not good

I think these two images speak for themselves...

No one wants to see this forecast with less than 48 hours until their departure to sunny fun! I'm trying to think of all the positives.

1.) At least this storm hasn't hit us out of the blue. I have time to prepare myself for any bad news about flight schedules.
2.) We live in ND where storms are normal. We have plows! And people know how to function through weather like this.
3.) I have had horrible flights lately - it is my turn for things to go my way. :-)
4.) We purchased trip insurance for this very reason. I have the entire contract (20 pages) printed out and phone numbers ready.
5.) My GIS field lab on Friday has been rescheduled due to the weather. This is really good because I am not sure I could have made up this lab's field work.
6.) We are now even more grateful for our Florida vacay.
7.) Jim Cantore is in Duluth. However, during his report from Duluth he specifically talks about our little neck of the woods...

Ok, I think I have tricked myself into thinking this will all work out and everything will be just fine! :-) Positive vibes!!

Side note: Kyle taught me about the Jim Cantore factor. If Jim Cantore, from the weather channel, is in your town it is not good news! Jim's not usually in a location with desirable weather conditions. Think of those images during hurricane season where Jim is standing in the rain and roofs are flying straight toward him...!!!

perfectly stated

A few people have already seen this picture but I had to put it on here...

Dylan took this picture last week with his cell phone while driving for work. He titled it, I found the middle of nowhere. I think it is absolutely perfect!

He has driven past this sign and all around this area for 6 years and never realized how removed from everything it truly is. And I completely understand. I try to visualize the remoteness of this picture from an outsiders perspective and it just makes me shake my head with disbelief and confusion...

If there were any questions as to why we are so excited for Florida this picture should answer all of those questions! :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

an easy way to do something good everyday

Everyone likes to do their part (hopefully!). There are so many ways to give these days. And so many people and programs need support.

I think I have found the easiest way ever to give. Just use GoodSearch.com whenever you need to search the internet. It is just like google but with every search a penny is donated to an organization/program/project. You can select a specific organization or GoodSearch will give the money to the 'charity of the day'. It is super easy and the pennies really do add up! I know by seeing the amount raised for my chosen non-profit - our local animal shelter.

The next two websites are just about as easy too. They are Free Kibble and Free KibbleKat. Each day you answer a fun trivia question about dogs and cats and respectively 10 pieces of dog or cat food are donated. Again it doesn't sound like much but the 10 pieces add up fast. The best part - a 12 year old girl started both websites to feed animals at her local shelter and it has become a nationwide program!

Do you see my trend - I have such a weakness for animals in need. So these websites are something simple I can do everyday to help out.

Just a thought to pass on...

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Happy Birthday Kyle!

I am so thankful that you are my brother. You have influenced my life from the very beginning and I couldn't have asked for a better big brother. I love everything about you – even the stuff that drives me crazy! You are the best husband and father to your little family and nothing makes me happier than to see your joy of Miranda and Grace. Thanks for being such a great person. I love and miss you.

But enough of the sappy stuff. I want to take you down memory lane of our years growing up together. So on your birthday I want to thank you for always being that outstanding big brother.

The younger years:
Thank you for body slamming me for no apparent reason.

Thank you for whipping me with that stupid spikey plant in the front yard.

Thank you for rocking the mini van (while mom ran into the store) so violently I really believed it would flip. Or telling me you were going to drive off at the age of 12.

Thank you for always following through on your promise that you would hit me if I didn’t get away from you. Every time you committed.

Thank you for all those wonderful games of Monopoly. I refuse to play that game to this day.

Thank you for telling me I was switched at birth in the hospital and that Mom and Dad weren’t my Mom and Dad.

Thank you for taking me on a bike ride down Snyder Avenue’s hill at the tender age of 5. Narrow sidewalk, busy street, big hill, brick wall along the sidewalk and a 5 year old who just learned to ride a bike do not make for the best scenario. That was fun!

Thank you for throwing a baseball as hard as you possibly could and then yelling at me if I didn’t catch it with my mitt directly in front of my face.

Those are all such great memories for me. When we were younger you definitely inflicted a lot of pain; however, as we grew older you definitely saved me from a lot of pain (and trouble). You were always teaching me life lessons – who knew?!?

The middle years:
Thank you for throwing a party and then vacuuming the stairs the wrong way. You were so busted. Thanks though - I never vacuumed after a party.

Thank you for fainting in church because you were sick from the night before. I really thought you were dying.

