October photo dump

Ahhhhh - Where has October gone?! I cannot believe it is time for October's photo dump and I have fallen off the blogging horse for several weeks (SORRY). Life has been nuts. However with this month's photo dump you will be caught back up pretty quickly:

Grandpa's 85th Birthday party
LOVE HIM

Some of the Thomson Women with Grandpa

Warrior Day of Service prep
300 Junior High & Senior High youth
doing service projects around our area on
an early out day

why wouldn't we let the baby play on the pool
table while we prepped Warrior Day of Service?!

Crocheted some cute hats for
my favorite twins

Warrior day of Service
Beautiful Choas

Trip to Minneapolis with my family

Dinner with my parents

A very entertaining evening with:
Brother, Husband, Dad, & Cousin
Oh. The. Stories.

Lobster grilled cheese with an egg on top
It was AMAZING!

Magic Bands Arrived

Winterizing Camp
This is what we call putting all our eggs in one basket
Dear Mice, STAY OUT of our new mattresses.

A beautiful fall day horse back riding with a member from church
I LOVE instagram (follow me: sathomson)

Gross rainy day 10K in Fargo
sorry about the blurry pic but it is all we got
NO MEDAL :( we got a hockey puck
How am I suppose to hang that on my wall?

Many a good walk and run at the Arb
BEAUTIFUL fall trees with berries

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!
I was looking threw the abstract of title of the house
and this is the first entry. It was originally built in 1870
We live (until mid November) in a piece of history

One of the church ladies is afraid I will have cold toes this winter
so she made me a pair of slippers

My husband this morning
He is dressed as the dude from Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I did his makeup and was pretty proud of it

How was your October? 

Did I miss anything in your world?

Tell me something ridiculously random.

Jellyfish

This past weekend Marc and I went down to Minneapolis and met up with my family and a friend. While we went to the cities to see Wicked (which is unbelievably awesome), we also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the aquarium (we had wanted to go to the zoo, however the rain prevented that). Anyways, here are some pictures I took of the jellyfish (they were ridiculously fun to see - some pictures are better than others however, I am still learning how to use my camera). Anyways, here is a glimpse at some of the jellyfish we saw:

This picture is my favorite.

Do you have an aquarium by you?

Do you like going to the zoo?

Have you seen Wicked (if you haven't figure out when it will be near you next and go, it is seriously that good)?

One Month Until the Wine and Dine Half Marathon

Be prepared that this coming month and probably for many a day following my trip there will be LOTS of Disney and runDisney talk on my blog. Today we are exactly one month from the Wine and Dine half marathon - which will be the second half of my Coast to Coast medal!

I am beyond jazzed for sure.
Our hotel reservations are made.
Our dinner reservations are made.

I am nervous about the late night run.
I am in bed normally by 10.
I am nervous about the different time of day.

I will over pack because I will question the weather.
I will carry on my beloved shoes and my hopeful running clothes.
I will pack copious amounts of  memory cards for the photos I will take.

I will continue to log the miles in the days to come.
I am running the Fargo Mini-Marathon the 19th of October.
I am running the Crosslake Monsterdash the 26th of October.

I AM RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED!



Do you have any races coming up that you are over the top excited about?
Do you get to run outside in the winter months or are you suck on a treadmill too?

Four Months as a Mrs.

I seriously cannot believe we have been married for four months!

It has been marvelous for sure. This past month we have been getting back into the swing of fall and figuring out what life will look like this fall. We got to make a trip back to South Dakota for my grandfather's 85th birthday party - soooo wonderful.

Our house is still for sale (I am hoping our house has sold and we are in a new house by Christmas). Selling a house sucks. End story.

Marc is really getting into the groove of work - he finally feels like he knows what he is doing and is really loving his new (as of mid June) job - more importantly he gets WAY more vacation time which means we get to take more trips and spend more time together (WONDERFUL).

Okay. So this post is semi-lame. However. I am attempting to get back into blogging. I will do it! I love it, so must get on it.



***Completely unrelated side notes from this past month***
-I got a new camera body (Nikon D300) which I am totally jazzed about and sold off my old camera body (Nikon D60) - which I am a little sad about because I loved that camera but I was sort of at the top of it.
-Now to overcome the learning curve of a new camera
-I have been crocheting like a fool lately and loving every second of it.
-I have been reading some lately - it is wonderful to have time to read for fun - I recommend Pastorix by Nadia Bolz-Weber
-Sooooo much on my mind. It will take me a few posts to get caught up.

Warrior Day of Service

I have the best job/call in the WORLD. Seriously. Don't even try to argue with me, today, you won't win (catch me on an off day and perhaps I will compromise with a tie for world's best job/call).

Part of having the world's best call is the fact that I have the world's best colleagues, both at the church I serve and in the area in which I serve. Once a month, we intentionally get together, drink coffee, commiserate, and think up brilliant plans. (Really let's be honest here, we hang out all the time, we just make sure once a month we actually do it during work hours, which what are those anyways, and see what God is up to.) A couple months ago some how, someone (I think Vicki is guilty here) came up with the plan of creating what has become known as "Warrior Day of Service."

