Fine As Wine!

As most of you know when Joe and I got married, we decided to have a toast with wine instead of the traditional champagne most weddings tend to have. Instead of having any ordinary wine, we went to Wine Creations here in Duluth and made our own. We chose a sweeter wine, a white Merlot, with a soft taste. It is absolutely wonderful and has only gotten better as it aged. This was our final product. I fell in love with the cobalt blue bottles, which went perfectly with our wedding colors and the rose theme. How can you resist such a beautiful color?!

Since we've been running low on our reserves, I think we have four bottles left out of 60 bottles, we decided to venture back up to Wine Creations and make another batch. This time, we decided on a trying a Riesling, something I am not too sure about, but was willing to try. We chose a Washington Riesling, obviously, based from Washington state. At first when we were making it, I thought it was going to be a little too sweet. But today, we were a little surprised: It tasted absolutely wonderful! Tonight we weren't the only couple up there bottling and making wine, but the Fox 21 News station was also there doing a segment on "A Day in The Life" story of the owners of the facility! They recorded us cleaning and bottling our wine, as well as taping us answering questions about how we got started in "the wine business". It was great and she loved our story, which made me feel even better. So not only did we get our wine, but we are now TV stars! The segment is going to be aired tomorrow night on Fox 21 at 9pm here in Duluth/Superior!

Anyways, we'll be having a wine and cheese party as well! Since our cheese board isn't here yet (I got it from my Pampered Chef party two weeks ago!) we'll be planning it soon. Anyone who is around, even though I know y'all live far away, but you're all welcome to join us! It's great wine, and of course, wonderful company! *S* But if not, you really need to try making your own wine, not only is if fun, but its something you can enjoy with your significant other, and they don't mind it much at all! Plus you get to try different types of wine, to find out what you like and don't. In the end, it is all worth the time and effort. The end result is pleasant and tastefull.

Vacation Ideas Needed

I need some help. Joe and I are trying to plan a trip for the second week in August and are looking at going to Milwaukee for a Brewer's game (I really want to see my man, JJ Hardy!). While we are there, we are hoping to go to Chicago to spend some time as well. If anyone has any good ideas, I'd really appreciate them! Where are not too sure what to do or where to go, so ideas are greatly needed! Please feel free to point them out! The more the merrier! Thanks everyone!

A New Do

After the break-in today, I decided to make a change. I got a hair cut! I decided to try a new do, more so because my hair otherwise just sits there and has no body to it whatsoever! My hairstylist loves it when I show up, because I just let her do what she thinks will look nice. For those who were here for my wedding, she was the one who had done my hair for me!
Hopefully others will like the do! It's a hard thing to see, but I have many layers and even BANGS!! Who would have thought I'd go that route!? Anyways, change is a good thing! And it even fits into a small ponytail for working out! Thank goodness!

An Odd Break In

Last night after I got home from working out, I got a phone call from my friends Andy and Suzanne while I was still in the car. While I was talking, I got out, grabbed my bag from the back seat, LOCKED the doors, and headed into the house. Joe got home later than usual due to a rush at Starbucks. This morning I could hear Joe getting ready for work, making an assortment of noise. Never the less, after he left I fell right back to sleep. At about 8:30 I awoke and got ready for the day. After getting dressed and ate some oatmeal, I headed out to my car. As I started looking a little closer, I noticed some things (paper and an odd object) laying on the floor of my car, NOT where I had placed it. Then I noticed something even odder: the glove box was open. I picked up my phone to talk to Joe and he said he had nothing to do with it. So I started looking at the things in the box and realized the Owner's Manual and my insurance card were missing! Who breaks into a car and steals the Owner's Manual?!? My name badge for work, snowshoes, and money were in my car, but nothing else was taken or touched! I found this to be very odd. So, of course, I called and reported this to the Police, just so they have an idea of what is going on in the area. Ironically, they have had a couple of other reports about break-ins of vehicles. Although, they probably were taking other important objects other than an Owner's Manual! As for now, I'm being super sure things are locked, even if I have to check them fourteen times more than usual!

Working with REALLY Little People!

