The First Annual Tom McShane Memorial Brother Sons Getaway Retreat

Dan-did I get the name right???  Haha!  Last weekend Dan went up to his Uncle Tim's cabin for the "First...well, I won't retype it!  They had a guys weekend full of golf, cabin fun, campfires and, most of all, time to remember Tom!

Dan carried on their new tradition of reading letters from Tom!  Dan and I didn't really realize that this could be a tradition but now it officially is one!  It all started with Uncle Kevin reading a letter that Tom wrote from heaven at the prayer service.  Then Uncle Tim read a letter from Tom at our wedding rehearsal dinner.  Then Dan wrote a letter from his dad and read it at this weekend retreat!  It will be so fun and meaningful to collect all the letters from Tom that people write from now on!

Blog Shout Out!

My friend Caroline gave a wedding shout out on her blog a few weeks ago!  Head on over to Pistachio Ice Cream!

http://pistachioicecream.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/orange-you-gonna-get-married/

Fall Decorations!

It's that time of year!  Harvest decor time!  I did not plan to decorate for anything but Christmas but how fun was this?!  While Dan was out of town for his "1st Annual Tom McShane Memorial Brothers Sons Weekend Getaway Retreat" (official name), I went to my parents' house and, well, just hung out!  We watched Bridesmaids (had to buy that on DVD on the way there), ran some errands, ate at IHOP for breakfast and then stopped at the nursery and found some fun fall decorations!  On a budget of $20, a cute little display was born on the fly!  You should've seen Dan's face when I drove in the driveway with these cornhusks practically sticking out the back! :)

Fall Season Preview

Like many of our favorite shows this fall, we are also starting a season of house projects!  Just to get you all excited (and hold ourselves accountable), here is a snapshot of our dream to do list for the next several months:

1.   Paint insides of both linen closets and hall bath shelving, reorganize, line drawers and shelves

2.   Paint entire basement including bathroom (stay tuned for the color!)

3.   Hang wedding pictures on canvas frames (1 or 2)

4.   Clean out storage room and wedding room (sell, donate, toss)

5.   Order curtains for front picture window

6.   Hem curtains on sliding door or get new ones

7.   Add curtain for small kitchen window

8.  Back splash tiling in kitchen

9.  Replace hall bath towel rod

10.  Re-paint upstairs hallway and hang pictures on wall

11.   Hang frames and bulletin boards in office-figure out desk situation

12.  Hang curtains in master bedroom

13.  Replace bedroom doors downstairs

14. Hang curtains in guest room

15.  Clean out garage and organize shelves (label paint cans)

16.  Add screen to hall bath window

Sound good?!  Everybody on board?!  Has anyone ever custom built anything or know someone who does?  Has anyone ever done a tile backsplash on their own?

Honeymoon Preview!

Dan and I had an amazing time in Rivera Maya, Mexico at the Barcelo Resort!  (all-inclusive I might add).  It was just so relaxing....and also weird to relax!  It had been so long since we had done absolutely nothing!  The past 16+ months have been insane, not to mention the past recent month alone!  So there were many moments of just realizing what all had happened and that we were on the beach just enjoying each other's company.  We both definitely needed it! Here are some highlights and some of my favorite photos from the trip (PS-do you know how hard it is to get a picture together when you don't know anyone around you and no one speaks English?! :)



Some of our favorite memories are:

1. When the concierge called our hotel room and I answered.  He asked me if my parents were there!  I need to practice my adult voice I guess!

