lunch, coffee and shopping outtings with random friends

this week has been full of fun outings with friends, lunches, coffee drinking, shopping a little and some very sweet (much needed) conversation. Monday i spent the afternoon with Sara and her dad- we went to the docs office (for her dad) and than shoe shopping for her dad. of course, i had to buy a pair. i cant just go tennis shoe shopping for someone else and not get a pair for me. I have a problem with buying tennis shoes. i think i own 14 pairs. it's a fetish!!!! but i love it.
Tuesday i went to the beach with Sara, Jay and Justin....we laid around and had some good catch up time with one another. did some jet skiing - and i got sunburnt. we than went to the DQ and had a treat. well, they had a treat. i sat and watched. (silly diet i am on does not allow ice-cream)
Wednesday Annette (Leander) Pare showed up at my door (pre-planned) with caribou in hand. we sat on my new glider chairs outside and chatted for almost 3 hours. it was great. Annette is one of those people that i can go months without talking to and pick right up where we left off....totally one of the coolest ladies i know. Besides bringing me coffee, she brought me a book. NICE. Thursday i met Monica (one of my old roommates) and her son Ben for lunch. Her other son Isaiah (who was also my roommate) was not there- i missed seeing him a lot! It was nice to see her and re-connect. Good conversation and good food. Ben was full of pent up energy so we didn't get to chat long. Friday-today- I booked over to south dale mall to meet Heather (old roommate from college) for lunch at The Cheese Cake Factory and had one of the best salads ever. The Luna Salad- its a must try if you ever go there. I, of course, had to ask for no wantons, almonds and nuts, and lite dressing, but it was still awesome! Heather is great; love her. Every time i am with Heather we end up at Macy's shopping for shoes. Today was no exception. NO buys this time....but almost found some cute heels. Conversation with Heather is always easy, natural and fun! She will always be a good friend of mine!!!! Tonight i might try and hook up a bunch of peeps and go to the Dark Night. I am very interested in seeing it. Anyhow- this week was so fun. Seeing friends; having lunch and coffee, is always awesome!!!! good stuff.

summer time....

when i see people (or talk to them on the phone) they often ask 'what've you been up to?' well, i love my summers cuz i never really know what's up. here is how i've spent some of my summer thus far.

*attending weddings. Hannah got married this past Friday night. Hannah was one of the many basketball players i coached that will be getting married this summer. She looked fantastic! i actually just got another invite for a wedding just today. *been reading...mostly fiction books. i have been reading a series, and just finished this past weekend. i think there were some days were i read from morning til night. so relaxing!!! been trying to read my bible more- works most days...which is super good for me!

*doing some odd jobs here and there. (that part i dont so much like about my summer, but it is a need)

*playing my days by ear and loving that fun stuff comes up at the last minute. did lunch last week with a good freind on a whim. meet up with a couple others within an hour notice for coffee. and have made frequent visits to places i dont ever have time to visit during the year- like the swing set, the parks, the lakes, shops, ya know- where ever the heart many lead.

*went home to Mora for the weekend. Mora County Fair was happening. I did not attend the fair at all....just hung around for the parade and than played with my neice and nephews...arent they super cute. now for some of you my summer may sound boring...but its just what i need. and of course, there are a lot of other things i do to occupy my time, but this is enough for this blog.

i know that this may sound like a boring summer, but its just what i need. of course...this isn't everything that i do- but enough for this blog. out.

'

Garage Sale!

