Congrats Aimee!!

Just ONE more post for the day! (Excuse all the exclamation marks - I'm really excited!!)

Our friend Aimee found out today that she passed the Colorado Bar Exam that she took in late February! I'm SO proud of her and happy for her! For anyone who's gone through it, you will understand what a HUGE deal it is! Not only do you spend hours, days, weeks, months on end studying and preparing for the exam, memorizing concepts, taking multiple choice and essay practice exams until you want to vomit...but then after you take it, and are left completely exhausted from the whole experience...you then have to WAIT (in Aimee's case 2 months) to find out if you passed! All the blood, sweat and tears paid off for her in the end - and I couldn't be happier for her! I know she will make an excellent attorney!! I was so happy when I found out that I was telling people that don't even know her...like our office manager...that she passed!!

And even better news is that she will be in Bismarck tomorrow night!! Time for celebration!!

Happy Birthday Bridget!

I'd also like to wish my friend Bridget (and her twin sister Kerry) very happy 30th birthday today! And Bridget is due to give birth to a baby boy in a little over a month!

Quick House Update

I went out to the lot last night to see what progress had been made in the last week or two...They now have the concrete walls poured in the basement.

Here are a couple pictures I got of what it looks like now (excuse the beagle in the second picture):

From the south (back) side of the house...

From the east side of the house..

We are pretty excited that it is starting to take shape!!

And the rest of the week...

As for the rest of what's been going on in the last week or so...

Jay got out and went to softball practice on Tuesday to jog around and catch some fly balls - testing out his knee. He's still walking so I think it went OK! I think he's still planning on waiting until at least June before trying to play (which won't be quite 6 months from his ACL surgery).

Thursday my team cancelled practice (because the winter-like weather stubbornly continues on through late April). However, Jay's parents were in town and we all went up to Lyndsey & Nicks' where Mike & Sandy treated us to pizza for supper that evening. It was nice to get together...We were also informed by Payton & Sydney that night that Jay & I are invited on their new pontoon this summer but the "puppies" can't go on it because they might jump or fall off!! That made me laugh! The things they think of...

Friday was my niece Micaela's award ceremony for the "Letters About Literature" writing contest she entered where she took first place in the state in her age group (grades 7-9) and tied for 4th in the nation!! It was a very nice ceremony and Micaela did an excellent job not only writing but also speaking to the crowd. We are all very proud of her!!

Here is Micaela with the group of other honorees in her age group...

Micaela with her parents post-ceremony.


Friday evening we went to our friend Mike's surprise 30th birthday party which was really cool. His wife, Kari, had everything decked out in the baseball theme - specifically Chicago Cubs. There was even hot dogs, brats & kraut, peanuts & Cracker Jacks, and a nacho cheese machine. Even the invitations looked like tickets to a Chicago Cubs game! Jay now wants to have a nacho cheese machine installed at his office. :) (Does that sound like Jay or what?)

Here is the birthday boy at the party...

On Saturday Jay and I ran a few errands in the morning but of course it was DRAFT DAY which meant I didn't see him from about 1:00pm until late in the evening...It was while he was gone that the Canine Caper took place.

Today flew by and I'm not sure what all we accomplished. We did make it to a house for sale that was built by our builder and is our basic floor plan (we have added and changed a few things). Before that, we had not walked through a house with our floor plan. It was a good idea to go look at this one I think- we got a good feel of what it will be like. We're happy with the few changes we made from it though.

My softball team got out for some practice today - it was a bit chilly and windy but we survived. We have 5 new players on our team this year and 9 returning from last year. So far, we're really impressed with our new players and look forward to a good season (hopefully). I'm really excited about our chances of doing well!

Well...it's late and I should get to bed. Busy week of work ahead of us again...I did take Friday afternoon off for Micaela's ceremony and then just decided to take off the rest of the afternoon which did me a world of good. Work has really been stressing me out lately and I needed a little break to clear my head and get refreshed.

Now...if we can only get some nicer weather soon!!!

