Wedding Wednesday

136 days to go!

*I love having that countdown on my phone*

Last Thursday I got our save the date magnets in the mail!! So exciting! Yesterday I got them all stuffed, addressed, stamped, and sealed. So they are ready to go! I'm a little nervous about putting them in the mail because then it's really real, but I'm way more excited then nervous :)

I also worked on our favors this week. I got about a 1/3 of the way through them. I'll finish them at the cabin this weekend with one of my b-maids. I'll share pictures next week.

I got an idea for shoes from pinterest. I'm hopefully going to look for them/supplies to make them this weekend. Yes, I said make them. Again, I'll share picture next week (unless I can't find anything I like, then you'll have to wait a while!)

I changed the appointment with the florist. My original appointment wasn't until Sept 6th, but I called yesterday and changed it to Aug 4th. I'm excited. But I don't really know what I'm getting myself into and I think I'm going to have to go to the appointment by myself cuz the future Mr. and my mom will both be at work. Which is scary cuz I don't know what I want. I have an idea but I don't know specifics.

*****

Wedding #4 of the summer:

Becky & Bryan Taffe

July 23rd

Overall experience: 10! Most fun wedding of the summer (so far, but it's going to be hard to top).

Dress: 10! Becky looked so pretty! It had a nice train, not too long not too short for the ceremony then it got bustled up underneath the dress, not on top of it which I love.

The girls looked good but they didn't all have the same dress. Call me traditional but I like it when the bridesmaids are all dressed the same. These girls were in the same color, they were all floor length and there were just 3 different dresses (for 7 b-maids and a jr b-maid). The boys looked good too. They wore black tuxes with light pinstrips. Bryan had black and white wingtip shoes. I think my future Mr wants to wear them now.

Food: 7. The salad was ok. They also had some kind of meat (not sure what it was), mashed potatos, chicken fetticini alfreado and buns. The buns were good.

My favorite food item was the sweet & salty table! They had a table set up the whole night with goldfish crackers, cheezits, sunchips, chex mix, mixed nuts, m&ms, skittles, reces peanut butter cups, mints, and gummie bears. They had small plates and cups there for you to make your own trail mix of sorts. It was so fun and they left it up all night which I thought was a great idea.

I think the future Mr. and I will be stealing that idea.

Venue: 8. the church was pretty. They had candles and white twinkle lights. The reception hall was typical hotel wedding reception. The hotel itself was a little sketchy but the ball room was nice.

If I wouldn't have biffed it down the stairs on our way to dinner the dance would have been much more enjoyable. I just missed the last two stairs. I'm fine but my ankle was a little swollen for a day or two.

Overall- it was a great wedding and I'm very happy for Mr. & Mrs. Taffe!!

Love, a future Mrs.





So What Wednesday

It's that time of week again!!

I'm linking up with Shannon from Life After I "Dew" for SWW.

Here's what I'm saying "So What" to this week:

*if our save the dates are addressed and stamped and the whole works but I'm a little afraid to put them in the mail? I mean, as soon as they go out this is for real!

*if I love Wednesdays because I don't have to think of a post topic and my stats go through the roof

*if I might be addicted to Pinterest? It's great for looking for wedding flowers and hair styles!

*if I wish it was Friday becuase my high school friends are coming to the cabin? A woo hoo!!

*if my list is a little short this week? Whatever.

What are you saying So What to this week?

Head on over to Life After I "Dew" to see what

everyone else is saying So What to this week.

Love, a future Mrs.

slumpies...

Sorry I've been kind of spotty about blogging lately. But I'm in a slump.

I don't know what to blog about. I want to blog about things that are fun and interesting. But nothing is coming to me.

This slump is not contained to my blog either. My house is a mess and I don't want to clean it. My office is a mess, I don't want to clean it. I can't recall the last time I actually cooked something. I've made food for myself to eat but it's usually a lean pocket and baked cheetos, or a sandwich and grapes.

I have a feeling that this slump is the product of exhaustion. I don't want to complain because I'm having fun and I'm enjoying summer but I'm tired.

