to learn how to roll sushi and conveniently another family who was assigned to the same place we were (I didn't even make these assignments - sometimes I get to help pick who goes where) loves making sushi and so they agreed to teach us all how to roll sushi for dinner! WONDERFUL! Seriously so fun. Who knew how easy it was and how inexpensively you can make sushi. I feel like I just about ate my own weight in sushi it was glorious.

My first sushi roll I made

I am thankful for the family who taught us how to roll sushi - I am thankful I didn't just attempt to learn how to do it from directions online and that he was able to show us the tricks to the rice and exactly how to roll it in there and how to pack the rice as well as how to cut the veggies and the sea food. And surprisingly not that difficult to do. I am thankful that someone was able to show me all the tricks, which side of the seaweed faces up, the rice vinegar trick and all of that. Sooooooo yummy and sooooo excited to know how to do this and to be able to cross it off my bucket list (yeah I know I have some strange stuff on my bucket list - however it is my bucket list and I don't care how ridiculous some of it seems).

Part of our sushi roll stack
sooooooooo yummy

Do you like sushi?
Do you know how to roll sushi?
What is on your bucket list?
Anything crazy on your bucket list?
Have you been to any fun fellowship events lately church related or not (I am always looking for new and fun ideas)?

High School Lock-In

There are several amazing things about my call - in fact at the moment I can't imagine doing anything else. However with my call (associate pastor for children, youth, & family ministries) there are several "job hazards" one of them is lock-ins - the other which is often closely associated with the previous is pizza. This past Friday night I got the joy of both.

Really I do enjoy spending time with my youth because they are amazing to say the least however, I really like my sleep too - I enjoy sleeping - lockins = no sleep. This last lock in however a colleague and I wised up and partnered up so that we could be locked into the church with both of our sets of kids and a couple of other adults and that together we could get through it - it worked - it made life much more happy to have a friend alongside me. I honestly have the world's best colleagues.

Anyways, our evening was filled with pizza, games, movies, laughter, worship, prayer, games, and we did a service project for a neighboring ministry who helps youth who are often marginalized. We went over to their building from 10:30 pm - 3:00 am and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and organized and organized and organized. I fear people could smell the cleaning products miles away. It was a gift to be able to help another local ministry, to have our kids helping kids much like themselves, kids who just need a little extra help. It was wonderful to be able to free up some of the people who work at this ministries time to do other things than clean - it was great to be able to help take inventory for them and come alongside them.

Here are some highlights from the night:

• never ending games of Romans and Christians
• several rounds of sardines
• helping out a partner ministry and cleaning their building until it shined
• amazing conversation with the youth
• yummy pancake breakfast
• laughs, laughs, and more laughs
• Brave (the movie)

Sometimes I think I am far too old for these sleepless nights. I came back to my house and slept for a couple hours and then I went out to camp to haul beds. Blah. I was then in bed that night by 9 for sure and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I hate missing a nights worth of sleep but love the relationship aspect of lock-ins - I guess for now I will keep doing them until I really can't stand it any more. The youth love them. They nearly drive me crazy.

Dear Winter

Hello Winter,
    Yes, it is true we love you November through about mid-March, now that it is the end of April and you are continuing to drop snow on us, you annoy us! Yes, we know we live in the Midwest and that you do like to stay around for longer than we'd want but you have seriously broken every agreement we ever had. Seriously, give spring it's chance. You win. We give up. We don't want to play your games any more. We are over you 110%. We now spend our days cursing you, dreaming of warmer places, and want to punch anyone who even mentions you dropping more snow on us. We can't stand the sound of you not to mention we all are experiencing some serious vitamin d deficiencies and that is having serious effects on everyone.
   Our youth are crying for warmed days where their track meets, golf meets, softball games, lacrosse games, and baseball games aren't cancelled because they can't find the fields. They are longing for good practices outside in beautiful green grass not dirty white snow. Our kids are remembering days spent on playgrounds and picnics outside and yet they can't remember anything other than your white snow. Our people are praying that the ice is off the lakes by fishing opener so that they can once again fill their freezers full of walleyes. People don't want to be ice fishing in mid-May, some lakes still have over 30 inches of ice on them and that will take some serious time to melt.
   Please let the sunshine reign. Please go away, take your spring, summer, and fall vacation somewhere else, I hear Antarctica could use some more snow, or go freeze some more ice up by the north pole, go away from here. You are no longer welcome. Not to mention you are the laughing stock of all social media - people are claiming you are drunk and all sorts of things. I am trying to speak highly of you which is why I am telling you all of this to your face.
   Give spring, summer, and fall their chances and by November next year we'll welcome you back with open arms (if you leave now) as we dream of days spent snow shoeing, cross country skiing, ice fishing, sledding, and days with hot chocolate and good books. Please go away. We beg of you.
   At this point we are certain you can name your price and name what you want, we will probably happily give it to you just to send you on your way. You have had your glory days, we no longer doubt you or mock you, we know your strength and power, and bid you farewell with much respect and what little love for you we can muster.