had a garage sale last Wednesday through Saturday and it went ok....! it was a lot of work to prepare for it but once it was up and running it was easy- and sort of fun. i sold a total of $188.and some odd change. i think i did well. Jen, Jay and Sara added some of their odds and ends to the sale, which made it bigger- which was nice. my mom came down Thursday to add some stuff and hang out for a couple days. she also added a bunch of stuff to it as well. the fun part was meeting a lot of my neighbors. I've lived at 6515 84th Crt N for over 3 years now and i am just now getting around to meeting some of them. a cute older lady that lives 3 buildings stopped in every day to visit. than met a lady my age that just moved in with her boyfriend last week. and than a dude from across the road- he actually hit on me...so that was fun. a little girl that thought i looked like her mom and offered me some flowers she and her dad picked on the way over here. her dad came back later on to apologize about his daughters behavior and mentioned that her mother recently moved out. so....that was sad. and than the ladies that live below me - Lisa and Susan....got to know them really well. another lady from across the road stopped in and bought $32 dollars of my cloths, and after i bagged them up she only offered my $20 bucks. man- i took it, but was a bit annoyed at her. she tried on a lot of my cloths. so- boxed all the left over stuff up and will be delivering to a near bye church for them to use on their garage sale in august....just want the stuff out of my garage. sweet!! good times. everyone should have their own garage sale for sure.

BEFORE AND AFTER.....

TODAY (while my garage sale was going on- more on that on my next blog) MY MOM AND I DECIDED WE'D DO A LITTLE RE-SHAPING OF MY SIDE-YARD. I DON'T REALLY HAVE A YARD AT MY TOWNHOUSE, JUST A LITTLE SPACE NEXT TO MY GARAGE. AND BEFORE TODAY IT LOOKED LIKE THIS: OH GOODNESS....I HATE THAT THE METERS SHOW, I HATE THAT ALL I HAVE AS PEOPLE WALK DOWN MY SIDEWALK AND ENTER MY HOME ARE ROCKS- BORING!!!!! SO THE OTHER DAY WHILE I WAS AT FLEET FARM, MY NEW FAVORITE STORE, I FOUND THESE SUPER FUNKY GLIDERS. TWO CHAIRS THAT HOOK TOGETHER WITH A LITTLE TABLE IN BETWEEN THEM- TOTALLY LOVE THEM. SO- I SAID TO MYSELF- 'SELF, YOU SHOULD REALLY GET THESE CHAIRS AND PUT THEM IN YOUR SIDE-YARD.' SO...I WAITED TIL MOM CAME TO VISIT TO MAKE SURE IT WAS A GOOD IDEA (for some reason i need help in picking stuff like that out) AND SHE TOTALLY WAS IN. SO WE GOT THEM. BUT I GOTTA SAY, THEY WERE THE HARDEST PIECES OF FURNITURE TO PUT TOGETHER EVER! WE SPENT 3 HOURS THURSDAY NIGHT AND THAN ALL DAY FRIDAY PUTTING THEM TOGETHER. MAN...TAKE A LOOK.

HAD TO BOLT IN EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF WOOD- AND THIS IS JUST ONE OF THE CHAIRS. AFTER WE ASSEMBLED THE GLIDERS WE MOVED ONTO MAKING A PLANTER TO PUT OUT IN FRONT OF THE METERS. MOM ALWAYS COMES UP WITH CRAZY IDEAS THAT SEEM TO TURN OUT COMPLETELY COOL. AND THIS ONE OF COURSE WAS TOP QUALITY. WE ALSO GOT SOME VERY CHEAP FLOWERS TO USE IN THE PLANTER AND AROUND THE CHAIRS. MAN, AFTER A FULL DAYS WORK IN THE CRAZY HOT HEAT (95 degrees) MY SIDE-YARD WAS COMPLETELY RE-SHAPED. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON ONE OF THOSE RE-MODELING SHOWS ON T.V. ANYWAYS- TO PROLONG IT NO LONGER HERE IS MY NEW SIDE-YARD!

