This Guy I Met

Long story short, 9 years ago today I met this pretty awesome guy at a 4th of July Slip'n'Slide party. Two of my besties were there with me, Tam & Sara. We were totally out of place, but we were having a good time. I noticed this guy in a white t-shirt. I kept trying to talk to him, but he was quiet.  His friend*, Zach, kept talking to me and the guy I had my eye on just listened.

It was about time to leave for fireworks and we were walking back to the car. I told my friends I had to go back and get his number.  Clearly I had some liquid courage to help with this reasoning. Luckily, my girlfriends were supportive.

We walked back to the party and he was sitting in a big circle so it would have been awkward to ask for his number. All of a sudden he got up. Tam and Sara got to him first and explained that I thought he was cute and invited him to go see fireworks with us. He said yes! If you ask Chris, he will say it was beyond obvious that I was coming for him so he left the circle to talk to me. I didn't think I was that obvious, but I got what I wanted. :)

Our first photo together at the Union in Madison

1 year anniversary trip to Chicago

The ironic thing was I wasn't looking for anything serious. I was leaving for a semester in Spain in a month and a half. I really didn't want to fall for some guy before I left. Of course, I did. We did long distance from Spain to WI, Milwaukee to Madison, and Milwaukee to Minneapolis. Once I graduated from MU, I joined him in MN and we have been together ever since.

Rose Garden near Lake Harriet in MPLS

4th of July Parade in St. Joe's MN - a few weeks before he proposed

Wedding Day - photos at the Union of course!

Since we have been together a while and I was pretty young when we met, all of my girlfriends know him really well. I would say they all like him too. (He had to win over, Kate, my protective friend, but he did.)  So if I ever call to complain about him, they side with him sometimes. It's a little frustrating, but it makes me smile.

Camping and Hiking in the Porkies UP of  MI

Badger vs Gopher Hockey Game

East Coast Trip for Nick and Kerin's Wedding

I feel very lucky and happy to be with someone that can make me so happy and also drive me crazy at times. I'm really excited for our next adventure. I've know since the summer of 2004 he was great with kids and would make an excellent father.

Celebration of Excellence Awards - Chris has 2 teaching awards and I only have 1.

Parc Ciutadella in BCN

Our next adventure - a little late on the upload

*Zach is a great guy and I would say he is our friend now. He picked a really awesome wife, Nicky, who is a great friend too!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!! For many good reasons it is one of my most favorite holidays!

The Ox Family in New Mexico

 We just had an awesome weekend thanks to our wonderful guests.  Sara and Nick came to visit us for the weekend.  I knew I missed our Minnesota friends, but I didn't realize how much I did.  It was so great to see them and hang out with them. Here are some of the fund things we did.

1. B2B for Happy Hour: $2 local beers on tap for an hour.  Can't beat that price.  Nick and Sara were in shock with how affordable going out was in ABQ.   They also had a deal on flights.

Sara's Flight

My Flight

2. El Pinto for dinner. This is a staple New Mexican restaurant.

3. Hiking the cooler version of the Tent Rocks. It was way better than our 1st hike there.

Are we in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon or the planet of Tatooine?

Crazy NM weather of 10 minutes snowing followed by sunshine. Yes Nick rocked shorts all day!

Bird's eye view

Chris and Nick going further than Sara and I were comfortable with.

Ox Family

Valley Family

Self Timer!

4. A quick visit to Santa Fe, where the snow followed our MN friends.

5. Agricola Fun and Celebrating Nick's birthday!

6. Breakfast burritos from Blake's Lotaburger

Yes it is fast food, but their breakfast burritos are good and $3.50.

7. More Agricola fun!

I wish I would have taken more photos.  Seeing Nick and Sara makes me excited to head back to MN this summer and see more of our wonderful friends.  We are hoping to be there around the 4th of July. Their visit also made me excited for our next guests who arrive on Thursday.  Travel Safely Matt and Jessi!

How do you spell ABQ?

We had an idea back in March 2012 that we were going to move to Albuquerque. We weren't 100% sure, but we were excited to visit the city during Chris' interview.  The weekend before we went to ABQ was St. Patrick's Day. We celebrated with our good friends in St. Paul and had a blast!  (I'm laughing and smiling right now remembering that day and our adventure to find a cheeseburger.)

While we were enjoy the festivities, I lamented to my awesome friend that I had no clue how to spell Albuquerque. I was concerned about moving to a city where I would struggle with spelling its name.  She just laughed at me and has remembered this conversation.  She even requested this blog post, which I clearly thought was an amazing idea.

A meeting of the minds - thinking about how to spell ABQ

I have to admit that I was feeling like I was pretty good at spelling Al- bu- que - r- que (That's how I think of it when I write it.) Just as I was growing confidence, I spelled it wrong twice in one day. :( This actually made me laugh pretty hard and reminded me of my friend and our conversation on St. Patrick's Day.

Other enjoyable ABQ spelling moments have happened while on the phone with a representative of a company giving them my information. If the company isn't based here, all the representatives have started to type ABQ on their own and then realized they needed help.  I happily help and reassure them that it is challenging to spell.

Lastly, one of my college friends sent us a Holiday Card this year that me me smile and laugh! LJ, I think you can find the answer to your question in this post. :)

My goal is to be able to spell ALBUQUERQUE with fluency and without errors soon. In the meantime I will still embrace ABQ because it is way easier! Hopefully a few of you improved your spelling of Albuquerque from reading this post.

The Little Things

I like to try and focus on the sunny side of life.  One way I do this is by finding happiness in the little things. When we came back from CT, where we spent the holidays with my family, I loved getting our mail that was on hold.

I have always enjoyed mail, but since we have moved I like it even more.  I find myself sending a lot more mail too.  If a letter or card can bring a smile to my face, I am sure it does the same to others. (And someone has to keep the USPS in business.)  I have a greater understanding of why Grandma C. and my Mom get pleasure out of sending snail mail.

The holiday season is the best time for happy mail.  We have been sending photo cards for the past 3 years, and we love the feeling of being connected/in touch when we receive them too.  Thanks to pinterest, I found a cute way to display them all!!. What do you think?

I taped ribbon to the back of the door and attached the cards with paperclips.

Here is our Holiday Card from 2013

We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season and that you too find the little things that make you happy. I will have to write a Holiday post soon.

- Jane