I'm tired of driving. I'm tried of sleeping in new places all the time. I'm tired of not having my personal space and time that I have grown accustomed to after living by myself for two years. I'm tired of not being in one town/spot for more then 2 or 3 days at a time.

It's a good thing that summer is almost 2/3 over. The future Mr. would kill me if he knew that I said that. He loves summer. A lot. I do too. But I like the routine that comes with the school/church year.

*****

We went to another wedding on Saturday. 4 out of 5 for the summer. It was really fun- I'll give you all the details on Wednesday. Just wanted to share my epic fail from this wedding. The future Mr. and I went to the ceremony then back to the hotel where we went up to the room before dinner. While we were heading back to dinner I missed the last two stairs. I hadn't had anything to drink yet. Apparently I'm just not so good at walking. And that fall put a damper on my sweet dancing skills for the evening. I spent much of the evening at the table with my foot up on anther chair. Dumb.

*****

When I got to church this morning it hit me that I have done absolutely zero planning for the fall. None. I have done nothing. And we only have 1 month of summer left. AAHHHHHH!!!! So that is what I'll be doing at camp tomorrow, Wed, and Thur while I'm there with kids from church.

*****

I joined pintrest this morning. I'm not 100% sure what all "joining" pintrest includes but I do know that I will be able to re-pin things that I like and remember them for later. Which is good. I usually forget projects that I want to try.

I hope that wasn't to random for you. Like I said, I'm in a slump.
Hope you're having a great Monday!
Love, a future Mrs.

Wedding Wednesday!

143 days to go!!

I downloaded a countdown app on my phone so I can check it all the time :)

Dorky... I know.

I haven't done much since last Wednesday (Tuesday). It's hard to do wedding stuff when you're at camp.

But I did start working on address labels on the computer. Some people have really nice hand writing or they know how to do caligraphy but I can just see my hand getting super tired and the addresses getting slopier and slopier as I worked my way through my address book.

So we're printing ours.

I started yesterday, putting the addresses into a word document that lays out the page for address labels.

Then today I got an email from USPS that our save the dats should be here on Friday!! Yay! That means that I could potentially get them in the mail a week earlier then I had planned. I thought we would be in good shape if I could get them in the mail by WE Fest which is Aug 4th,5th, & 6th. So if I could get them in the mail by July 30th, I'd be in organized girl heaven!

Yesterday I also ordered sample invitiations.

Hopefully we like them and can pick one so we can get them ordered and in the mail by the end of September.

This still doesn't feel real.

It doesn't feel like I'm "grown-up" enough for this. Or that I should be sending out save the dates for my own wedding. I feel like I just graduated high school (yes I said high school, college went by way to fast!). It will be really weird to open that box and see my face and the future Mr's face on save that dates that we're sending out to our friends and families. That's when it gets real. There's no backing out once we put those babys in the mail.

But I don't think it will really feel real until about lunch time on Saturday December 10th when I put my wedding dress on. And I hug my dad for the last time as a Harper.

I'm starting to tear up just thinking about it.

I have mixed feelings about changing my last name. I will change it. But it will be hard. So far in my life (for the past almost 25 years) everything that I have done, I have done as a Harper. It's who I am. It's what connects me to my family, it's what we all share.

But on December 10th I will become a Knopf. That is so weird to think about. I really love my future Mr. and his family, but it's a weird idea to get used to.

*****

On a totally different note. Yesterday Moorhead, MN (about 2 hours from my house) set a new record for the state with a heat index of 135 degrees and a dew point of 88 degrees.

This weekend we're going to a wedding for my friend Becky and her fiance Bryan.

The heat isn't suppose to let up before then.

This got me to thinking. It could very easily be (or at least feel) 100 degrees warmer on their wedding day then on our wedding day. And a mere 4 months and 2 weeks seperate our wedding dates.

Yay northern MN!

I hope you're having a great day!

And that you're finding a way to stay comfortable in this weather!

Love, a future Mrs.