Love,
   Minnesota (and much of the rest of the Midwest)


p.s. This really isn't a request it is a demand. Please consider this your eviction notice effective immediately.

Crochet Project

I was presented a slightly challenging project, I was handed a grocery store bag with four partial skiens of yarn and some super small balls of yarn. It was this woman's grandma's yarn, she passed away several years ago and in a box of stuff that she inherited was this bag of yarn. The woman doesn't knit or crochet and figured that this yarn wasn't the best to learn on not to mention she claims no interest in what she called a "dying art" (which secretly broke my heart - I won't let the joy of crocheting die if it is up to me - this refreshed my commitment to teach others how to do it). So I had this bag of yarn, colors I wouldn't have necessarily combined together, all of similar weight, and an uncertain amount, less than a skein a piece for sure.
I set off on my challenge trying to figure out how I can maximize the yarn, how can I stretch it to make as big of a blanket as possible. I tried several different things, I started a granny square blanket and ripped that apart, I started making a square and part way through didn't feel right about it, I tried a couple of patterns I had never tried before, and then a friend passed along a pattern her mom had used for a blanket for son. I knew this was the solution to my problem. It was a striped (helpful when uncertain amounts exist and I didn't really know how much yarn I had and didn't want something that would be an unforgiving pattern when I ran out each color), it was mostly double crocheted and was a bit holey which eventually is where I weaved the yarn through to create this woven blanket. It took longer than I probably anticipated, but given the challenge of the yarn and the amounts, and the request to add as little yarn as I could to preserve "grandma's yarn" I think  I am happy with how it turned out. I only added some white yarn (there was some in the original bag - but not this much) - the rest is Grandma original. I was thrilled to be able to give this woman her grandma's yarn back in this small afghan.
Have you ever had a strange request along this line?
Have you ever worked with someone's yarn that was special?
              This made me nervous because I knew I couldn't replace the yarn.

Dreaming of Summer

While sitting in room looking out at my April snow drifts (never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed that I would have April snowdrifts to stare at) I am thinking/dreaming of summer days and my summer to do list.


Sarah's Summer To-Do List:

• Get Married
• Paddle in ten new locations around my area
• thrive through a middle school mission trip
• thrive through a high school mission trip
• run copious amounts of miles outside - enough that I can forget how much I hate the treadmill and when winter comes again I will be able to talk myself back onto the treadmill
• swim in the lake
• learn to wake board
• Go camping at least four times
• Learn how to use pedals (the ones that you snap your feet into that scare the poop out of me right now) on my bike
• take thousands of pictures
• watch the sunset and the loons fish
• grill most nights of the week
• bike to work as often as possible
• enjoy summer stretch - a Thursday ministry with 6-8th graders
• lay in my hammock at least weekly
• Rollerblade the Paul Bunyan trail
• eat my weight in ice cream - seriously I LOVE ice cream
• have a bonfire at least weekly
• roast a s'more from time to time
• finish the retaining wall around my bush in my yard
• master some new marinades for meat and veggies on the grill
• spend more time outside than inside
• visit Itasca State Park - headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River

What's on your summer to do list?

Bark Box

My sweet Dakota got a sixth month subscription to bark box, an online service that delivers dog treats, supplies, and toys once a month to your house. Dakota loved her first months bark box, the treats were awesome and she love love loved the rope toy. I am interested to try the "groom mit"s - they are almost like baby wipes except geared towards dogs and so it is suppose to help you when puppies are nasty and need a bath and you just don't want to give them one. I am saving them for mud season er I mean spring, if it ever comes, currently we are sitting under several inches of snow and it doesn't appear spring is ever coming! Bark box was a glorious box filled with toys and treats for my sweet puppy and she has loved them all so far.


