Weekend in Fargo

Yes, in the dead of winter, we decided to spend the weekend in the only place possibly colder than Minneapolis- Fargo, ND.  Ugh.  

Mark's best friend lives in Fargo, and it was his 30th birthday, so I suppose it was well worth it.  We drove up on Saturday and hung out with him and his wife for the afternoon.  That night, a few more friends showed up, including Mark's other best friend and his wife from Fergus Falls.  They always have so much fun together, so I never mind braving the cold for him to get to be with his buddies.

We spent the night getting dinner and hanging out at a bar/grill/golf simulator in Fargo.  It was actually pretty cool.  This is how we Northerners keep our golf games sharp during the winter!

We brought Shay with us, which was really fun because our friends have a boxer, and the two of the played NON-STOP.

We somehow got them in a picture together after a few tries. 

After the golfing, another couple actually brought their boxer over too, so both of them kind of ganged up on Shay.  He didn't complain though, he was having the best night ever!

We stayed up way later than I normally make it, and unfortunately, also had to get up way earlier than normal.  There ended up being a bad blizzard all the was from Fargo to St. Cloud that we had to drive in, so we left while it was still dark.  It was kind of scary driving home, but we did have several people along the way who would have been happy to let us stay the night if needed.  We did make it home just fine, but were pretty exhausted!

Now, onto yet another -20 day/week!

Decorah Weekend!

As expected, this weekend was amazing!  My friends and I all drove down to Iowa after work on Friday to spend the weekend in our college town, Decorah.  We had the best time and packed so much fun stuff into the weekend!

Friday night, we went to one of our favorite restaurants for burgers and ended up staying there for quite awhile.  We ran into a couple friends there who still live in the town and had a grand old time!

We were up Saturday morning for a little yoga class that I taught for the group.  We wanted to spend a little time on campus, so we ended up doing it on the library lawn, which was funny and so much fun!

We spent a few hours shopping around town, eating at our favorite pizza place, and getting some ice cream from our beloved Whippy Dip.

We spent the rest of the afternoon parked on the patio of the brewery in town, Toppling Goliath.  We brought Cards Against Humanity with us, which was hilarious.  It was such a great way to spend the afternoon!

We got ourselves spruced up for dinner and went out for a really good meal at one of the nicer restaurants in town.  It was so yummy and such a good time.  To be honest, the rest of the night is sort of a blur, but we had a total blast!

 

I'm so glad that we've been dedicated to making this trip every year, it's always one of my highlights of the summer!

Already looking forward to next year when we get to do it all again!

a BIG weekend!

YOU GUYS.  Today is my last day working at HCMC!  It feels so weird.  I keep thinking about how it's the last time parking in my ramp, getting coffee from the lobby coffee shop, sitting in rounds, ever interacting with most of these patients...weird.  I'll miss a few of my co-workers, definitely the doctors, and a couple patients.  I've been here for 3 years, and in the world of mental health, we have a lot of "frequent flyer" patients, so I know several of them really well at this point.  But I am so happy that I am moving on.  I am ready to dedicate my work to eating disorders and teaching yoga....so ready.

Speaking of which, I taught my first yoga class at my new studio yesterday!  But let's back up to Friday for a proper weekend recap, alright?

Friday evening consisted of one thing and one thing only- carbo loading.  It really is the best part of racing.  I made a big batch of spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic bread to enjoy for the pre-race dinner.  We laid low that evening and continued watching Harry Potter.  I think I was in bed around 9:30.

Saturday was the Minnesota Half Marathon!  I am planning on doing a full recap of that later in the week, so stay tuned.  I hope the race photos are posted soon, because I didn't take any until after the race!  I finished the race, not as fast as I had hoped, but I feel pretty good about it.  I may have pushed myself a bit harder if I didn't have to run 14 miles later this week.

As soon as the race finished, we stayed in St. Paul and headed to my friend Katie's house for her birthday celebration!  She decided to host a brunch and bloody Mary bar for her birthday- what a fun idea!!  It was great to see some of my good friends after running, but I felt terrible about showing up so sweaty and gross!

I tried to rest and took an epsom salt bath that afternoon to work out some of the soreness.  Mark and I headed out to Lake Minnetonka to get a burger at Lord Fletcher's for dinner.  There was a pretty good band playing and the weather was perfect to be on the lake.  I love going out to Lord Fletcher's and it will always be a special place for us since we had our rehearsal dinner there the night before our wedding!