So What Wednesday

It's that time of week again for So What Wednesday with Shannon from Life After I "Dew"

Here's what I'm saying So What to this week:

*if I might be a little addicted to my new iPhone. And the future Mr. got his last night. This could be a recipe for disaster. We might never talk again and just spend all of our time on our phones!!

*if I really wish mother nature would make up her mind. If you want to rain, rain. If you want it to be hot, make it hot. But this back and forth business is doing a number on my hair and my wardrobe. I have no idea how to dress for this weather

*if I don't really know what to do with myself now this week. I'm in my office for the whole week. This hasn't happend in a month. I'm missing having someone else cook for me, Bible party, arts & crafts, swimming, naps, canteen and all of the things that go along with camp

*if even though I miss those things I'm happy to be home. I missed my house.

*if I've spent every night this week hanging out in my bedroom cuz it's the only room with A/C

*if I hit the snooze button more then a few times this morning. I fell right back to sleep each time so I must have needed the sleep

What are you saying So What to this week?

Head on over to Life After I "Dew" to see what everyone

else is saying So What to this week.

Love, a future Mrs

I'm back!!

Sorry being abasent last week/this weekend! Like I've said before this summer- it's nice to be "unplugged" and to take a break for the computer but three weeks is enough for me! I'm ready to be back in my office and get back to my somewhat 'normal' life. Too bad that isn't happening just yet.

We still have 3 days of camp, a mini mission trip, and a couple youth groups (not to meniton any of the crazyness/driving all over northern MN that is my personal life) to get through before we're back to 'normal'. Which isn't really all that normal anway. I don't know how anyone can be a youth director, be married, and have kids. I have a hard enough time taking care of myself while doing this job, hopefully I can take care of a husband, we'll talk about taking care of kids later.

So, after leaving camp on Friday and getting back to this northern town that I call home, I had to take a shower, it is wicked hot here and we're having problems with the AC in the church van. I had literally sweat through my bra, tank top, and t shirt. Yuck. So I showered quick then while I was getting ready, Emily, Molly's daughter came over to my house to water my plants, she let herself in with the key that I gave her, I was in my towel. It was ackward. I felt bad for her. Oh well, we'll call it preparation because she's moving into the dorms in just a few weeks :)

After I showered I hightailed it to my mom and dad's to hang out with my future Mr. for a while. He took me to the mexican place for dinner then we went to my mom's bar for a drink. And while we were there I ran into a friend from high school that I haven't seen in probably 2 years! It was so nice to catch up on life with her.

Then Saturday I got up and got ready then headed to Fargo for my friend Becky's bachelorette party. But first I went to the mall to get her a gift and to get my ring cleaned and inspected. That means it's been 6 months since the future Mr. bought it for me!! It is so pretty and spakely! I didn't think it was all that dirty when I gave it to the lady but when she gave it back I was blown away. But then it was weird to think that the next time I'm scheduled to get it cleaned and inspected I will be a Mrs. Ahhh!!

After the mall I went to Becky and Rachel's apartement for dinner/gifts/preparty before the party bus came to get us a 8. The bus was promt and on time but the AC was broken. It was hotter on the bus then it was outside. We are in a heat index warning in this part of the country. It was horrible. I'm pretty sure I sweat out what booze I had drank, and with it I sweat out my buzz and my hangover. I was happy that I had sweat out the hangover. It made my drive home yesterday much less miserable.

We party bused for a while then went out in downtown Fargo where I felt old. I was not into the crowded dance floor, the loud music, the flashing lights, the girls walking around selling shots, I wasn't into any of it. I felt lame. Oh well. Maybe I am old and lame. I'm ok with it. Then my sister picked me up, she's such a great sober cab. Except that she wanted to go stay at her boyfirend's house instead of her house. So I had to sleep on a couch instead of having a double bed all to myself. Whatever, I'm over it.