If you are interested in signing up go a head and use this link: https://barkbox.com/r/0eO8RmjVO0/
You will get a discount and Dakota will get additional free Bark Boxes.

Give me a break people......

Seriously. I get married in about a month and a half. I am not married yet.
I am already annoyed by the number of kids who have said anything along this line:

• Will you have a kid by next year at this time?


• Are you ready to give up alcohol for 9 months?


• How will being pregnant effect your race calendar?


• Are you going to even bother with birth control or just get pregnant right away?


• blah blah blah - have a baby - blah blah blah

I know people are very excited for us to be getting married and I know people love babies and I know people are trying to be helpful and want to be a part of this next phase in my life but seriously - stop pushing people.

Currently I have the world's cutest puppy (at least in my eyes) and for the moment she is more than plenty to handle. There is absolutely no, zero, zilch reason to have my own kid. Currently I am savoring: sleep, being able to pick up and go whenever and wherever I want, sleep, freedom, and being engaged and transitioning to being married. [yes I am aware that lots of these things are selfish however, reasons are what they are and I am jazzed to use them for a while yet].

Fried Rice

I know it looks a little nasty but I was sooo proud.

I learned how to make fried rice! Who knew it was sooooo easy and sooooooooo delicious. Seriously. Why has no one ever taught me how to make this delightful easy easy easy easy easy easy dinner.

What I did:
scrabbled 2 eggs and put them off to the side
put day old rice into my fry pan with a very minimal amount of oil
added a half bag of peas that have been in the freezer for who knows how long
added a half bag of corn which also has been in the freezer for who knows how long
added some ham that I took out of the freezer earlier in the day [still eating Easter ham]
added some minced garlic
added some onion
added some soy sauce to taste
cooked till yummy

How did I not know about how easy it is to make fried rice and how easy it is to use up freezer veggies with this recipe?! Seriously!

What do you like to make with rice? I am looking for some other rice based dinner options.
What is in your frequent dinner rotation? I am seriously beginning to make a list of some great go to options for dinner so we don't get stuck eating much of the same stuff over and over again.

If you know of the world's easiest dinner (like this one) please please share with me. I love quick fast, delicious meals!

I am debating making cards with all of our favorite meals on them so I don't forget about some and can get them in some type of a great rotation. Or I need to get better at meal planning.

Showered - overly blessed

This past weekend I traveled back home and was spoiled by not one but two different bridal showers. Seriously. It was crazy. It was tons of people who I haven't seen in a while (soooooo good to see everyone) and to have the chance to catch up a bit. I wish I had more time to catch up with people, but it just wasn't possible in that short of a time. It was fun to be back in SD for sure. I wish I got back there more often - a piece of me wonders if some day we won't end up back in SD, although who knows what will happen. Currently I am still loving northern Minnesota other than the distance from my family.

I LOVE these girls - we have grown up together - they are wonderful

Highlights:

• Hanging out with my Hartj
• taking Dakota to the dog park (even though it was ridiculously snowy)- Brainerd seriously needs one of these
• spending time in South Dakota
• seeing family & friends
• I seriously have the world's best friends and family
• I got to meet two of my new baby cousins that I haven't met before (they are ridiculously cute) and they have mastered the skill of snuggling 
• sooooo many new things 
•  now it's time to go through the old and get rid of what I can and donate what I can
• I now get to send all sorts of thank yous
• I LOVE writting letters and sending snail mail
• hanging out with my parents

Everyone loves to snuggle the new babies
Anna & Jack

Downfalls:

• I don't like knowing that my family is so far away
• My drive on the way down was AWFUL due to the super craptastic weather & took me 3.5 hours longer than normal 
• The weather was less than desirable - who knew in mid April I would have issues with traveling due to weather. This is ridiculous. Spring please come.
• The trip was a whirlwind
• I wish I could have spent a week there
• I didn't get to see quite everyone that I wanted to

Bike

I LOVE being outside, my goal for this spring (if it ever comes), summer, and fall is to ride my bike as much as I possibly can and to avoid driving as much as I can. I know I am limited: I can't haul Dakota on my bike and I can't get to the west side of town easily or with any form of time efficiency on my bike. But I can get to work, to the grocery store (if I don't need to pick up a ton), to many of the meetings I attend, to the hospital, to the gym, and to the coffee shop. So here's to you good ol' Trek mountain bike (circa seventh or eight grade of course) - you and I will be making good friends this spring, summer, and fall.