2. Going to the Hibachi grill 2 nights because we loved it so much!

3. Dan climbing a palm tree to get a coconut.

4. Snorkeling and kayaking!

5. Almost every night we went to the hotel outdoor theater to see the different shows that were playing.  Each day, the hotel hung a poster to let everyone know what the show was that night.  We saw the poster that read "Perros y Gatos" (meaning "Dogs and Cats") and it had little pictures of dogs and cats!  I said, "Dan!  I really want to see that!!"  He was not surprised since it involved what we assumed to be little dogs doing tricks.  That whole day I even kept talking about the show and how I hope the Mexican people are really nice to the doggies.  When we got to the theater, we got some drinks and instead of sitting at the bar like we had been every night before, we decided to sit really close to the stage so that, you guessed it, Natalie could see the little doggies doing their tricks.  Not shortly after we sat down, a person with the show approached us and asked us if we could participate in a game.  We said, sure, thinking it was a little pre-show thing, what the heck, why not.  So we are called onto stage with 3 other couples (one from Seattle, one from Canada, one from Argentina).  We start to play a game on stage where Dan has to sing into the microphone until he runs out of breath and I had to jump rope as fast as I could until he was done and whichever couple got the most jumps won!  Well, I did get first place in jump roping annually in our elementrary school "play day" so I knew it was in the bag.  And we did win!  But, little did we know, there were more games and this WAS the show!  We were on the "Gattos" team (us and one other couple) and the other two couples were on the "Perros" team!  We thought, no way!  So, we were on stage for about an hour and a half in the heat and under hot lights and never saw any cats or dogs doing tricks!!  The only people doing tricks were us!  After the jump rope game, we had to play a celebrity guessing game that involved running as fast as you could to yell which celebrity was on the big screen.  Following this was a dancing contest where Dan and I did everything from the lawn mower to the fisherman catching the fish move.  After this, Dan had to sit on a chair while I had to run at full speed toward him with a balloon and pop it on him any way I could three times!  What a circus!  Definitely a great memory though!  Wow, sorry for the length of this one!

6. Eating, drinking and re-living the wedding day!

We Did It!

We got married!!!!!!

September 10, 2011 actually came!!!

I just can't believe that it happened and that it was even more than I had imagined in my head!  I still am not sure who reads this blog...maybe some girlfriends (Tiffany, Molly, Caroline), Aunt Becky, Jean Erath, my mom and Dan's mom...and that might be it! :)  But here's a huge shout out to you guys and thank you to anyone else for coming to our wedding and making it special!

This is one of my favorites:

Invitations!

Our wedding photographer took this amazing picture of our invitations!!  Thanks AJ!



Mudroom Wall

I wouldn't say this boring beige wall necessarily needed a "facelift"...maybe just some spunk!  After many swatches hanging on the wall and walking past them everyday, we both decided on Behr's "Grand Rapids".  It looked a bit dark on the swatch but I really didn't want a "teeny-bopper" turquoise vibe goin' on...

"Honey...I'm home...blah, blah, blah, here's my boring mudroom wall...blah."

And so it began...the process to go from: "Honey, I'm home...(head down, scuffling feet, frown)" to "WHOA!  Honey!  I am SO home now!  Woo hoo!"

After painting the wall, we ordered the wall quote we had been eyeing for quite some time.  After finding a couple coupons and a week later, it arrived!!  Then the hesitation of putting the quote on the wall began.  Neither one of us wanted to start it because we were so nervous!  The entire quote was separated into 3 different pieces so each piece had to be perfectly placed on the wall each time-centered, leveled, lined up with the previous sentence, and the drama goes on and on!  In the midst of spontaneous arguments, sweat and frustration, we finally got it all up!  It took 3 days and a lot of muscle! 

We're smiling for the camera but were not very happy.  This project was kind of a nightmare!  It's hard to explain but first you have to place the word section on the table and rub the letters to make sure they stick to the transfer paper and not the backing paper.  Then when we started to peel off the backing paper, a lot of letters were just not sticking to the transfer paper still.  So, eventually, we found a system where I rub all the letters, then Dan rubs all the letters.  Then we pull the backing off while still on the table to catch any letters that didn't make it.  Then center it on the wall and level it.  THEN!  We started to rub the letters onto the wall, one time for me, one time for Dan.  Then we peeled off the transfer paper and had to make sure each letter stuck to the wall as the paper was pulled back.  PHEW!  So dramatic!!

Finally done and we love it!  BARELY worth it but now it is our favorite part of the whole house!

All That Glitters!!

Thank you to all the girls for such a special bachelorette party!  I had the time of my life!!



TEXAS Trip!

We had such a great time seeing everyone in Texas!  From having a "mini wedding" with my Grandparents, to seeing the JFK Museum, to dinner with my Dad, to sailing on Lake Ray Hubbard, to enduring the HEAT...we had a busy 5 days!

My mom's friend Cindy picked us up at the airport and greeted Dan with some Texas shaped tortilla chips and salsa...YUM!

That night, my mom got us a sailing trip on Lake Ray Hubbard!  We were staying in Rockwall for the week so this was a nice relaxing treat!!

We walked around by the harbor and listened to a live band the first night.  Such a fun little area!

The next day, we stopped by my Grandparents house so Dan could meet them!  Then we went to the JFK museum.  I hadn't been there since maybe the middle school days so it was really cool!  Dan really enjoyed it!