Yesterday my sister and I had lunch with my friend Ashley (Hi Ashley!!) then Katie and I wandered around JCPenny's before she had to go to work. I got a new set of workout shorts (black) and tank top (pink). I had great intentions to get up and go for a nice walk this morning before work and before it got to hot but after the craziness of driving all over northwest MN and sleeping everywhere except my own bed, I literally could not get out of my bed until I HAD to. Oh well, we have youth group tonight and we're going ice block (kind of like sledding but with a 5 lb block of ice in the summer instead of a sled in the winter) so I'm sure walking back up the hill will be a work out, and there's always tomorrow for a walk with my new cute outfit (which matches my tennis shoes!!).

I hope you had a great weekend, that you're having a great day, and that you are staying cool in this heat!
Love, a future Mrs.

Driving Diaries

Here are some interesting things I have seen recently while driving around northern MN:
Wild turkeys on the road, seriously, I had to move into the other lane to avoid hitting them!
A train with only 15 cars (are they called cars on a train?)
A dock that didn't go all the way to shore
A blue dinosaur made out of scrap metal
A dumpy looking trailer home with a beautiful big boat parked next to it- no joke, the boat was nicer then the house!!
Sorry I dont have pictures of all these interesting things for you to enjoy but taking pictures while you're driving probs isn't a good idea :)
I hope you're having a great day!
Love, a future Mrs.

Wedding Wednesday (on a Tuesday)

I'm doing my normal Wednesday posts on Tuesday this week because I'm leaving for camp today and my computer isn't always cooperative... Grr...

151 days to go!!

What did I get done in the last week?

*I made an appointment with the florist

*I talked to the printing company about invites

*I ordered our Save the Date magnets and this is what they look like:

I love them! And I can not wait for them to get here so that I can send them out to all of our friends and family!

*****

Wedding #3

Andy & Jenny

July 2nd

Overall experience: 8. The church was really hot which was distracting. The reception was fun but the only people I knew were my family, and there wasn't a lot of dancing going on. They didn't do the boquet or garter toss or a dollar dance and I missed all of that "wedding" stuff.

Dress: 10! Jenny looked so beautiful! The dress fit her so well and she had a sparkely belt on that her sister made cuz Jenny couldn't find one in the store that she liked. Amazing. The dress had a train and she had a long veil to match. So beautiful. (Bridesmaids however were just ok.)

Food: 8. Spinach salad with candied walnuts, crumbly cheese, craisins, onions, mandrarin oragnes, and some kind of vingerette dressing. It was yummie. The future Mr. and my sister did not like it as much as I did. For dinner I had the chicken and the future Mr. had the beef. They were both good. The chicken was grilled and came with ricotta cheese, spahgettie noodles, white sauce, and red sauce. I loved it! My sister did not. The beef came with a gravy on top and mashed potatos on the side and steamed veggies. Then there was cake. They had two options: a marble with chocolate filling and a white with raspberry filling. They were both to sweet for me.

They also had a bar with free kegs (Miller Lite and Liney's Honey Wiess) AND 3 wine choices that were FREE all night. Yes please!

Venue: 7 but there wasn't a whole lot they could do about it.

The church was not air conditioned and therefore it was hot. But what could they do about it other then put fans out- which they did. The reception was in the ballroom at the hotel that we stayed at which was nice, we could walk to our room, I like when things are all in one place.

Unrealted to my rankings- this wedding took place on the weekend that is normally our family reunion at our lake cabin. Everyone that is normally at the reunion was at the wedding so we still go to see each other. But, when we were younger we used to go play mini golf at this cool place a few miles from our cabin. Since we couldn't do that this year, and the wedding reception was across the street from the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN 8 of us went there in our dress clothes to ride the log chute ride. SO FUN! The future Mr. was not happy that he got his dress clothes all wet. Oh well, it was fun!

This wedding also sold me on the idea of a seating arraingment at the reception. It was so orderly. I like orderly. I also like plated dinners but the jury is still out on that.

Hope you're having a great day!

Love, a future Mrs.

So What Wednesday (on a Tuesday)

I'm doing my normal Wednesday posts on Tuesday this week since I'm leaving for camp and my computer in uncooperative... Grr...