True Story: I am starting to look at replacing my bike to get something that would allow me to keep up with Marc, he has a road bike and rides way more miles than I do but my bike is old and a mountain bike, not necessarily built for long bike rides, so we'll see. I will keep you all posted - I am waiting to go try bikes at a local bike shop before I commit to buying a bike because I am a taller female I am either at the top of one size of bike or at the bottom of another size bike, and both would work, but I need to decide what feels best and riding the ten feet across the store just wasn't cutting it.

Totally unrelated side note: I have found an entertainment center that I like (I feel like I have looked at about 12,000 of them, literally, not certain why this was such a hard decision for me but apparently it really was) and I ordered it. I have been saving for an entertainment center for a long time (almost a couple years) and I finally found one and ordered it - now to play the waiting game of testing my patience for it to come because I wasn't willing to pay for it to be speedily ordered and delivered and blah blah blah

Seriously.....

Okay this picture is proof that people are crazy and should just listen to what I say. Seriously, don't take short cuts people. My what will be father-in-law sent this picture to Marc (my fiance) about how he was upset with the tux company about why they wouldn't accept his measurements. Seriously! We repeatedly told him to go to a tux place and get measured and call them into the place that we are ordering tuxes from here in town. There is a small piece of me that wishes we could just let him go on his own and see how horribly wrong his tux would fit, but then I know that would be a train wreck and I would feel horrible in the end. Not to mention he would look HORRIBLE in his tux. So he is dragging his heels and complaining about having to go get measured and blah blah blah.....
Hopefully someone else can appreciate it like I did. I am still laughing at this picture.

2 Years Old

Dakota - Fall 2012
photo credit: Vicki Foss (she's a rockstar)

Dear Dakota,

   When you came into the world two years ago I had no idea, I didn't know you were born until I saw your sweet picture of you and your siblings. I had no idea what you would mean to me. As I looked at the pile of puppies I thought how could I even begin to choose, you were one of nine. I sorted through the pictures and instantly knew I wanted a female, which left five of you to choose from. There were lots of pictures, finally I settled on one for no particular reason other than something tugged at my heart strings, although I am not certain how looking at golden retriever puppies one couldn't have their heart strings tugged. So I waited, for what feels like forever (eight weeks) for you to wean yourself from your mother. 

    I met you in a parking lot, you were the sweetest little ball of fur I had ever set my eyes on. Seriously, you were such a snugly puppy. We had a lot of transition and changes in your first year and you were a tough puppy at times. Your first year, was great, but this second year was even better. You have quit bitting on anything and everything in eye range, you are fully house broken, you walk and run like a champ on a leash and you are even learning quite a few commands. You have sit, stay, come (most of the time), wait, and down amazingly well. You are even a rockstar off leash, you love the ability to run and run and run some more.
   You have recently gotten accepted in the Morris Animal Foundation Lifetime Golden Retriever study and passed your initial grueling physical with flying colors. Everyone at the vet clinic loves you and you ham it up so that they just keep giving you treats upon treats. We get close to the vet and your tail starts wagging like crazy because going to the vet means treats, several people's undivided attention, and lots of love.

   Your best friends are Luther and Gus, as well as your cousin Nala. You love to play with the orange chuck it ball, swim in any lake and sometimes even sit in the bathtub and beg for me to fill it just so you can play in the water, you love going for a good long run and get antsy when I start to put my shoes on. You love love love food and any food, you lay so nicely at the table if it is just you, Marc, and I at home, when others are over it gets a little bit more challenging. You have Marc trained to give you the last few licks out of his blizzard cup and some of nearly every meal he eats. You also love going for a ride in the car and snuggling on the couch. You still sleep in your crate with your blanket and your zebra buddy and we haven't dared leave you out yet while we aren't home for you are persistent at getting into things if given the chance. 

   You love to be outside when the weather is warm and watching the kids at the school across the way at the school. You also love when we go visit kids or they come to the house, you wag and wag your tail and let them pet you until they don't care any more. You have finally caught on the the sleep gig in the morning and never make a peep until I come to let you out of your crate, you are amazing.
    I think you have finally stopped growing, you are a wonderful size, not too big and not to small. Up here in northern Minnesota you are the odd dog out because you have such light colored fur, most golden retrievers up here, like your bff's Gus & Luther, have dark red fur. You were weighed not too long ago and weighted a solid 66 pounds. Both your mom and dad were huge, so I wasn't sure what you would turn out like size wise, and even color was sort of a guess, a couple of your siblings were really dark as puppies. There is a piece of me that wishes we could gather you and your siblings together just to see if you remember each other and compare what you all look like. 

