Isaac Turns 1!!

The biggest blessing of moving to Goldsboro is meeting and becoming friends with the Hutchison's. They have been a true bright spot of living in my not-so-favorite place. I met Kim when she was 6 months pregnant and we became friends pretty much instantly. I was able to visit her in the hospital the day she had Isaac and have spent a lot of time watching him grow. So even though we were completely exhausted from the 3 weekends of travel before, we couldn't miss his first birthday party in Virginia Beach, VA.

Here's me and the birthday boy!

 The Hutchison Family!

My Best Friend's Wedding

Having your best friend get married is so much fun! I'm grateful for everything I was able to be there for, but still sad of all the things I missed. I flew in on Wednesday so I could have a night with my BF and still prepare for the big weekend.

Wednesday night we just relaxed and helped make the final changes on the wedding slide show.

Thursday we got to go the Panera (one of my midwest favorite places to eat), then Christine (another bridesmaid) and I set out to get all ready for the Bachelorette party!!! It was a really fun night!!

Me and the Bride!

 All of the girls!

Rach sharing the wealth at the bars

That night was followed by a day of recovery, seeing my husband and parents, the rehearsal, and the rehearsal dinner. Then we got a good nights rest before the big day!!

The beautiful bride with her beautiful dress, her beautiful sash, her beautiful hair, her beautiful veil...it was a beautiful day!

The Co-MOH's sharing some champagne on the party bus!

I can't even put into words how beautiful the entire day/weekend was from the ceremony to the weather to the reception. I was so honored to be there for my best friend and stand by her the day she became Mrs. Bessert!!! Congrats Rachel and Steve!!!

The First of a Few Posts

This last month has been a whirl wind. We go in spurts of having nothing going on on the weekends to have multiple non stop weekends in a row. The last post I left off with how I surprised my best friend for her bridal shower and got to see my Grandma's. That again was a great weekend. I wish I had gotten a picture with Rach, but we were too busy celebrating her wedding festivities...she is officially Mrs. Bessert now, but that requires it's own blog post!

The weekend after that we had our long anticipated half marathon. With me traveling home the weekend before that and drinking lots of wine  we did not prepare as well as we should have, but some things in life are more important than running a fast race.

We started out our weekend by driving to Wilmington and going out for our "last meal" before the race. We chose to not drink alcohol for the week before the race (most serious runners give that up for much longer), but we were out at a new restaurant that had a really delicious drink menu and one of their sangria's even claimed to be good for you because it used acai berry....enough said, we each allowed ourselves 1 drink. There was a band playing in the parking lot, so we stayed and listened to that, it was super fun and not something you see everyday.

Then we went to bed early for our 5am wake up call and headed down to the start line. We really didn't need to get there as early as we did, so we had some time to take pictures:

On the ferry ride over to the Battleship for the start

 With downtown Wilmington in the background

And this run was completely brutal, we didn't prepare well enough, we weren't in shape enough for it to feel good, but we finished in our goal time (under 3 hours)!!

We were extremely proud of ourselves for finishing, but I can speak for both of us when I say, that was our first and last half marathon. We will probably do some 5k's and 10k's in the future, but that's the extent of it.

All in all, it was a bucket list item and we crossed it off the list!!!

Grandma's

I am very lucky to be daughter of two parents who are the youngest of 6 and I am 25 and still have both of my grandma's living. I was also very fortunate to have both of my grandpa's in my life just up until the past few years. This weekend along with surprising my best friend for her bridal shower, I got to see both of my grandma's. One of the hardest parts of living far away is not knowing if they'll still be here by the time we get back to MN.

Grandma Hladky

Grandma Manning

And these are the only pictures I have from the weekend. I need to be better about taking pictures, especially on amazing fun weekends like the last one I just had!

This weekend Drew and I are running our 1/2 marathon...wish us luck. We will need it!!!

Where did August go?!

Whoops!! I completely missed the entire month! I have been very busy at work with our auditing season which means a lot of travel during the day and getting home later at night, along with that, Drew and I are trying REALLY hard to stay on track with our half marathon training, so that means at least 4 to 5 days a week of running/working out for an hour, AND on top of that, I'm studying for the CPA exam....again, so my free time is minimal. But anyways, we had a great month of August starting with celebrating our first anniversary on the 6th! We went to a wine tasting, a craft brewery, and our favorite locally grown restaurant that has AMAZING food!

We've also spent a lot of time watching this cutey grow, he is walking now!!! And here he is getting caught going into my purse, like his guilty face?! LOVE HIM!

And two of my good friends from college, Amanda and Jessica, came and visited Drew and I for a long weekend!!It was SO great to see them and show them around where we live. We spent a day at the beach, a day around town, and introduced them to a lot of our friends down here along with enjoying some adult beverages and catching up!! Here is the ONE picture that we managed to take that weekend, we were too busy having fun that we almost didn't take a single picture until their last night here!

