My Weekend in a Nutshell.

Just wanted to share my weekend with you all.  It was a great one. I hope you enjoyed yourselves too!

Friday night after work, the weekend fun began with a Bulldog vs. Bemidji State Beavers game.

This series was very fun to watch, even though we started out a little slow, and went down 2-0 early in the first period.  This person (below) on the Beaver's team interned with the company I work for last summer.  In fact, he stopped in the office on Friday morning to say hello before his morning skate.  There was plenty of smack talk thrown from both sides, since we had been anticipating this series since he left us in August and went back to school.

Sometimes it's very, very fun to have seats right behind the penalty box.  You can be sure I grabbed the camera as soon as he was called!  Hee Hee!



We ended up coming back strong after our early hiccup, and won the game 6-2!  Yay!

Saturday, Morgan and I went to see a local production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at our city's Playhouse. 

The set was kind of simple, but fantastic at the same time.  A white screen was used throughout the play to cast shadows and tell parts of the story, and spooky colored lights and a fog machine set the mood.

I didn't read anything in the playbill about the ages of the children that performed, but I'd guess the oldest was about 15, and the youngest was about 5.  They were great!

The headless horseman is creeping up behind Ichabod Crane!

I think we are so fortunate to have this great program in Duluth that gives young people an opportunity to act and take part in such a fun past-time that they will be able to carry with them for years to come!

They even threw in a scene where the ghosts and ghouls are coming after Ichabod and Katrina to the tune of Thriller!  Dancing and all!  It was awesome!

Bravo to all the young actors!  Thank you for putting on such a great show. Morgan and I really, really enjoyed it.

After the play, we headed home to a turkey dinner, cooked mostly by my fabulous husband.  Hands off ladies, he's MINE!  After dinner, it was back to the Amsoil Arena to watch the Dogs sweep those Beavers!  Another great game.  We won this one 1-0.  It doesn't matter how many are up on the board, just so our team ends up with one more than the other team.  Here they are giving their stick salute after the successful weekend.

I'm sure it was a fun night for the team after they got off the ice.  They looked very happy.  So were we.

Sunday Morgan and I went to see my neice Emily get confirmed at her church, while Nate and Andy went to hockey practice.

After the church service, we went over to her house for lunch, and to watch the Vikings.  They won by a nose hair too.  Here is the "rock band" my sister and her husband are in at church.

After lunch and football watching, Andy had hockey tryouts for an AAA team for next summer.  Then it was home to finish up homework, get showers in, and prepare to do it all over again. 

So, a very busy weekend here, but it was full of the things we love, and the people we love.  Perfect, in my opinion.  Tomorrow is halloween.  I think the kids want to trick-or-treat, but we don't really have costumes picked out, or much of a plan.  I guess that's how we roll.  As long as someone brings me home a Reeses, I'll be just fine.

What did you do this weekend?  I hope it was something fun!

XOXOX

NH

Photo Assignment #5 - Topic

Ok, so the photo editing didn't catch everyones attention like I was hoping.  Maybe this next assignment will.

I'm going against Morgan's initial suggestion here and going to make the assignment this week:

Eyelashes

This one is going to be challenging for me.  I am going to have to practice on my close ups, which is something I really want to do.  Also, you might get lucky and find some funky eyelashes on a Halloween costume this weekend! 

Come on peeps!  Show me whatcha got!!

XOXOX

NH

Photo Assignment #4 - Submissions

Ok, so not very many of you wanted to take part this week.  That's ok.  Photo editing isn't as tricky as you might think.  I still encourage you to try it out sometime.  It's very fun to see what you can turn your photos into!

There was only one submission this week besides my own, and it certainly doesn't disappoint.  My girl Tricia sent in this edit.  Here is the original picture:

And here is her spookified edited version!

Tricia, I love your creativity!  How fitting for the season!  SPOOKY!

Here are my two edits.

The original:

And my edited version:

My other original photo:

And my edited photo:

I just love playing with my pictures after they are taken.  The originals can be great, but with a little enhancement, you can really get something totally different!  Like I said, I encourage you to give it a try some time.  Very fun.

Next assignment will be announced shortly! 

XOXOX

NH

Why...

• do I think that knitting a shawl/scarf with lace weight cashmere where the pattern calls for 396 stitches be cast on would be a good idea?
• do I continue to pick the same hang nail spot over and over and over?
• did I have no problem when my son started middle school, but since he's going to his first middle school dance tonight, I have a stomach ache that won't quit?
• do I hit all red lights on the way to work when I'm running late, but all the green ones when I'm running early?
• do I find out the day before a choir concert that the required dress is black pants, white shirt, and a tie?
• is it so difficult for me to finish knitting a pair of mittens?  I think I have three pair at home that are missing one thumb.  ONE THUMB!  How stupid.  One of these days...
• am I so hard on myself?
• did I get so lucky to be placed in the family that I'm in?