Here's what I'm saying So What to this week

*if I don't like watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith because I know it's where Brad and Angelina's relationship started which means it was the end of his relationship with Jen. I like Jen more.

*if I watched The Bachelorette last night for the first time since... May? I felt really lost...

*if I down loaded a wedding countdown on my iPhone? Way eaiser then looking it up on theknot.com

*if I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that going to camp is part of my job? I like that I don't have to be in my office and I get to hang out with the kiddos but I hate that I don't get to sleep in my bed at my house. Plus it means a lot of driving for me.

*if I can't figure things out on my iPhone? I just got it a week ago, there is a learning curve with these things.

What are you saying So What to this week?

Head on over to Life After I "Dew" (tomorrow) to see what

everyone else is saying So What to this week!

Love, a future Mrs.

We did it!

My sister and I made it to all 9 Zorbaz locations in just 2 days!! Woot!

I took pictures of the adventure on my iPhone but I can't figure out how to load them onto the blog from the phone. Help?

In a totally unrelated note, I was checking the stats of my blog and one of the sites that people have come to my blog from is a xxx site. I find that weird and uncomfortable, I don't want my blog associated with a xxx site in any way. Any suggestions of how this happend or how to stop it from happening?

I hope you're having a great day!

Love, a future Mrs.

birthdays, bloddy noses, and bagels

My future MIL's b-day was Tuesday. Yesterday I took her, my mom, and my sister out to lunch. It was so nice. We went to a bar and grill on the lake about 5 miles from my parents house. We sat outside, enjoyed the sun, wings, chicken sandwiches, a fruity drink, and we talked wedding :) I love talking wedding. But man, did those women have a lot of questions for me that I hadn't really thought about yet. I don't know what color vests I want the groomsmen to wear, I hadn't really thought about long ties vs. bow ties (I made the quick decision to go with long ties), I don't know what order I want my girls to walk in, I don't know if I want the guys to walk in with the girls or stand up front with the future Mr., I don't know what we're going to serve for dinner, I don't know where in the Holiday Inn I want to put the guest book/gift table, I was over whelmed. I do know that I love my future Mr, that we're getting married on Dec 10, that I'm wearing a beautiful ivory colored dress, and that it will be a great day.

After lunch we all went to my future MIL's house to see her dress for the wedding. It's a deep purple-y eggplant color. It's really pretty and it's really her. It kind of freaked my mom out though because she doesn't have a dress yet.

Last night was my future MIL's birthday party, at their house. All of her siblings were there (she's the oldest of 7!!), both of her parents were there, my future Mr's other grandma was there, and all but 2 of his cousin's were there. It was crazy busy. All in all I think there were 28 people there. When I first started going to family functions it was overwhelming. I have 5 cousins. Total. Both sides combined. My future Mr. has 5 cousins from one set of aunt and uncles.

The injury of the night was a bloody nose caused by a bean bag to the face. Last year it was sparks from a firework on a t shirt, the year before that it was bug spray in the eyes. With that many people together and that many kids theres always bound to be something.

I love the bacon, egg, and cheese bagel from McDonalds. I know it's terribly bad for me, and I know that by eating them I am doing nothing to help myself fit into my dress. But they're sooo good!! The future Mr. and I have tried to make them before and they just didn't turn out right. So I decided that I would try again today. I had to go to WalMart to get shampoo and toothpaste anyway so I thought I'd pick up some bacon and Hollandaise sauce. Well I couldn't find any Hollandaise sauce. So I looked up the recipe on my new iPhone and decided that I would try making my own sauce. It's pretty hard to make. There are only like 4 ingredients but you have to get it just right. Mine was just ok. Not great, but ok. My sandwich, like my sauce, was ok. Not great, but ok. And it wasn't quiet like the one from McDon's. I'll just have to keep trying. At least when I make it at home I know what goes into it. Maybe next time I'll use just egg white for my sandwich, that'll cut back on some of the bad stuff.

Off to run wedding errands!
Hope you're having a great day!
Love, a future Mrs.

Wedding Wednesday

157 days to go!

This week: engagement pictures, invites, and wedding reviews round #1!