   When I got you I had no idea what you would me to me or how much I would love you. Thanks for letting me come home and vent to you, snuggle when all seems wrong or right in the world, thanks for demanding I am not lazy all of the time and accompanying me on countless walks, runs, and hikes. Thanks for being the ball of energy you are and for loving me unconditionally. Thanks for being you! Thanks be to God for you and pets everywhere who are more than merely pets.

I love you tons and tons,

   Sarah

South Dakota bound

Due to a pile up of comp time and some other random factors I am headed home a day earlier than anticipated (whoop whoop) - however never in my wildest imagination did I think I would have to worry about the weather while traveling back home. Seriously, when people mentioned having a shower for me I never in my wildest imagination thought about having to worry about weather in mid April for a wedding shower. BLAH. I hate traveling in craptastic (I am certain this is not a word, but I love using it) icy/snowy stuff. Why oh why?! However, it is the reality either way.

Dakota and I are off to spend some time with my parents, my dear friend, my grandparents, and a bunch of other extended family. It should be glorious! I can't wait. While I had hoped that Dakota and I could get in a couple of mid-afternoon runs while everyone is at work and the sun is shining that is not happening and instead I will be headed to a fitness facility near by to spend time on the dreaded treadmill.

I am not excited about how well I am not trained for my upcoming Fargo half marathon (May 18) - I am at the stage that I hate the treadmill and can't talk myself into running on it for more than about an hour before my sanity becomes in jeopardy. I had planned to be getting in massive amounts of miles outside this time of year, however mother nature disagreed with my training plan and is forcing me to face the blasted treadmill. I have also been getting in some time on the elliptical machine, the stair stepper, lots of laps in the pool, and some miles on the stationary bike - but it isn't the same as pounding the pavement with my favorite puppy.

Dakota I think is annoyed with the weather as well. She has been whining in the bathtub in hopes that I will give in and put a couple of inches in the tub for her to play in - I think she desperately wants to be able to swim in the lakes/rivers around here but it just isn't happening. I do give in from time to time and throw a few inches of water in the tub and it entertains Dakota for about an hour. *note to self - I should film Dakota splashing in the water in the tub - it is pretty funny to watch*



Has spring arrived where you are at?
Are you managing to get in good runs?
What are your opinions about treadmills?

Switching my last name.....

I am totally jazzed to be getting married in June. I am totally excited for about 90% of it all. There are a few things I am not as jazzed or even mildly excited about -although I am working on becoming more excited. I have been a proud Thomson for 29 years. I love my name in fact. Thomson's are strong people. I am totally not yet convinced of the changing the name deal, really it depends on the moment you ask me.

Yes, I know it is easier once you have kids and blah blah blah and I have a colleague in my area who didn't change her name when she got married, and yes she said she is glad she didn't change her name but admits that it always hasn't been easy. People assume things (I know don't worry about this but seriously when you already live in a fish bowl there is no need or reason to make it worse), people can be dumb, life is already complicated enough. Yes, I know all of these things.

And then I think, I am just as much a Blake (my mom's side) as I am a Thomson and I have never carried the Blake name, although... if you looked at my family and our cheeks you would realize that we all have the same super round faces that we all hate. However, I am just as proud of a Blake as I am a Thomson and have never technically carried that name.

Blah. Change. Blah.

Not to mention do you know how much crap my name is on and how much crap I need to change in order to change my name (yes, this is me being lazy as an excuse). It'll be fine. I am whining now. I admit it.

Either way: true confession: I am struggling with this name change crap.
I am working on a solution.

Two Months

What's Done:

• I have a dress (still needs to be fitted)
• Church and reception hall are reserved
• Pastors - picked (complicated when many of your friends are ordained)
• Caterer - automatic when you get the reception hall
• food tasted (seriously this is the best job ever - I would love to do this every night for dinner)
• Cake - person selected 
• working with her to go back and forth about selecting exactly what we want - who knew there were so many amazing options
• Photographer 
•  Fiances uncle and a friend
• Hair appointments 
•  reserved for bridesmaids and me
• DJ 
•  Fiance's uncle 
• Rehearsal Dinner 
• space reserved (at a camp I co-direct in my spare time)
• menu planned
• Guest book figured out
• save the dates sent
• children's bulletins made
• centerpieces done
• reserve transportation for post wedding/ pre-reception 
• Bridesmaid dresses (ordered and several of them have picked them up)
• Invitations
• I just picked up at the printer this past week
• envelopes are addressed, stamped, and return address on them
• I need to finish stuffing them and drop them in the mail hopefully today or tomorrow