Sunday morning was another early one for me, because I taught the 9:00 donation class at the Yoga Sanctuary!  I had 4 students in this class- 2 regular students, the studio owner, and a fellow teacher from the studio.  It was a little intimidating at first to be teaching 2 more experienced teachers, but the whole group was so friendly and welcoming.  They gave me great feedback at the end of class too, which made me feel great! The owner also asked me to sub for a class later this week, so I must have done alright :)  I got the best massage ever right afterward, which was so lovely!

Whew!  Well, I am tired just writing all of that.  Is it Friday yet?!

4th of July Weekend

Is it just me, or did last week seem super weird?  Having Thursday off for the 4th, then working Friday, then having a weekend, it got me all messed up.  It seems like a really long weekend to recap, but I'll see if can get it all in here.  Mark and I had a little bonfire on Wednesday night since it wasn't a "school night."  We made s'mores...and I demonstrated how to roast the perfect marshmallow.  Here is a little tutorial on that...

1. Slowly rotate the marshmallow about 5 inches above the flame.

2. Watch for it to turn golden-brown.

3. Insert directed in flame, catch it on fire, and blow it out.

4. Eat.

Yes, I really do like them like that.  I have a weird preference for burnt foods.  Also, our 80 lb. dog truly underestimates his size.

On the 4th of July, I got up and went for a little 3 mile run.  Then I headed over to Lake Harriet to walk with my friend Sonja.  We went to Bread & Pickle afterwards and shared some yummy snacks.  It was a really fun way to spend the morning!  Mark and I golfed 9 holes with my parents at Interlachen in the afternoon.  There was a cook-out going on too, so we had dinner before the fireworks were set off.  We didn't stay to watch the fireworks though because we both had to be up early for work the next day.

We really didn't do anything on Friday after work, we were both wiped out and I had my long run the next day.  On Saturday, I got up early and headed over the Minneapolis lakes to run.  I ran around Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles, and Lake Harriet, which is 10 miles in total.  I was pretty tired afterward, but managed to rally and head out the Excelsior Brewing Co.  The beer was pretty good, I had the Big Blonde Ale and Mark got the Bridge Jumper SPA.  We ended up trading though, because we both preferred what the other had gotten.  We walked over to Maynards from there and shared some food before heading home and calling it a night in front of the TV.

Sunday was another fun but exhausting day!  We pretty much spent all morning cleaning and doing stuff in the yard. At noon, we headed over to Interlachen to golf again. We met up with my parents, my dad's business partner and wife, and their daughter and her husband.  The guys all played together and us ladies played right behind them.  It was a super hot day for 18 holes, but we managed.  I played ok, much better than Friday though. We all had dinner together afterward, and Mark and I were asleep by 9:30.

I can't believe that the 4th of July is already over and before we know it, it will be August!  So crazy!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and are not too depressed about it being over!

Ultimate Summer Weekend!

I am SO sad this weekend is over!  I had such a fun weekend filled with all of my favorite things!  Let's start with Thursday night.  I taught free yoga at Redeemer Lutheran Church in the Harrison Neighborhood, you may remember me mentioning this project if you came to the MN Bloggers yoga class. My yoga classmates and I were able to put on a great 6-week series for people in this community and plan to continue these free classes on a monthly basis.  I only had 3 students in my class, and one of them was 4 years old!  Most weeks we had anywhere from 2-6 students, which is pretty good for a new class.

On  Friday, I had my yoga teacher training graduation!!  We had a potluck while we discussed general info and ethics for starting a yoga business.  The potluck was pretty hilarious because, in true yogi form, virtually everyone brought either fruits, veggies, or chocolate.  That was my kind of lunch!

We had a nice little ceremony when we were presented with our certificates and given some time to reflect on the past 9 months.  I am going to miss these ladies SO much, but I am sure that I will still be seeing a lot of them!  We've been with each other several times per week since September, so it will be weird to not be with each other all the time now!

On Saturday, I went for my long run, which was 8 miles.  I didn't have hip pain or I would have stopped, so thats good!  I spent most the day cleaning and working on projects around the house.  That night, my parents hosted a cocktail party on Lake Minnetonka.  We had a great time enjoying really delicious food and drinks!  The weather was really nice too so it was fun to be on the lake!

On Sunday, Mark and I drove down to Red Wing to bike the Cannon Valley Trail.  It was a fun and challening 40 miles!  I will post a full recap of that trip tomorrow, so make sure to stop back then to read about it! 

I can't believe it is already July!  Hooray for the 4th of July and a 4 day work week! And of course, link up your weekends with Sami!

Weekend (or lack thereof)

Oh hey, Monday morning.  While the rest of the world is heading to work I am finally enjoying a day off!  I've been working for the past week and 2 weekends, so I really don't have a ton of fun weekend updates to report on. We had dinner on Friday night with our good friends Brenna and Tate at their townhouse.  The storm that rolled through was so crazy and the lights were flickering as we ate, but we didn't lose power.  Apparently we lost power at our house at some point, but it was back on by the time we were home.  I guess we were lucky because there are still people in the Twin Cities without power!