Back in early June the future Mr. and I met up with my b-maid Tasha to take engagement pictures. She mailed them to us last week and we love them!
Here are a few of our fav.s:

These first three were taken in my mom and dad's backyard

I think this one is my favorite

These three were taken in the city park



These last 4 were taken on a dead end road a little ways out of town.

I had to beg him to take this last picture and I'm so glad that I did. Isn't it funny?

*****

In other wedding news, now that we have these pictures we can pick save the dates. We're doing magnets from magnetstreet.com. But we are having a hard time deciding what we want. We also need to pick our invites and get them ordered. I'm kind of hoping that the weather isn't so nice tomorrow so that I can get some things done. With the weather as nice as it's been all I want to do is lay out in the sun, I have no ambition to do the errands that I have to take care of! We picked out a Carlson Craft invite that we like but I have to go see if the printing place in town can do something a little different with is. The one from CC has faint flowers behind the words and we would like faint snowflakes instead since we're getting married in Dec.

Hopefully before I leave on Sunday we'll have both of those things picked and ordered.

*****

So like I've mentioned before, this summer the future Mr. and I have 5 weddings to go to. Yes, 5. And yes, I'm taking notes on what I like and don't like. And I've decided to share some of those notes with you ala 4 Weddings from TLC. I'll be giving each wedding an overall experience score, a dress score, a food score and a venue score.

Wedding #1: Sarah and Vigil, June 25th

Experience: 7. It was a nice wedding. But it didn't feel very wedding-y. There wasn't a lot of dancing at the reception and things felt a little unorganized (ie- what order to tables eat in, what are you doing after dinner, who is dancing with who when, etc.). But the garter toss was hilarious! They did it where if a guy threw money in the garter went farther up her leg but if a woman threw money in it went closer towards the floor. So funny!!

Dress: 9. Sarah's dress was beautiful! And it fit her perfectly. The only reason is wasn't an 10 is because the dress was bustled on the outside and I prefer it on the inside. And the bustle had like 5 hooks across her butt.

Food: 7. The food was good but it wasn't really wedding food. We had pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, and garlic mashed potatos. I suppose it was very fitting for the couple. They are a laid back couple (it took them 13 years to get to the alter), and they don't really do "fancy". But I expected more at a wedding. And it was a buffet. I prefer plated meals but I understand the cost/server issue. But they only had one serving line for the buffet. It took a pretty long time to get people through. If we do a buffet I hope the Holiday Inn has a better set up so people don't have to wait so much.

Venue: 7. The ceremony was in a small country church, which was an interesting choice being that the groom is one of 11 children. But it was pretty and well decorated (ie- minimal decorations). The dinner and dance were at the American Legion. The AL is nice for what it is but it's small and most of the people hung out outside smoking. I wish more people would have stayed inside and danced.

Overall I'd give Sarah and Vigrl an 8 out of 10. They were true to who they are, but it isn't what I could choose for our wedding.

Wedding #2: Pat and Matie, July 2nd

This one I'm going to have  hard time judging. We only went to an hour of hte reception.

But I'll give you my observations:

*The bride was beautiful. Her dress was similar to mine and she wore it very well. But she had too much eye make-up on and since it was so warm it looked kinda smudgy.

*The groom had too much to drink. I told the future Mr. that will NOT be happening at our wedding.

*The bridesmaids all had different dresses in the same color. I'm not a fan of this. Mine will be dressed a like.

*Who gets married on a holiday weekend?

*I didn't like their DJ- he talked to much.

*They had beautiful big paper-y/billow-y flowers that I really want to figure out how to make for my wedding. I know when I was talking about invites I said I wanted snowfalkes not flowers but these were beautiful. Maybe I can use them some where else...

I know that was a lot to digest for a WW but I had some catching up to do and these's no promises about my interenet connection next week as I'll be back at camp.

Hope you're having a great day!
Love, a future Mrs.





So What Wednesday!

It's that time of the week again! And I have internet this week so I get to play along!