Just a few random questions I have today.  If you have any ideas on how to answer these, I'd love to hear them!

XOXOX

NH

ABC Hockey Mom's Night Out

Tonight was our monthly meeting of the ABC Hockey Mom's club. 

We try to meet monthly, but we kind of took the summer off because there were too many conflicts.  It was fun to get together again tonight and catch up, even if it was only 4 of us that could go tonight.  Dang, hockey moms have tough schedules!

We stole the idea from my sis-in-law, so I cannot take credit for it, but each month we meet, we try to find a bar/restaraunt that begins with the next letter of the alphabet.  The first month we went to Applebee's.  Next was The Beacon, and then Clyde Iron. And so on.

Tonight's letter was J, but we couldn't come up with anything great in the area that began with J, and they don't have a bar a Taco John's.  So we decided to go to G.B. Schneider's tonight, and change their name for one night to J.B. Schneider's.  Our waiter/bartender said that we were in luck and didn't really have to change the name of the restaraunt, because his name was Jose.  So there you go.  It was meant to be.

I did not get great pictures, because lighting in the bar area of restaraunts is never great at night, but I'll share some anyways.

It was half price wine night!  We were in heaven.

Julie and I split a bottle of Bree Reisling, and Tina and Tracy split a bottle of Cupcake Red Velvet.  They were both delish.

I just love these red wine glasses.  So short and fat and adorable!  I want them.

Sorry for the blurrrr, but the wine was yummy.  And I love the Bree bottle! 

Here are four of us from our club.  Tracy, Tina, Me, and Julie.  Hopefully next month I'll be able to take pictures of the rest of the lovely ladies that help me keep my sanity and let me get out of the house and laugh and eat and drink and not worry about homework for one night per month.  Thanks ladies!  I had a great time tonight.  See you at the rink!

XOXOX

NH

Here is what you need to do tonight.

Because I said so.

1.  Pick up your camera.
2.  Take a picture of anything you want.  Some ideas are a lamp, a fork, your daughter, your back yard, your stairs, your refrigerator, or the dust bunny in the corner of your dining room.
3.  Upload your picture(s) to your computer.
4.  Upload your picture(s) to The Picnik Website.  (or a site or program of your choice)
5.  Play, Play, Play!  I bet you always wanted to know what your refrigerator would look like if it was blue, right?  Or play with sharpness, contrast, or sepia settings (among a billion others).  Or jump back to your teen years and put some cool words over your picture like "BFFs ROCK!"  Go put a princess tiara on your daughter's head if she happened to have forgotten hers when you took her picture.  There is a premium level that costs real money, but plenty of very fun free things you can do too.
6.  Save your masterpiece(s).
7.  Upload them to your Flickr account.
8.  Send them on over to The Nancy's Challenge Flickr Group.
9.  Send me a comment to let me know how much fun you had and how cool I am, because all of this was done FOR FREE.
10.  Don't expect a response from me right away because I'll be out drinking 1/2 price wine with my friends tonight!

Just a reminder that tomorrow night is the deadline for the photo editing challenge.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!  Be creative!  Learn something new! 

XOXOX

NH

Choose to be Happy!

One of my blogging friends Tricia made an amazing blog post over at Mommy's Missing Pieces last night.  It really, really struck me.  Please take a minute to go read it.  I truly believe it is a choice.  YOU have that much power and control over your day.  Cool, huh?

The post can be found right here.  (or above)

XOXOX

NH

UMD Bulldog Hockey

These pictures were taken over a week ago, so I'm sorry for the delay in putting them up here.

Other than whatever team Andy is on at the time, the UMD Bulldogs are my favorite hockey team.  We have season tickets to the home games, and go to as many as we can.  I remember hauling diaper bags and bottles to these games when the kids were babies.  Thank goodness they are old enough to stay awake for the whole thing now, and don't need to be carried to the car flopped over a shoulder.

The Dogs are coming off of a National Championship year, and this is the first complete year in our new $80 million arena.  That's a lot of excitement for Bulldog fans!

Here are some of the pictures I took at last Friday's game against our biggest interstate rivals, the Minnesota Gophers, a.k.a. the rodents.

Warmups:

Heeeere come your Buuuuuldogs!

And We're Off!