Thanks so much for coming girls!!!!

Can't promise that I'll be a better blogger in September, but I'm hoping that come October (when my test is finally over) that I have a little bit more free time!

Pear Salad

Sounds good, right? Well it just adds to reason #890308435 that I have gained weight while living in the south.

I have been lamenting to my coworkers about how I don't like how much weight I've gained and how much my blood pressure increased since living here and how hard it is to avoid bad food in the south. Today we went to a small diner and a coworker suggested that I substitute a pear salad for french fries. Pears, good, salad, great, pear salad, nasty crap! (Thanks, Jim Gaffigan, for that line)

What went wrong, you ask? 

Oh, they forgot to mention the cheddar cheese and dollops of mayo on the pear!!!!! GROSS!!! This is what is considered healthy in the south...lettuce, pears, cheese, and at least a 1/4 cup mayo. There is a cherry on top, so it's ok, right? Good Lord.

I scrapped the mayo and cheese off and just ate the pear...well and the cherry :-)

Day at the Beach

Drew's favorite place to be is at the ocean, who would think after being from a land locked state, I guess we can thank grandpa George and grandma Mar for the for moving to Hawaii! Unfortunately we have hardly been at the beach this summer with all of the trips we took early in the season and Drew's crazy unpredictable work schedule, but we finally made it there last weekend.

It was a gorgeous day and the ocean felt like bath water. It was wonderful! Unfortunately, we enjoyed it too much and got so sun burnt (even though we did apply sunscreen) that we were MISERABLE for the following 3 days. Whoops! Better luck next time!

Here's our one picture from the day eating at a restaurant on the pier:

Wine and Design

This weekend my friend, Emily, came up from Jacksonville, NC and I had a fun-filled, child-free night planned for the both of us. There is a new thing is Goldsboro called Wine and Design. You bring your own bottle of wine, and the place provides the canvas, the paint and the instructor and for about 2 and a half hours they teach you how to paint the portrait for the night.

I am NOT a good artist at all, never have been, coloring inside the lines is tough for me, but I thought this sounded fun and for $25, pretty cheap entertainment....plus there was wine, so that makes it all better, right?

Here is my final masterpiece:

I was pretty proud of myself when I finished, and I wasn't sure if it was just because of the wine I consumed while doing it, but I woke up the next morning and was still pretty proud of it, so on the wall it goes!! 

I hope to do this again sometime soon....any takers?!?!

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite non-twin brother, Conor!!! He turned 19! Happy Birthday Con!

Dumb Traditions

I've always heard that you're supposed to save the top layer of your wedding cake, freeze it, and then eat it on your one year anniversary. So Drew and I did just that, but we had to keep the cake in my parents freezer since there really was no good way to transport it to NC without ruining it. When we were home a few weeks ago, we decided to eat the cake a little early since we don't have any plans on going home until the holidays.

We're not superstitious, so eating the cake around our 10th month anniversary didn't bother us. We're fairly confident that we'll make it to our one year, but we both agreed, along with both of our families that this is one dumb tradition. Once the cake thawed, the frosting basically melted away from the cake and when everyone tried a piece, it tasted truly awful (I hope it was better on our wedding day...I don't think I ate a piece other than the small bite we fed each other). Within 5 minutes everyone had a stomach ache including Darby, the Shepard's family dog, who stole a bite off the counter!!


Anyways, here's to traditions, the old ones, the new ones, the tried ones, the true ones, and....the dumb ones!!!

Love is in the Air

People always say that between the ages of 24-30, your life is filled with weddings. So I was blown away when I realized that Drew and I had no weddings to go to in the Summer of 2012, well now I know why...2013 is making up for it. I have 2 brothers and now a best friend who are all getting married in 2013!!!  And I am so excited to be able to be in all of those wedding parties.

Nate and Britney got engaged first and Britney asked me to be a bridesmaid in this way:

And here is her gorgeous ring!

Then Nick and Kirsten got engaged and she asked me to be in her wedding in this way:

And here is her beautiful ring:

Then, my best friend Rachel got engaged and she asked me, along with her sister, to be her Maid of Honor!!

And this is her stunning ring!!

Since starting this blog earlier in the week, Rachel and Steve set their wedding date for November 2012 which is just 5 months away!! This makes wedding season 2013 a little less eventful, but I can't wait to start all the celebrating earlier!! I'm very fortunate that I will be able to make it back for all the weddings for 6 very important people in my life, exciting times!!

It's Official!!

We're running in the Battleship Half Marathon on November 4th!!! Stay tuned for all of our lovely training struggles and strengths!!