Here's what I'm saying So What to this week:

*if I really missed blogging last week. It was a nice break from technology but I feel like I'm behind on reading blogs and like I'm behind on blogging

*if I'm taking my future MIL out for lunch today for her b-day (which was yesterday) because I didn't buy her a gift. I don't know what she wants/needs. And before me the future Mr. never got her anything.

*if I spent almost $200 on a new cell phone yesterday. That's way less than the retail price of a new iPhone.

*if I haven't done any work this week. I really should.

*if I think it's way harder to keep up on blogging when I'm at my parents house then it is when I'm in my office. It's just easier when I'm in front of my computer all day in my office.

*if the future Mr. and I aren't really sure how to pick wedding invites or save the dats... more on that in a bit...

What are you saying So What to this week?

Head on over to Life After I "Dew" to see what

everyone else is saying So What to.

Love, a future Mrs. 

New Phone!

I'm blogging at you from my new white 16 gb iPhone :) yay!!

Hope you're still having a great day!
Love, a future Mrs.

I'm back!

Sorry for the unexpected absence from the blogging world. After I blogged last Monday at camp my computer decided not to work any more. For the rest of the week. I was not impressed. But it meant that I didn't have to answer e-mails. I wasn't worried about who said what on facebook. I was a little worried about missing out on reading blogs and adding to my blog but it was a nice break.

The rest of camp was great! It was so beautiful out. It got a little hot on Thursday afternoon but we just kept reminding the kids to drink water then I bought the 6 from my church ice cream at canteen. On Friday I took them home and the air conditioning in our church van is kind of shotty. It blew nice and cool on my hands but the rest of my body was warm and sweaty. And the kids were warm and sweaty. Which meant that the van stunk like BO. Teenage boy BO. Yuck. After I dropped them at church I went to my house and unpacked then repacked to go home to my parent's house. The future Mr. and I spent most of the weekend at the campgroud that his buddy helps run, and where a lot of our friends camp. So we hopped from camper to camper visiting and having some adult beverages. It was so much fun to catch up with people and to enjoy the nice weather.

Yesterday for the 4th we basically hung around my mom and dad's. Dad and the future Mr. went for a bike ride on my dad's old Schwinn bikes down to the beach to check out the "hot hunnies" (My dad's word's exactly). So my sister and I went for a walk to check out the ripped dudes :) We made it down to the beach where we ran into some family friends and hung out on their boat. So not much "dude" watching. Then we came home to grill dinner. I made bacon ranch burgers. They were really good. I took a dry ranch packet and mixed it into the ground beef then I fried up some bacon, cut it up and added it to the ranch-y beef. Then the future Mr. grilled them. Yum-O! I also made 4th of July cupcakes. I used regular white cake mix (from a box) and made cup cakes. Then I used white frosting and put it in a gallon zip-lock baggie that I had cut the corner off of and I piped it onto the cupcakes. And I got red and blue sprinkles that had stars in them too! They were way cute. And yummie.

After dinner we walked down to the beach to watch the fireworks. My parents only live a block from the city beach (it's a mile long beach!) and the city sets off fireworks from a barge in the middle of hte lake that only gets used for fireworks and was built for fireworks. It's very cool. This year is seemed like the barge was closer to shore. And the bugs were terrible. After the fireworks we visited with a few of my high school buddies then we had to book it home cuz it started to rain. Mom and I sat in the dining room and watched the storm.

It's beautiful and sunny again today in northern MN. My sister and I are going to do the first leg of the Zorbaz tour today. Zorbaz is a pizza and mexican resturant chain in northern MN that had 9 locations. If you go to all 9 in one calendar year they give you a free t shirt. They have Zorbaz Pazzportz (they replace every s with a z) so they know if you've been to all of them. Well Katie and I are going to 5 of them today. And the other 4 on Friday then we'll stay at the cabin on Friday night before we head to the twin cities for my cousins wedding. I'll give you an update on the Zorbaz tour tomorrow.

I hope you had a great 4th of July and that you're having a great day!!

Love, a future Mrs.

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Love, a future Mrs.