Above: Me and Dan with Grandaddy

This is me standing on the X where JFK was shot:

Then we had a mini wedding with my Grandparents and some of the neighbors!  We hand delivered their wedding invitation, ate wedding cookies and took pictures! 

Dan and my mom had to get a pic in my Grandparent's front yard.  Dan actually doesn't look that hot!

Then we went to dinner with my Daddy and Linda and my cousin Brett and his new wife Julie!  We went to Gloria's for some authentic Tex Mex!

And then the next day, we got to meet my stepsister, Taryn's, new twin boys!

Busy but fun trip to Texas!! :)

And They're Off!!

After all the days and hours of preparation, the wedding invitations have been sent!  Thank you to all the girls who helped on Crafts Night, thank you to Caroline who helped assemble for almost 5 hours, thank you to Roger and my mom for their help stuffing, licking and taping and thank you to Deb for putting postage stamps on all of them and helping me hand cancel them at the post office!  Also, thank you to Dan for being the manager of the spreadsheet, also being a "stuffer" and helping to track down everyone's addresses! YAY!!  Thank you!!

This time we hand cancelled and mailed all of them in Lake Elmo since we were headed to a bridal shower for one of Dan's cousins in Hudson and also needed to stop in Stillwater to pick up one more dress!  Thank you to Diane at the Lake Elmo post office for letting us do this and for making sure they were all perfectly safe! :)

We can't wait to get our first RSVP cards!!  :)

Our 4th of July Project

While others were boating, swimming, drinking and grilling, Dan and I decided to landscape our front lawn!  I mean, what a great idea!  It'll just be a quick project...plant a few things...done!  Right?!  NO.  This was a 2 full day project and we are feelin' the pain right now for the second night in a row.  Let me take you on a little journey...

Above is what our front path looked like before we attacked!  As you can see, well, there's nothing to see except stupid old weeds!  There were 3 lily plants there, which was good!  But it definitely needed something!  I can't tell you how much I've learned since starting this but gardening can be really fun! 

The story: So, of course, I didn't know what to plant or how to do it.  I asked my co-workers, friends, mom, and 3 Home Depot nursery people.  I wanted to plant Hostas because my online research told me these were good "beginner plants".  Key word is totally: "Beginner" and that is totally me!  After looking around at Home Depot and analyzing how much sun our front yard actually got in one day, I decided Hostas would be good.  I measured out the bed along the path and it was 33 feet long.  I figured the plants should be planted every 2-3 feet so we would need 11-12 Hostas. We were just about to plan on buying all the plants in time for the weekend, when our next door neighbor posted a "Plant Sale".  Lo and behold, sitting on her lawn were 12 Hostas for sale.  Dan had met these neighbors briefly while mowing the lawn but I had never met them!  So, Saturday morning we went over there and rang the doorbell.  Jan and Dave were so thrilled to meet us and Jan is a HUGE gardener (which you can definitely tell by her yard!).  We asked if we could buy the rest of her plants and she gave us the "Good Neighbor" discount!  (now we really have to prove that we're good neighbors!)  BUT!  Not only did they sell us the plants, Jan could tell I had no idea what I was doing and took me under her gardening wing!  She came up to the house, looked at the situation and approved that Hostas were a good choice.  She told me what top soil to get and what kind of mulch.  She asked me "So, do you have a shovel?"  I said, "No."  She said, "Do you have gloves?"  I said, "No."  She said, "Do you have a wheel barrow?"  I said, "No."  I told her, we didn't own anything but a 2 gallon yellow bucket!!  I explained that we have a wedding registry and were trying to hold out!  She took me back to her house and gave me ALL of her supplies and more!  I couldn't believe it!  I couldn't thank her enough!  So, we started.  Below is a picture of what I accomplished on Day One.  (while Dan was golfing, I might add :)

I think I filled a whole wheel barrow with rocks!  And this is when my sunburn started...

The next day, we kept workin' and started digging holes:

We were exhausted!!!!!!!!!

Finally, they were all planted!  Dan put in new mulch!

As if the Hostas weren't enough, we I decided to plant some annuals in the garden bed below the picture window by the big lily plants.  We planted 62 flowers!!!!!!!!!

(and did new mulch AGAIN)

So, it's finished!  And we even added solar lights!  So far, the plants and flowers are staying alive so let's hope it stays that way!!  And the lily plants bloomed!  It was almost like they were just happier with their water and new mulch and pretty flowers around them :)