Puppy Pics

More of our new pup! He is too cute! 15 days and counting!!

High School Band

I have been acused of not posting my fair share of Erika and Joel adventures, So here ya go. The high school band Erika eluded to in the last post was my recent performance run with the West Fargo High School pit orchestra. I was called as a last minuite fill in for the abandoned drum chair for Anything Goes. Erika enjoyed making fun of me, but it was kind of fun to be back in the pit. I played the very first show in that theater in '94 and 3 others (one after graduating). No other adventures to speak of.

Happy Valentine's Day

This has been a fun Valentine's Day. I got a card written in binary code (as in 1's and 0's) from Joel. I did figure out what it said by googling binary-to-text conversion and then typing in about 600 0's and 1's. I also got an Alton Brown baking cookbook. I LOVE Alton Brown's recipes and his show. I don't often miss having cable, but I DO miss the Food Network.

Joel got a dozen blonde brownies from Nichole's Fine Pastry (and he won't share...) AND... this fabulous, singing robot balloon!!!!!!It sings "Love Machine," which is then stuck in your head for the ENTIRE DAY.

Gus doesn't know what to think of this giant robot balloon.

Since I am alone this evening (Joel has a high school band performance - and if you don't know what I mean by that, wait for my next blog - I'll explain), the robot and I are going to spend some quality time watching chick flicks. I guess he'll have to be my valentine. :)
Don't even ask what is up with my hair in the above picture. It's the hot new style. Trust me.

P.S. Happy six-month Birthday to my other valentine, Mr. Cutie-Pie, Adam John Fried!

Housewarming Party

It is about time that I shared some pictures from our housewarming party on Friday, February 1st. We had a lot of fun celebrating officially owning our home! The closing went just fine - which was a big relief after a week of 3 to 4 phone calls per day from our mortgage consultant earlier in the week - first time homebuyer programs are amazing and are hugely helpful, but getting one is quite the process and very stressful. BUT, after 45 minutes of not understanding paperwork but signing it anyway, we were homeowners. Then it was time to party! We had lots of friends and family come over to help us celebrate...

My friend Kabes (real name: Kim Schaefbauer) came for the party from Mandan with her adorable little girl, Madison!
Joel and my brother, Aaron, hanging out in our kitchen (I still get excited when I write things like "our" kitchen...)

My HD buddies from Concordia and the "Lover's Club" (a.k.a. the significant others of Concordia HDs) hanging out around the table. This way they could stay close to the snacks and bloody mary bar.

Our good friend (and my former coworker) Brady and Ollie, the son of Jill and Jeremy (one of Joel's coworkers). Notice the similar hairstyles - aren't they fabulous?!
Tom (Joel's boss) and I rocking OUT to Guitar Hero. Tom is one of those people that is just naturally good at everything, so imagine how satisfying it was for me to beat him!
And of course, I have to show you pics of the goodies I baked. Delicious brownies from scratch - a big hit!
Fruit pizza. SO yummy.
I almost wish that we could buy a house every week and have more housewarming parties. I guess next time we'll just have to have everyone over for no reason at all.

And the winner is...

Red & White! Here are some new pictures of our puppy.

Coming in March 2008!

Can't wait to meet him...

Closing Time

I'm just heading out to the closing on the house!!! I may not be able to type for awhile due to hand cramps from all of the signing... :) Will update soon as a home-owner!