We went out for a couple beers after I got home on Saturday, but I turned in pretty early that night.  I had to go to a yoga thing right after work last night, so when I got home at 7:30 I was almost in tears I was so tired!  I poured myself a tall vodka tonic, watched some tv, and went to bed.

The big news of the weekend is that the plumbing and tile work is all done in our bathroom!  That means we have a working shower, tub, faucet, and toilet upstairs! Woo hoo!

Our bathtub hasn't worked ever since we moved into our house 1.5 years ago.  The part of the tub that switches the water from the shower head to the tub filler wasn't working, so I have never ever taken a bath in this house!  I don't really take leisurely baths, but I did regularly take ice baths and epsom baths after long runs while training for my last marathons, so this is just in time!

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend and that the storms here didn't cause you any damage!

Weekend Recap: Baseball and a Wedding

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Minneapolis, not very warm, but we'll take any sunshine that we can get these days!  It almost made me forgot how terrible the weather on Friday and Saturday was.  We had tickets for the Twins game on Friday evening, and even though it started to rain while we were walking to the field, it cleared up and turned out to be decent for a ball game.  We took our friends Ben and Annika, which was a lot of fun because we don't see them all that often.

We also had awesome seats, second row behind the dugout.  These are my dad's company seats and being that he owns the company, I usually score these tickets a few times each season.  It's a great way to watch the game!

We had a wedding to go to on Saturday in New Ulm, MN which is only about 30 minutes from where Mark's parents live.  We decided that we were going to spend the night at his parent's house, so we drove down there first, dropped off Shay and got ready for the wedding.  The bride was one of Mark's friends from college, and she looked beautiful!  Unfortunately, I only took this one picture the whole night.  Doesn't Mark look cute in his pink tie and glasses?!

We had to get back into town early on Sunday for me to go to a yoga training class and for Mark to golf.  He shot 3 over par on 18 holes, which he was super excited about!!  I never get anywhere close to par!  We spent the rest of the afternoon working in the yard trying to make the garden a little better.  I  don't think the previous owners ever weeded anything, yet they seemed to plant a bunch of random stuff all over.  It's taking a lot time to clean up, but its getting there!  Hopefully the weather cooperates throughout the week so I can keep working on it!

I hope everyone else had a nice weekend!  Link up your weekend shenanigans with Sami!

Birthday Weekend!

I promise to continue the vacation recaps SOON, but this weekend deserves it's own special post because it was my birthday yesterday!  I kicked off birthday weekend by meeting a couple friends at WA Frost in St. Paul for happy hour on Friday.  I had envisioned flowing champagne, but it turned out to be one of the grossest "spring" days Minnesota has ever known (snow, freezing rain, frigid temperatures...) so we actually settled on Irish coffee type drinks instead just like it was the middle of winter.

On Saturday, Mark and I had to go pick out some tile samples for our bathroom that we are remodeling.  I get so overwhelmed trying to figure out what is going to look good!  After that, we did some shopping because I had several gift cards still from Christmas in addition to a few that I got for my birthday!  I hate clothes shopping and regularly hold onto gift cards for an entire year, waiting to find something that I really "need" but I was able to find a couple things that I liked, and Mark pushed me to actually purchase them!  On Saturday evening, I put on one of my new outfits and we went out to dinner (I forgot to take a picture, bad blogger!)  We had a nice meal and even got our appetizer for free because the kitchen screwed something up!  Yay free food!  I went to bed obscenely early that night, I am still feeling jet legged and get really tired in the evening.

Sunday was my 28th Birthday!  Mark is one year older than me, and his birthday is May 15th, so we always tease each other about being the same age for the 10 days out of the year that we can!  He woke up and got out the cards that "the pets got for me" which were super cute.  We like to joke that our cat thinks he's very fancy, so he signed his name in cursive.  Mark tried to trace Shay's paw inside the card, which was also pretty funny!

We actually had a nice spring day here on Sunday!  I went to a yoga class (free on my birthday!) in the morning, and had a nice little 3 mile run in the afternoon.  We spent time outside working on the yard and playing with Shay.  Our neighbors came over and played with him for a little bit too.  The neighbors have 4 kids who all love him and ask to come over to run around with him a lot, which is great for him!

We had a birthday dinner with my parents, sister and brother-in-law on Sunday evening.  My mom made my favorite dessert of all time -banana cream pie!  She made it even more decadent by adding white chocolate, it was SO good!