YOU WILL SEE THE CHAIRS IN THE MIDDLE ON A WOOD PLATFORM; THATS MY FAVORITE. I CANT WAIT TO SIT OUT THERE IN THE A.M. AND DRINK MY COFFEE AND READ MY BIBLE WHILE THE CITY AROUND ME WAKES UP. THE PLANTER TO THE RIGHT OF THE CHAIRS IS WHAT MY MOM WORKED ON MOST OF THE AFTERNOON. IF YOU NOTICE IT COVERS UP THE METERS VERY WELL. SUPER HEAVY THOUGH. AND WE TOPPED IT ALL OFF WITH THE FLOWERS WE GOT. I THINK IT TURNED OUT VERY NICE. SUPER HAPPY WITH MY NEW SIDE-YARD. IT HAS HANDLED THE STORM OF THE EVENING AS WELL. MAN- IT'S SO DARK OUT AND THE LIGTHNING IS INSANE. THE FRIST STORM BLOW OVER QUICK LIKE AND THIS IS WHAT THE SKY LOOKED LIKE:
AWESOME HUH!!!!!!!! GOD CREATES SOME PRETTY CRAZY AMAZING STUFF. STORM #2 IS CURRENTLY HERE. THE SKY LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THIS ANYMORE. SUPER DARK! IT WAS A VERY SUCCESSFUL DAY OUTSIDE. I LOVE SPENDING TIME WITH MY MOM- AND WHAT BETTER WAY THAN TO DO SOMETHING SHE LOVES (making wood crafts), MAKING MY HOUSE LOOK SUPER COOL AND ENJOYING EACH OTHERS COMPANY. NICE!!!!!!!

North Dakota

So last Wednesday Jen and I decided it would be fun to put 1067 miles on the silver bullet (my car), leading us to Lake Metigoshe just outside of Bottineau, North Dakota. Jen's boyfriend Jay has a cabin there and we decided it would be a fun mini vacation over the 4th......it turned out to be fantastic. not sure how to sum up the outing so will do a top 12 list of cool and crazy things that happened...in no certain order!
#1. we carried a massive crate of raspberry bushes from Jens grandparent house to jay parents house and planted them in their yard. good times working on the farm! #2 i didn't shower the whole time i was there...ok, i shampooed my hair twice, but did it in the lake. and i think i got swimmers itch. for those of you that have not heard of that- well it's some sort of parasite that gets under the skin and itches...makes little tiny bumps on the skin. i don't have it bad, or at least i hope i don't!
#3. i got to jet ski when ever i wanted. and i even got to dump Jen and i off tring to do crazy turns.
#4. we eat non-stop. Crazy Joni (Jay's mom) had a non-stop array of goodies- food and drink. i am bummed that we didnt get a picture of the Crazy Cake Joni made. #5. we didn't get to bed before mid-night....jay and Jen i think stayed up til 2 most nights. whoa.... and sleeping was of course an option, i just couldnt get it done. up at and it close to 8 every morning.
#6. I got to read....i think everyone thought i was anti-social...but i just wanted to read. reading on the dock watching the sun come up and enjoying the beauty and comfort of a peaceful lake was pretty awesome. ya just don't get that in the cities!!!!! i read a book and a half. thats me on the end of the dock.#7. I got to get to know and hang with some pretty sweet people. of course- Jen! i love that girl. and Jay- love that guy. but got to meet and greet Jay's parents and his sister and her family. it was very fun. super cool down to earth people. they made me laugh- alot!
#8. watched Nadel beat Federer on Sunday!!!! YES. (that's the only TV we watched all weekend) #9. took in some super fun fire-works on the 4th. we sat in the pontoon boat for at least 2 hours and watched random peeps sat off their own works. some of them were directly above us. at times we thought the sparks we going to light us on fire. they were super close. than on the 5th we drove out watch the 'real' fire-works. we pull up and sat int he back of the truck cuz if we took the boat it would have taken us years to get out of there. i honestly think there we 500 or so boats on the all int he same area at one time. the works were fun! #10. got to see where Ben and Jay grew up. took in their small time life styles and schools. had some fun on the turtle...(see picture) look how small we seem... #11. read the 'Swin Shickleback' Fish book 3 times to Javen and Talia. ( jays neice and nephew). yes....the book was super fun to read and the kids totally digged it. they both sat on my back and loved listening. i think i even had Crazy Joni's attention a couple times.
#12. got to have some good solid conversation with Jen and Jay. it's always enjoyable to do a mini- vacation with people you enjoy and get along with. i really don't think i could ever get enough of Jen....and Jay! we spent time sitting at the fire. something extra fun, yet relaxing about a fire. super fun time. although i will admit that the drive (on the way home) was pretty sucky. and putting 1067 miles on the silver bullet was tough- otherwise.....we might make it a annual outing! is that ok Tonneson's????