Jack is discussing a penaltly call with the refs...

and doesn't quite agree with the call.

Morgan and Cassie found their dance teacher from last year!

Unfortunately I'm not at liberty to discuss the score of the game with you.  Blog laws, and all that.  Oh fine.  We lost.  In OT.  It was a heartbreaker.  We also lost on Saturday night to the rodents.  Grrrr!  Watch out next time, Gophers!  We'll getcha then!

XOXOX

NH

Hockey Tryouts Are Over

Thank you Jesus!

I am not a fan of watching my children try out for anything.  I know it's good for them, makes them stronger, blah blah blah.  But to see them get nervous and stressed and worried and concerned is not exactly my idea of a good time.  It can end up with them on the highest of highs, or the lowest of lows.

Andy had one final skate last night and I was able to make it back from a day trip to the cities for work just in time to watch him play.  I thought he did great.  He let in one goal, but that was a lot fewer than were shot at him, which is always a plus.  We rushed home, and the refresh button to the website was worn out for sure by the time the results were posted shortly after 10 PM.  Andy was sitting next to me on the couch with the laptop.  He clicked the link to the document, and looked at me with the sweetest most excited look on his face.  I wanted to keep watching his face as he read the results, but I wanted to read them too!  I didn't know where to look!

We tried to quickly make our way through the list to find out where he'd be playing.  He didn't end up ranked quite as high as we had hoped, but he was placed on a team with a lot of friends, and he is elated.  Elated!  He's such an awesome kid.  He was disappointed that he didn't make the higher team for about .01 seconds.  When he started disecting the list of names on his roster, the grin on his face got bigger and bigger.  He went to bed with it on, and woke up with it too.  What a stinkin' relief!!!  I think it's going to be a really fun year, and I can't wait for it to get started!

To all of you going through tryouts of any kind right now, hang in there.  I know it's totally stressful, and can turn out differently than you want.  If you are sad right now, come find me and I'd be happy to give you a hug.  If you are happy, then congrats to you, and hold on to that happy!

Ready to dive into the season!!!

XOXOX

NH

My Brush With Royalty!

King Herald and Queen Sonja of Norway are in Duluth today.  They made a few stops in the southern part of our state over the weekend, and made their way here today.  They stopped at the DECC for a luncheon and spoke to the attendees.  Next they went a few blocks away to the Sons of Norway Lodge, which is less than a block from my office.  A few of my co-workers and I were able to go and try to catch a glimpse of them.  It doesn't matter what your heritage is, it's pretty darn cool to see real life royalty in my opinion.

This is the motorcade crossing over the freeway on Lake Avenue.

Queen Sonja!  Very classy.  She has great style!

The King and Queen are greeted and getting ready to enter the Sons of Norway Lodge.

Such grace.  This is why I am totally glad I wasn't born into royalty.  I'm a little less than graceful.  I'm sure I would have caught a heel into the brick on the street and twisted my ankle.

I'm sorry for the reflection of someone's tennis shoes in most of the pictures.  I had to snap them kind of quickly and wasn't watching out for that.

The crouds gathered and waved Norwegian flags to welcome them to our city.  I wonder what the Queen does with all the flowers she is given?

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.  If I were royalty, I'd be sure to bring one just like this with me.  The picture doesn't do him justice.  :)

So, um, that was it.  We got to watch them get out of their motorcade of 8 suburbans provided by Kolar, wave, shake a few hands, accept some flowers, and head inside.

Pretty cool, but where's Pippa???  Just kidding.  I did say that though, just to be funny.

After the King and Queen were done with their rest stop at the Lodge, they headed up to Enger Tower, for a re-dedication ceremony.  City officials have been working very hard on restoring the tower and making it look presentable for this very day.  Tomorrow they head to New York, and I assume then back on home. 

Velkommen Takk, your Royal Highnesses.  I'm glad I got a chance to see you in person, and I'm sorry you had to drive by those silly protesters on the corner of Lake Ave and Superior St.  I guess free speech is a good thing, but sometimes it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Shinin' my tiara...

XOXOX

NH

P.S.  I wrote a guest blog post on my friend Tricia's blog, and it was posted this afternoon.  Tricia sure made me feel special with the things she said abotu me.  Head on over to check it out.  Tricia is an AMAZING cook, so if you are looking for any recipes (because Lord Knows you won't find any on THIS blog) she has some very yummy sounding ones.  She can be found at Mommy's Missing Pieces.  She has been taking part in all of the photo challenges and is a whole lot of awesome wrapped up in one coooool chick!!  Love ya TK!