Have a great week everyone!!

Another Canine Caper

There's a couple other things I wanted to blog about this weekend but had to first write about the latest "canine caper" our beagles have pulled off. Yesterday I took the dogs out for about a mile jog and then I dropped them off and kept jogging for about a half hour. Well..when I got back I was on the phone with my friend Stacy and thought I would feed the dogs. Jerz only ate half her food - which, if you know Jerz at all, is unheard of. Bailey then went in the spare bedroom and started helping herself to a 35-lb. bag of dog food that they had gotten into while I was gone. Apparently Jerz ate too much, even for a beagle!! It was reminiscent of the time they got into the big bag of generic fruit loops a while back.

She was so bloated and miserable all night! I alternated feeling bad for her and having to laugh at her. She just walked around and couldn't get comfortable. Think post-Thanksgiving dinner misery times ten. Today she still looks like she's pregnant, just waddling around - poor thing! But she hasn't really learned her lesson because she was back to begging and scrounging for food as usual.

Anyway, just had to share a story of yet another canine caper!

April Update

Well the future house is progressing right along. They have the concrete footings done. We went out to the lot Friday evening but I had forgotten to bring a camera with. Nothing too different than the prior post's pictures - just some concrete footings in there now. It's fun to experience the process step-by-step.

On Thursday last week it was Nick's birthday so we joined him and Lyndsey and a couple other friends to play some shuffleboard that evening. Here are a couple pictures...

Nick & Jay in an intense game of shuffleboard.

Nick, Gary, Katie and Lyndsey

It's a pretty quiet Sunday afternoon here. The beagles are snoozing away. I am enjoying working on things and being able to watch/listen to an Atlanta Braves game. Jay got kicked to the back room so I could have the Braves game on!

But the biggest news of the weekend is that Jay caught a couple walleye this weekend! So, his fishing drought is over!

Have a great week everyone!

Our Hole in the Ground!

These are pictures of where the house outline was dug in the last couple days that I took after work today.

View from NW corner of where the house will be

View from the SW corner

View from the SE corner

View from the NE corner (where the garage will be)

In other news for this mid-week post, tomorrow is the big Frozen Four semi-final game for the Sioux! I am fortunate that my boss is a Sioux hockey fan and is letting us leave by 4:00 since the game is at 5:00. Going to get some pizzas and veg out and watch the game after work tomorrow...so if you're looking for us, that's where we will be! GO SIOUX!!


I also decided I probably won't be ready to run in the Fargo half-marathon in May...but my brother and I might run in some other road races this spring summer (5k and/or 10k races). If you haven't checked out his blog yet...check it out here. And make sure to vote in his poll he's taking!


Jay is working on getting his knee stronger. He hopes to be playing softball at some point this summer but isn't going to push it too much too soon. I've taken him out with me and the dogs to walk and jog a few times and it seems to go pretty well.


Other than that, just looking forward to the weekend. Should be some nicer weather finally!!

Full Speed Ahead

House-related stuff is in full swing for us. On Friday, they scraped dirt around where they will dig to put the basement of our future house. They should be digging this week!! We also spent most of the weekend going to houses in the Parade of Homes. (I made it to over twenty houses - Jay made it to about ten). Our moms were able to join us and it was a lot of fun running around with them. We got some good ideas. In particular, Jay found the perfect idea for a future home theater room!!

Here are some pictures of our lot as of Friday evening...

View from back (SW) corner of where the house will be - in the distance is the city of Bismarck.

View of the stakes of the outline of where the house will be.

Obviously no much to look at now...soon there will be concrete poured and then once the house gets framed and sheeted, things should start picking up. In the meantime, if you're reading my blog updates, you'll just have to put up with these pictures!

Other than that, it's another quiet Sunday evening for us and the beagles. We've got another busy week of work ahead of us. Looking forward to NCAA b-ball championship tomorrow night as well as UND men's hockey in the Frozen Four on Thursday.

Have a great week everyone!