Boys are weird.

I went outside to find my husband like this, in our front driveway, in public.  Out neighbors are going to start avoiding us pretty soon. #scary  (that is the first time i've ever used a hashtag... wish I could have thought of something more clever)

A couple at our church just had a baby so our missional community decided to bring them dinner every night for two weeks.  We brought taco's.  Look at how well my little Pampered Chef server thingy worked!  I have a slight obsession with Pampered Chef.

We had taco's for dinner too!  Since there was only one tortilla left after giving the rest away.... Robby decided to make the largest taco you can imagine (I think there are even chips in the Taco!).  How does he eat so much??  Sometimes I feel like i'm feeding a family of six.

These days

I did it!!! I'm a jam maker!  If I can do it - anyone can. I had so much fun making it too.

Watch out you might get a jar for Christmas... or your birthday (whatever comes first).

We joined a missional community at church and I love it!   The purpose is to connect on a deeper level with our church family... we worship together, learn together & serve together.  Once a month we pick a service project to get involved with too.  It's been fun... we even had a cookie making night to give out cookies to all of our neighbors!  Last night we got together for a campfire and s'mores and kids were invited too.  Our pastors kids could not be more adorable!

Our group is just getting started but I hope we get to be a part of something as neat as this... this is a different group at our church that has been meeting together for quite some time.

I've been told to consider yourself extremely lucky if you get good neighbors.  Well we are beyond lucky because all of our neighbors are amazing!  They have been incredibly welcoming by bringing us fresh bread & inviting us over to meet other neighbors.  Today I got home form work and I found a bin of maternity clothes and baby stuff sitting at our back door.  My sweet neighbor Marissa just found out we were expecting and wanted to help us out.  I mean seriously... we've hit the jackpot of neigbors!

Cheers to new friends!

I have been praying for a running friend for a loooooongg time!  Probably ever since my friend Jen Flavin moved out of town.  I'm a much better co-runner and enjoy the company and the accountability of a running partner.  This year at the trail races I met Natalie.  We have been running together ever since the trail series finished.  Durning a trail race in late May, Natalie was talking to one of her other friends and I overheard her say she was pregnant.  I turned around and screamed and said I'm pregnant too!!  I had literally just found out the night before and she had just found out too.  We are due two days apart - i'm due January 29th and she is due January 31st.  Even better... we have the same doctor so hopefully we are not in labor at the same time. ha! So not only did I get a running friend... I made a friend entering a very exciting, scary & unknown new chapter of life at the same time as me!  God works in very cool ways and it's fun to look back and see prayers answered in ways so unexpected.

Today Natalie and I went strawberry picking at Finke's Berry Farm.  They had a great crop this year and the berries are delicous!  I plan to attempt my first time making strawberry jelly... i'll have to blog about it to let you know how it goes.  Thanks to the Pioneer Woman I will have illustrated step-by-step instructions... what could possibly go wrong?

Two fabulous years!

Happy Anniversary to my love!  This is our first year that we got to celebrate together since last year Robby was in Afghanistan.  I remember our anniversary last year waiting and waiting and waiting for a phone call... it's much better celebrating together in person!  We decided to have a whole weekend celebration of fun together.

We spent Saturday at park point paddle boarding on Lake Superior with the Johnson's.  It was totally awesome and the perfect day to be on the water at the beach!  On Sunday we rode our bikes up the shore to eat and Emily's and the Candy Kitchen.  My favorite thing to do in the summer!!

Today for our anniversary we brought a little picnic and some sparkling juice down to the my favorite rock by the lake.  It was a little chilly so we had to bundle up!  Chilly in July?? I know right!

Oh and the reason we couldn't celebrate with wine and had to substitute juice is because we're having a BABY!  Yay!  We are due on January 29th - my 31st birthday!  It will be an extra special birthday present.  We have a lot to be thankful and we have been extremely blessed in the last few years.