During homecoming week, the kids are released from school at 1:00 pm. (I don't know whose brilliant idea this was to let all that energy out early - really the teachers probably think it is wonderful) We decided that we needed to channel all this beautiful energy into something good. So we created service opportunities for all kids 6 through 12th grade (yes we are nuts), feed them dinner, and then have a community worship service. We had high hopes of 200 kids signing up (this was our first go at this and we didn't want to dream too big, and weren't exactly sure what we were getting ourselves into with less than a month before the day).

Much to our surprise about 350 kids signed up. And it was AWESOME.

Wednesday we spent the day serving all over our community, enabling youth to use the gifts and talents they have to serve the community we live in. They painted community hockey parks, the football team painted elderly fingernails at a nursing home, we cleaned up yards, we organized for other nonprofit groups, we cleaned up a local park, helped at the local library, and sooooooooooooooo much more. IT WAS AWESOME. Kids from different churches, teams, and individuals came together, to work side by side, to love our neighborhood, to prove to the world that they are capable, able, and willing to make a difference in the world. They served with their whole heart, laughed those contagious laughs, smiled from ear to ear, served unconditionally, filled their bellies with pasta, and loved as they first have been loved.

It was an honor to walk alongside them as they made a difference in our world, one day at a time.



Do you volunteer anywhere?
Do you accompany young people to make a difference in the world?
Where is your favorite place to serve?

Fall Swing

Fall hit me hard this year, as you may have noticed my blog went nearly dead for a couple weeks, I couldn't get my legs under me and stay up. It was CRAZY for me. In the midst of it all life has been good. This past week Marc and I went up to Fritz Loven Park (where we got engaged) and spent some time wandering around hiking, and our crazy puppy swam (she is NUTS - that water was cold). Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Now we wait for the leaves to turn colors and I am sure it will be gorgeous then too and we will be back and I will take countless photos. I love fall.

What is your favorite season?

What do you enjoy about fall? For me it is all things pumpkin flavored and beautiful running weather!

Do you have any favorite pumpkin recipes you'd like to share?

South Dakota Trip

me and a couple of my favorite people

I just think this is a funny picture of me
Marc too 

 This pa This past weekend, Marc and I took a quick trip back to South Dakota (weekend fun is hard when you are a pastor and don't get your Sundays off, while four Sundays off a year may sound like a lot, when everything happens on a weekend it never seems like enough.), we ran home late Thursday night and made it back on Saturday so I could work Sunday morning. While we were home we stayed with my parents, saw my BFF Hartj, spent a little time with some old roommates, spent time with my grandparents, aunt, uncles, some cousins, my brother, and his girlfriend. IT WAS WONDERFUL.
Home does the soul good. We spent Friday doing all sorts of great things: eating at a yummy burger join in downtown Sioux Falls (J.L. Beers - I had never heard of it), walked around the falls, took pictures of geese (not picture of Marc playing with my good camera), talked, talked, stopped by at a friend's school, took Dakota to the dog park, saw what will hopefully be my parent's new house in the beginning of November, and most importantly got to go to my Grandfather's 85th birthday party!
   It was so delightful to be back home. I love Brainerd, but it is hard to be so far away from family.st weekend, Marc and I took a quick trip back to South Dakota (weekend fun is hard when you are a pastor and don't get your Sundays off, while four Sundays off a year may sound like a lot, when everything happens on a weekend it never seems like enough.), we ran home late Thursday night and made it back on Saturday so I could work Sunday morning. While we were home we stayed with my parents, saw my BFF Hartj, spent a little time with some old roommates, spent time with my grandparents, aunt, uncles, a cousin, my brother, and his girlfriend. IT WAS WONDERFUL.
Home does the soul good. We spent Friday doing all sorts of great things: eating at a yummy burger join in downtown Sioux Falls (J.L. Beers - I had never heard of it), walked around the falls, took pictures of geese (not picture of Marc playing with my good camera), talked, talked, stopped by at a friend's school, took Dakota to the dog park, saw what will hopefully be my parent's new house in the beginning of November, and most importantly got to go to my Grandfather's 85th birthday party!
   It was so delightful to be back home and it was wonderful to be back in Brainerd sleeping in my own bed. It was a great time! Perhaps soon you will get a photo dump with a ton of pictures of geese (why? - good question - however some of the pictures are kind of fun so we'll see when I actually get around to getting them off my camera).

This picture just makes me laugh, I don't think anyone is looking in the same
direction - and Grandma's face is enough to make me laugh aloud

Grandpa and Grandma with their kids
my dad is the one on the far right

I realize this picture isn't perfect, however it just makes me smile

Today is Grandpa's 85th Birthday! So here is Happy Birthday to the best Grandpa in the world (he'll never read this - he isn't all that tech savy - don't worry I already called him to wish him a Happy Birthday this morning)

How was your weekend?
Are your grandparents still alive?