Conor's Grad Party

My baby brother graduated high school!!! Drew and I were able to make it home for Conor's grad party this June and I was so happy about it. Living away from home makes it really hard to miss important events, so I'm really fortunate that I was able to get a good job that pays enough for us to afford these trips and that is understanding enough to let me take the time off to go. I didn't get any pictures of Conor's party because 3 hours passes very fast when you get to socialize with so many family and friends!

I am very proud of Conor and all his accomplishments in high school and can't wait to see what he does at the U of M and hopefully law school in the future! He's great at arguing so he will make a great lawyer some day!! Congrats Conor!!!!

I need a new shirt

That says that I am liberal and I support, like, and respect our president so please don't talk to me about how you don't feel the same and try and change my opinion...YOU CAN'T. Also, please avoid saying racist things. That just makes you look more stupid.

Love,
A Yankee living in the south

Proud to be an American, Proud to be a sister

After the Shepard's left, we had one weekend at home and the following Wednesday we started our crazy busy 10 days of vacation.

One of the many luxury's we had in MN that I never appreciated enough was living within 20 minutes of the airport. In order to get a decently priced flight, we had to fly out of Greensboro which is 2 and a half hours away and our flight was at 7am Thursday morning. So we got a hotel room on Wednesday night, that way we got a decent night sleep and didn't have to pay for hotel parking ($100 vs the $90 our hotel was). It was a fair trade-off and worked out fairly well.

Once we landed on Thursday we were able to each spend time with our family's and I helped my mom do Conor's senior poster.

Friday was Nate's commissioning and graduation dinner. Nate went to the U of M, majored in accounting, and did ROTC. So he is commissioning into the US Air Force as a 2nd Lt. Here are some pictures from those events:

Nick and Kirsten before the Commissioning

All of my Airmen!!

Me with my Airmen!

Typical prom picture...

All the Airmen and their ladies. (Conor was at a track meet)

The official oath/swearing in

In the Air Force, when you commission, it is tradition to give the first enlisted Airmen who salutes you a coin.  Coins are given and received for many different occasions/accomplishments in the Air Force, so it was very cool that Drew got to be the first to salute both of my brothers. The coins that Nick and Nate gave Drew were from the infamous RHS sub, Mr. Rod Smith. Very cool silver dollars from 1922 and 1924.

I was a bit behind on getting a picture of the salute, so this is right after (Nate was supposed to hold the salute longer, so I blame it on him)

All U of M ROTC commissioning ceremony

The 3 of us who pinned on Nate's butter bars (the pin on his shoulder pads that gives his rank as 2nd Lt.)

Twin Officers!

Nate and his Bride-to-be!

The salute from this ceremony...again I was sleeping at the switch

We had a great dinner at The Locale on Nicolet Mall and then the next morning we got on a plane and headed to Colorado Springs, CO for Nick's graduation festivities.

We got picked up from the airport in this:

My Aunt Mary and Uncle Gary's RV!!! Party Bus!!

And once we got to CO Springs, we were greeted with this view:

Simply gorgeous!! Drew and I decided that we will put CO as an option as a place to settle someday, that's just how wonderful it is there!

The next time few days were spent exercising, golfing, and at baccalaureate Mass at the chapel on base:

The Monday there was a Military parade in the morning:

Wings of Blue

Cadets

Squadron 8, Eagle 8

 Cadets marching off and a view of the Academy

Then that night my parents hosted a dinner at the golf course and we had a surprise proposal!!!

The whole group at dinner!

Kirsten's beautiful ring! (the video of the proposal is on facebook)

Tuesday there was another Military parade and Nick's commissioning:

Drew and I before the commissioning

Nate swearing Nick in (this could happen since Nate was already commissioned)

Nick saluting Nate after the oath

Dad and Conor pinning on Nick's butter bars

 Nick's first salute from Drew, I got much better at capturing this moment

The Wednesday was finally the actual graduation. It was such a cool experience and our President was the speaker at the graduation which was amazing. I am a huge Obama supporter and was so honored to hear him speak in person. Even if you aren't a political supporter of his, you have to admit, he is an amazing speaker and it was such a proud moment to hear the President of the United States speaking to the future leaders of our military and having one of them be my brother.  

I've made several trips out to the Academy during my brothers 4 years out there and he has worked so hard and given up so much to graduate from this place and I cannot even express how proud I am of him. I am also really thankful that because of all his work, I got to see the President speak in person and see a Thunderbird's show over the Academy stadium!!! Thanks, Nick! :-) 

Here's some pics from that day:

The stadium

One of the cars in the Presidential Motorcade

Video of the Cadets marching on the field

Drew and I with the graduate!

I am so proud to be an American and of all of our men and women in uniform and I am also a very proud sister of all my brothers. All 3 of them have accomplished so many things! We are traveling to MN again in a week to celebrate all that Conor has achieved in high school!!! PROUD PROUD PROUD!!