Thank you for dry-ice-bombing the rich neighborhood and getting caught because of Rusty. You taught me to have fun but to keep your distance from the loose cannon friends during those fun times.

Thank you for falling down the stairs at Kevin’s house and breaking your collarbone. You taught me to think of better stories.

Thank you for drinking out of Dad’s liquor cabinet. I thought that those few bottles were for show but oh no we learned differently when you decided to sneak a little!

Thank you for stealing all of my babysitting money. At least sometimes you left an I-O-U note. Those have never been paid by the way. If you lived nearby I would hide my change jar.

Thank you for being a B or C squad athlete. Mom and Dad never paid for me to be on a traveling team because you never were on a traveling team. But you sucked and I was good. I plan to handle this differently with my children. :-)

And for some reason I truly do love you and miss you! I hope you have a wonderful birthday. Thanks for being my brother. I love you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!

kelli cooks

Make this Parmesan Crusted Chicken recipe. Don't ask questions. Just follow the simple directions and make it. It is very tasty.

photo from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

I was even the one who cooked the meal - the entire meal! Now if I can make something it must be fool proof.

I was so Betty Homemaker on Sunday. I also made turkey sausage and mushroom quiche for brunch! I can't find the quiche recipe online now, but I will have to post it because it too was fool proof and tasty.

Kelli's Recipe Notes: Nothing in our house is the full fat version. I used reduced fat mayo and it was delicious. Do not add ANY salt - maybe change out the garlic salt for garlic powder. I also didn't have fresh herbs and I didn't know about the frozen herbs.

in two fridays

6 a.m. will be the best - unlike this Friday at 6 a.m.

I will get to try more of these types of photos.

I only had my camera for a week before this picture. Hopefully I have learned something in a year. However, there haven't been too many beach silhouette opportunities since then!!

I will look at these in person. Not just as our desktop background picture.

Dylan will say this to me! He knows I love this more than anything. :)

And then we will spend the rest of the day with this little 1 year old!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

the 'A' word - adoption

I don't know who reads this blog - if anyone - but it is obvious what types of blogs I read. I read a lot of adoption blogs. For the most part the families I follow along with are nothing like Dylan and me. At this point in our life.

So why do I read these blogs...

I have a few things in my life that I truly feel passionate about. Adoption is on the top of that list. I feel adoption in my heart so strongly. However, I am not the type of person to shout my beliefs from the mountain tops so at this point in my life my thoughts/desires about adoption are mostly internalized.

When I first started reading adoption and family blogs I knew very little about adoption. I thought I knew, but in reality I had no idea. I have learned so much about the process of adoption. Not the paper process, but the real life process. The joys and the PAIN.

I do not feel comfortable enough or know enough about adoption to openly talk about it. I do not have the personal experience of adoption so how can I really act like I have any idea of what it is all about. My only connections are blogs and a few distant family friends. Dylan and I are far removed from even the beginning stages.

I do know that I can not stand people's ignorance about adoption. It is the one adoption topic where I have no problem speaking my mind! The ignorance I see and hear greatly upsets me. I even have family members who honestly do not get it. At all. Almost racist like. It is painful.

Some of the question and comments I hear are ridiculous to me. "Don't you want to know what your child would look like?" I honestly do not have that desire one bit. An adoptive child is my child - that is what my child looks like! I do not care who's eyes or who's smile.

"Why do you want someone else's kid?" To me, if that kid is my kid he/she was always meant to be my kid. "Why don't you adopt within the US?" Sure, I will, that is an option. I do not care about where the child was born. Like I said, that particular child that becomes our child was always meant to be our child. Our family will be made of God one way or the other!

I do not know how Dylan's and my life will play out. We don't have that magical crystal ball (oh goodness do I wish we did sometimes!). I do not know how or when our children will come into our lives or if we will be fortunate enough to experience adoption.

But, I am so thankful for the community of blogging adoptive families. They are my connection and my resource to a world I want in my life. I am so grateful to have found each blog I have listed as a favorite. Each family is different and real. I have learned so much about the world, about others and about myself by following along with their daily adventures. And each day I realize more and more my heart's pull toward adoption. Thank you families.


This post was very personal for me. However, I had to write it because I wonder what the few people who do read this blog think when they see a list of favorites full of adoptive family blogs! :-) It also felt great to shout my thoughts from this mountain top!

i got burned

and zapped. Zapped really good.

Yesterday morning while getting ready for work something happened to my blowdryer. Nothing was out of the ordinary of my morning routine so I have no idea what happened. All of the sudden I felt pain in my arm, heard a loud crackling noise and then I smelled electrical burning stuff.