TO DO:

• Groom, Groomsmen, Ushers tuxes 
• picked but now we need them all to turn in their measurements
• set up golf outing for the guys
• make a fabric banner
• fabric is all cut just needs to be tied to the rope
• make bridesmaid gifts
• in process
• figure out groomsmen gifts
• DJ
• need to get him a list of what songs are musts and what songs are not to be played
• figure out usher's gifts
• Make labels for reception - who has what meal and what not
• Put labels on mason jars for people to write their names
• Make food for rehearsal dinner
• this can't be done until later
• Flowers
• have a date set with the florist to look at flowers and pick them and all that happy jazz
• I need to clean out my closets and kitchen. I know I have been saying I need to do this for months, but push is finally coming to shove and I need to seriously get going through all my stuff and get rid of some, keep some, and seriously make room for Marc and his stuff.

What am I missing?

Introvert.

sitting in pre-marriage retreat 

Every time I have to take one of those personality tests to tell me how I rank on different scales and blah blah blah I ALWAYS end up way on the introverted scale -  I am very well aware of this. Lately between work and everything else introverted side has been neglected, rejected, and forgotten. It sucks and I am feeling it. It has been wonderful to have house guests however I am going nuts and need some time to escape.
I think this is why I feel in love with running, it was Dakota (my sweet puppy), myself, and the empty road ahead. I love it. Between the weather being less than desirable and Easter, house guest, crazy times at church, and everything else, I seriously can't name an hour other than when I am sleeping that I have been totally alone. It is time. This weekend I had house guests again, which I am happy to host, however, it is too much. Next weekend I am traveling home and I absolutely can't wait for the six hours in the car both ways. I can sit in silence, I can jam to whatever music I want, I can tell Dakota all my secrets, I can listen to God.
This afternoon I am off to lead some training for adult leaders - I am sure it will be great - but I am over people. Yesterday, Marc and I had to go to an all day pre-marriage retreat (which was my third - technically this was the first one I didn't have to work - but really I did end up working it) with 40 other couples (5 of which I am marrying between now and October - either way read far too many people for this introvert).
I want a day to go for a run, to spend time reading a book, to nap with Dakota, to clean my nasty house, to do laundry for the 10,000th time, my poor sheets and towels probably feel like they are consistently in the washer & drier due to all the guests. Next weekend I have a lock in but I think I am going to take Thursday off - because I can and need to.
Being and introvert in an extroverts job sometimes is hard and painful. Sometimes it makes me cranky and makes me want to run for miles on end (which in terms of training is probably helpful).
Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
How do you recharge?

Birthdays

Marc and I have birthdays two days apart, Marc's is 4/3 mine is 4/5 it makes it interesting. We are learning and trying to learn how to celebrate both. Last year and this year we opted for the 4/4 celebration and split the difference, it seems to work out so far. Neither one of us are huge into birthdays, we like to go out to eat or something along that line but by no means expect the world to stop and celebrate with us. It works out well. It didn't help that Marc's birthday fell on a Wednesday (crazy crazy busy for me) and mine on a Friday when we had house guests - we actually are really enjoying having birthdays near one another. Although it would be fun to have a reason to celebrate in another month - maybe we'll start celebrating our half birthday's too just because we can. We did grill this yummy deliciousness last night which was delightful!


How do you celebrate your birthday?
Should your birthday be considered a national holiday?

Wedding Flowers

While my mom was up for Easter we went to the florist and got to pick out what flowers we wanted for the wedding. I am not certain what I would do without pintrest. Seriously. I have little to no knowledge of what flowers are and what they look like or what would look good together. I went in with some ideas and the florist took what I liked and switched it to the green color for the wedding and it should be fun! I am excited. It is sort of a strange thing to realize how close we are starting to get.

What is even crazier to realize is that the next time my mom and dad and brother are up here we will be getting married!

Random fun: We mailed out our invitations last weekend and we started to get them back and so far it is all people who I knew were coming to the wedding for sure (pastor, organist, grandpa, grandma, & a family from town here) but it is ridiculously exciting to be getting fun mail.

I am over the top excited to see everyone!