This week has been an adventure to say the least! But the good news is I get to start working more in the world of infants, and premature infants! It all started on Monday, when I was called into my supervisors office. I was a little worried, more becuase I know things were happening and changing at work. The reason for the visit was to my advantage: I was asked if I'd be interested and willing to start learning and training more up in the Neonatal ICU and the Pediatric floor! I was extatic becuase this was something I'd been hoping to do and explore a little more, even before the job up on the Neuro/Truama floor came about. So of course my answer to this was YES! So, to start that all off, I got go up to the NICU with Gail, the therapist that works up there, and watch and observe her working with of the triplet boys! To me, it is easier to observe and then do, I'm definately more of a hands-on person, I seem to learn more and better that way. Soon enough, I will be able to work there more on my own and hopefully have some courses in dealing with premature infants and being able to recognize when it is appropriate or not to have a therapy session with these tiny individuals. I'm sorta glad I didn't get that position up in neuro at this time becuase had I gotten it, I wouldn't be having this opportunity to work in pediatrics as I orginally had wanted. I guess going with the idea: Good things do happen to those who wait.

Party At My House!

As you all know or have heard the past couple of days has been interesting to say the least. Wednesday night the weather started issuing a Blizzard Advisory for our area and winter weather warnings and watches. Last time this happened, I ended up staying in a hotel in Duluth because I wasn't able to cross that darn bridge. But this time was different. I had to make it home because I was having my Pampered Chef party at my house! I had talked to Michelle, the consultant who had done Rachel's, a co-worker. Michelle lives in Hinckley, MN and I was a little worried she wasn't going to make it up, but at noon Thursday, she decided it was a go and would be here. I was very excited, needless to say! As soon as I was done, early too, on Thursday from work, I rushed home to pick up my mom and run to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for the Creamy One Pot Pasta we were making for dinner.

Well, I seemed to have forgotten how busy the grocery store gets when a winter storm warning occurs! It took us twenty minutes to get through the check-out. You'd think people would have started planning ahead of time since we all know this is what happens when winter is here! Anyways, we made it home in time for Michelle to show up and start the prepping for the party. My mom and mother-in-law, Donna, were helping pick up a few more things and set up others. Before we knew it, it was already 6:30 and people started showing up! The party-goers of the evening consisted of: Rachel (my co-worker), Amber Manion (Mike M.'s wife who is due at the end of the month), her mother-in-law Mary Jo Manion, Carleen B (Joe's parents neighbors), Peggy (Joe's co-worker), Alaina and her daughter Kristin (friends of the Martin family), and Betsy (Joe's god-mother). It was great! I got to show alot of them our house since most of them hadn't been here, ever! Plus, Joe took my dad and his over to Canal Park to check out the amazing waves on the lake and then out to Shammrock for pizza. Keeping them out of the house was the plan, of course, for the girls evening!

The party went very well! We had a great little meal and deserts, as well as people being very interested in ordering items! So far, there were over $900 in sales for the few people that were there. Since the weather wasn't playing with us well, alot of people called and placed order over the phone. I am hoping to get a couple more throughout the week as well. Since I knew Michelle had a ways to drive, we finished things up fairly early around 8pm and she was on the road. Just as she left, it started snowing a little here. I didn't get a call from her until after 10pm that night. It took her almost two hours to get from my house in Superior, to Hinckley, MN! She ended up running into more weather along the way, but did get home safely.

Throughout Thursday night, all you could here was the wind blowing, heavily. I didn't sleep all that well, but at least I got a little. On Friday morning, my parents and Joe were already downstairs watching the news, only to find out we were to get more snow throughout the day. So my parents decided to stay and hang out little more until things settled down. Well, at about 9 AM, our power went out and we were powerless for four hours! We were all wrapped up in blankets and sat around for the morning playing Phase 10 (thanks Jess!). At about 1pm, the power returned and we sat to watch a movie. Unfortunately, everyone else fell asleep while I was stuck watching the movie, The Day After Tomorrow by myself. At about 4:30 or so, we jumped in the car and headed out to Joe's parents house for dinner. Since my parents weren't too eager about jumping in the car quite yet, they stayed the night again. Early Saturday morning, they took off and headed home, Joe went to work at Starbucks, and I returned home to work on school work and to relax without anyone around!