Here is one of my new outfits!  Who would have thought I would buy red pants??  So outside of my norm, but they are fun to wear!  Come back tomorrow for another very special post before the vacation recaps continue!

 

Weekend Review

And just like that- another weekend was gone.  I can't believe how fast time is flying by.  March is my least favorite month and it usually drags on and on, but this year is a different story.  Not sure why, maybe it's because I've been busier than usual.

This weekend was pretty nice, but I did absolutely nothing to do with St. Paddy's Day.  Oh well, I'm not too torn up over that one.  On Friday morning I was able to make it to the gym to get my 7 mile run hammered out on the treadmill.  It went SO much better than expected!  Getting back into running has been really tough for me, but the endurance and motivation is finally coming back.  I even had enough energy to go to yoga study early to practice teaching with some of my classmates.  My yogi friend Betsy taught us an awesome class that included some arm balances.  I wouldn't say I've "mastered" any of these yet, so I'm not ready to cross that off my 30 before 30 list, but maybe soon!

On Friday night, we hung out with our friends, Amanda and Brian.  We made some homemade pizzas and played a few boardgames.  It was a nice relaxing evening, just what a Friday night should be!

On Saturday morning, I checked out this cute little yoga studio- Invisible Bee Yoga.  I really enjoyed the class and hopefully will make it back over there to check out more of the classes!  That afternoon, Mark and I went to the taproom at Indeed Brewing Company and sampled a few brews.  We just relaxed and watched The Vow that night- I was pretty exhausted!

Sunday was filled with yoga mentorship, practice teaching, Bible study, and lots of cleaning!  

In addition to linking up with Sami, I am loving Rachel's Inspirational Monday link-up!  Go check it out and send some inspiration for the week!

Happy Monday, everyone!!

Weekend Recap

Well I can't say this was the most exciting weekend.  On Friday I had my yoga teacher training class, which was on Sanskrit this week.  I am terrible at foreign languages, but I suppose it's important to know what I'm saying and pronounce it correctly if I use Sanskrit in a class!  I was at work Saturday and Sunday, so that ate up most of my time.  I don't mind working on the weekends though, it's pretty low key and usually goes by quickly.  I lead a support group on Saturday afternoon for friends and family members of our patients, and it was a really good group this weekend, so that was awesome.

On Saturday evening, Mark and I started watching "House of Cards" which is a Netflix series.  We only got through a couple episodes on Saturday, but got REALLY sucked in on Sunday night! 


On Sunday, I went to the gym after work and ran a few miles.  Then I spent the rest of the evening working on my Bible study and watching TV.  I didn't really watch the Academy Awards, just tuned in every now and then to see what people were wearing.  I did catch Amy Adams on the red carpet and thought she looked incredible!  She's one of my favorite actresses, so I was pleased to see her looking so classy.  Isn't it the worst when your favorite celeb ends up on the worst dressed list?

Also, it's my first time linking up with Sami!  You should probably do it too!

Weekend Recap

I just love having a weekend at home with no big plans.  This weekend was relaxing, yet productive, and frankly I would like it to still be around.

I've always been a fan of Fridays, but even more so now that I don't work Fridays (except for this one, just a half day though!) and I get to spend the day in yoga teacher training.  This Friday afternoon started out with a coffee date with my yogi friend, Sara.  We walked to Starbucks across from our yoga studio and got a chance to catch up on life.  After I got home, Mark and I went out for dinner with my dad at one of our favorite local restaurants.  We capped the night off by watching TV on the couch, just the way a Friday should be.

Saturday was filled with going to the gym, errands, lounging, and cleaning.  I signed up for the Run or Dye 5k with a couple friends, and I am SO excited about it!  I saw a lot of pictures from The Color Run 5k, and it looked so cool!  This run is the same concept, so I expect it to be tons of fun!  On Saturday night, Mark and I took a Valentine's partner yoga workshop with Sara and her boyfriend.  I was SO happy that he was willing to put up with this for me, and it ended up being really fun.  It was taught by one of my favorite instructors, and she brought a few different red wines and chocolates for us to enjoy throughout the class.  I knew it was outside of Mark's comfort zone, but I think we actually did pretty well and got to try some cool acro-yoga poses....like this,

Ok, not quite.  But you get the point.

Sunday morning I got in a run and lifted some weights, but then spent most of the day being lazy.  I started going to a Monday night Bible study with some friends from church, so I spent a lot of the afternoon working on the Bible study homework.  We are doing a 10 week Beth Moore study on the Old Testament Tabernacle.  I hope to continue blogging about how this study is going as well, it is pretty interesting!

This was the last lazy weekend I'll get for awhile now, so I am extremely grateful for it!  Hope all of you reading this had a great weekend as well :)

Katie