Here is a picture of our little sesame seed (that is what we named it).  We are not going to find out he gender until it's born which is like the best surprise in the whole wide world.  I can't wait!  We also found a steal on craigslist - a Chariot carrier which is like my dream stroller (is it weird to have a dream stroller?).  This thing is awesome because it goes from stroller to jogging stroller to bike trailer to cross country ski carrier all in one!!  I know - sweet right?  I have every intention to remain active after baby and this thing does it all!  Robby had to practice off roading on the wood pile... oh and he found a kelty hiking carrier at a garage sale!  I guess we are set on being able to transport baby.

I'm back!

I'm back from my blogging hiatus.  Sorry.  We've had soooo much going on lately!  Robby got a permanent job working at the base in Duluth so we finally got to commit to living here long term!  YAY!  We've been holding off on making a decision to buy a house because of the uncertainty of his job.  He is settling in to his new position and really liking working up there... even though it's a little stressful at times.  We bought a cute colonial house in Congdon - the old historic neighborhood in Duluth.  I love it and I love this neighborhood.  We are only a short walk to Tischer Creek trails... probably the prettiest in town with waterfalls and pretty scenery.

Here is a picture of us with our house the day we moved in!

We have such pretty trees in our yard and a private fenced back yard which is so awesome and hard to find living in town!  One day I will be removing the shrubs in front and putting in some pretty perennials.  I'm not a fan of shrubs... but to my surprise there are peonies coming up now and starting to bloom between the shrubs!  My favorite flower! Yipee!

The Bet.

One of my all time favorite thing to do in Duluth is the fall and spring trail running series.  There are soooo many cool running people in Duluth and at $1 per race you just can't beat it!  As you know, Duluth is built on a hill which means running (especially trail running) can be very difficult.  One of the hardest runs of my running history is the "Bull run" located in West Duluth... the hills are beyond anything i've ever ran.  It's just short of 4 miles and every time I want to lay down and die in the middle of it.  Seriously... it's painful.  Every year I question my sanity during that race.

This series Robby & my co-worker John have a bet to who can get the most points at the end of the series wins and the loser buys the winner pizza.  There are 7 races in the spring series and this is how the scoring works...

Scoring Rules

1. First place in each race earns 150 points, second place earns 149 points, third place earns 148 points, etc.
2. Earn 25 bonus points if you participate in all seven races.
3. Drop your lowest score (you drop zero if you missed a race). Lowest scores are marked with [].
4. Apply rules 1-4 to arrive at your total score for the NMTC Spring Trail Series.

So far Robby is ahead... and John is close behind him.  With two races left anything can happen... although Robby has all of his topping picked out for the pizza he is going to win.

The goat run! This was a fun race, lots or water and mud and even a short period of rock climbing.

Every week I'm chasing this lady... she's fast but i'm still beating her in the overall series!

Life...

I apologize for my major blog neglect.  I've been a lazy photographer and have not been very good at capturing life happenings lately.


Here is a few fun things that I did manage to get a few pictures of...

Sweet Miss Margaret is ONE!  We celebrated with great friends and giant cupcakes!

The Peterson family stayed with us... it's crazy that they are a family of five now and Elias is already one.  We were way over due for some quality time with this family and had a great time catching up.  Aren't their kids adorable! Love them!

I cleaned out my closet big time.  I'm contemplating being a minimalist so we'll see how it goes.  This is seriously all I have left in my closet (okay maybe a few more pieces that are in the laundry) but I did a major down size.  Ashby started a thrift store that is open once a month but everything is FREE.  That's right... take what you need... free!  So i'm donating a lot of my clothes to their awesome Caring Neighbors Mission!

Here is a news clip of the FREE "store" in Ashby... it seems like this little town makes the Twin Cities news quite a bit.  Something to be proud of I guess!  Awwww... home sweet Ashby.  I love watching news stories like this that makes you remember that there are so many genuine, caring and good people in this world.