Honestly the first few moments I thought it was Dylan playing a joke on me. I started screaming because I thought the joke was going to far - it was painful! When I realized what was happening it was kinda scary. :-)

After I accessed that I was okay my vanity instantly took over. The thoughts in my head: Is that smell burned hair? Is my hair okay? I can't see the back of my head, I need a mirror, is my hair okay?

I was so relieved that the smell was electrical stuff inside the blowdryer and that my hair was spared. I only could have burned down the house or possibly been really hurt - but my hair was okay! :-) I am not so proud of the thoughts I had immediately following my little blowdryer incident.

Silliest of all, we just had electrical training last week at work! I learned all about major electrical safety and also about the minor at home stuff like Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters! Who knew all this would come into play just a few days later.

I'm only documenting this little incident because I want to know the date my new blowdryer was purchased. I'm guessing my blowdryer lasted about 10 years. Probably not the smartest idea to test how long a small electrical device will last just mere inches from your head...

free entertainment

It has been a couple days so I guess its time for another post about the dogs! (sarcasm) Without any kids they are our entertainment!

I am so glad I was able to get this game of theirs on video (blackberry video). Lizzie and Meeka play this little game pretty often. Like in this video, it is fun at first but after the fifth time in gets annoying and loud.

Supposedly withing a couple years all of Lizzie's teeth are going to fall out (according to our vet - just another wonderful trait of her breed!) so they won't be able to play like this forever. Lizzie growls the entire time and acts so tough. In reality, Meeka is in complete control and can take the ball at any moment if she really wanted.

This video goes on for 2 minutes but they could have played much longer. They took a short break and started all over. 10 minutes after this video they were still playing with Meeka pulling Lizzie around following me. Like I said, annoying and loud!

The clicking noise in the video is Lizzie trying to get some traction on the hard wood floors. The loud noise is Lizzie growling - the entire time. Usually I laugh when Lizzie jumps on the dog pillows and is pulled along, but in this video I realized how much Lizzie whips her little body around. Too funny.

thankful for junk tv

I watch junk tv. Not a lot, but a little junk tv is too much. It is a weakness. 95% of the junk tv I watch is DVR'ed so I that I can watch it while Dylan is out of town or out of the house. Dylan HATES my junk tv and he tells me this every time he catches a glimpse of it. Junk tv makes Dylan sick - sick to think people actually act like that.

I usually use two different excuses as to why I watch junk tv. 1.) It makes me feel connected to the world outside of our little world. Yes, this is a stupid excuse but it is true. I watch what people are wearing, how their hair is styled, what foods they are eating, their activities, types of exercise, etc. We live soooo far removed from any sense of style or new happening things. Sushi is still a new concept here for Pete's sake!!

And 2.) It makes me grateful and appreciative that we do live in our simple little world up north. I watch the people be so mean to one another. I watch as their world revolves around material possessions. I watch the bratty kids who have no idea what is going on throughout the world. It also makes me sick - but then so ever grateful for my simple life!

The other night I watched an episode of Real Housewives of Orange County. One of the housewife's story was about finding a new husband. This time around she was going to find someone who truly loved her, loved spending time with her and just someone who cared about her. Sure she had a huge house, nice cars, beautiful kids but she had never been loved by her husband. It was so sad to me yet at the same time it made me reflect and realize how blessed I am to be married to Dylan.

So there I am sitting on my couch watching junk tv and thanking God for my husband! Not just thanking God but in a deep thoughtful prayer to God for my husband. All because of junk tv!!!

- Did I mention this was also the day Dylan surprised me with grocery store flowers (my favorite) at work or that when I was changing for the gym after work I found a nice card and new perfume (that I have wanted but hadn't said anything) hidden in my drawer? Talk about the best husband. I felt so loved - not because of the gifts but the thoughtfulness of it all. -

Well Dylan is off fishing for a couple days while I get ready for a week of midterms and presentations. This also means I will being watching a few more episodes of The Hills, Real Housewives and whatever else is on Bravo. By the time Dylan arrives home on Sunday I will probably have cried 5 times about how much I love him and/or how grateful I am for him. I may also be sporting a new outfit I put together thanks in part to Whitney Port.

Happy Friday!

edited: I deleted the picture of Dylan. It was over saturated and he was wearing his old sunglasses. I don't like his old sunglasses - he is much more steezy now. This picture was taken by mistake with my old camera. I like the eerie effect.

dreaming of these types of fishing days soon!!!