Fun in the big city

You'd think that by living with your best friend that after awhile you'd get sick of seeing them every day, but it's the exact opposite with Megan and I!!! It seems like we're both waaay too busy these days and we hardly gotten to hang out and just have a girl's night since I've moved in. Well, we were both feeling a bit past due and made a date on Saturday this past weekend.

Now if you lived in St. Cloud, MN you'd understand why we felt the extreme need to drive an hour and 20 minutes to find some form of decent entertainment! I put myself in charge of deciding where to go and what to do. I took this responsibility very seriously since I knew just how much we both really needed this night out. After doing a bit of research and googling my little tush off, I came up with a few ideas that sounded like a promising evening.

It's never fun when you know everything that you're going to be doing so I made it all a surprise for her. I told her to dress warm, cute, yet comfortable. That's the only hint she was given, and she was probably about as clueless as you are as to what we were doing (unless you read ahead and cheated, then that doesn't count). Our driving directions led us to Point A: The Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis. It's a very rustic, yet casual brewery that had a large bar area and another decent size restaurant area. The prices were very reasonable and the food was even better. We both ordered sandwiches that were waaay too big for our little stomachs to finish, and a beer/cider sampler that tasted amazing! I told her to save a little room for the next spot

Point B: Le Meridian Chambers. Out the back entrance of the building was their little winter wonderland covered in piles of fluffy snow, beautiful hanging lights, a nice big fire, and a bar made entirely out of ice! It was one of the funnest times I've ever had in the cold. The bartender was awesome and even let us take a few pics behind the bar and behind the ice sculpture off to the side. We sipped on yummy chocolate coffee flavored grey goose martinis while chatting with our neighbors around the fire. Unfortunately, dressing cute and staying warm don't always go hand-in-hand in Minnesota in the middle of JANUARY!!!! Either way, we both had a ton of fun and got to spend some much needed girls time together :)

The next day I was back in the cities to babysit for my cousin's absolutely adorable daughter, Ari. She was the best little girl anyone could ask for to care for. She is such a little ham! I got to spend some time catching up with my oldest cousin on my mom's side who I haven't seen in over 6 months! She's an amazing mom and definitely someone that I have always looked up to. Although there's about 5 or 6 years difference between us, it's nice to know that we still have some things in common other than our crazy parents! I can only hope that when things get tough, I can be as strong of a fighter in my life as she is in her's. I'll have to add pictures later, but until then, stay safe, happy, healthy, and warm in this ridiculously cold weather!!!!

What a weekend!

This past weekend was absolutely crazy! It started early on Thursday morning when I dropped Megan and Wade off at the airport for her brother's wedding in Mexico. Then did lots of errands, worked, packed for the weekend, and took care of my fur-nieces and nephews.

Friday I got up early again, worked til noon, ran some more errands, then headed to Hutch for my amazing friend's wedding. We had the rehearsal, then dinner, then had one of the other bridesmaids paint me a french manicure after everyone had left. I was hoping to get some sleep that night, but I ended up going out with my sister, brother-in-law, and some of her crazy friends to the bar and was up a lot later than expected. It was a great night, well, except for the ridiculously disgusting shot. YUCK!

Saturday I woke up feeling like death (not from the alcohol though) so I popped a few vitamin C tablets and asprin and began working on my hair. I was on a budget this weekend and I think I did a pretty good job! Only spent $20 the entire weekend for gas to get me there and back :) My hair turned out a lot better than I had expected it to. I grabbed my bags and my dress and headed out the door.....only to remember that I forgot my earings and had to turn around two miles down the road and go back to get them. I felt like I would have lost my butt if it wasn't attatched that day because later I forgot my strapless bra too! The wedding went off without a glitch, mostly, and Nicole was the most beautiful bride! Blake made all of us girls cry when he got a little teary eyed as she was walking down the isle to meet him. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen from him. They're one couple that were truly made for each other. I love them both so much and I wish nothing but the best for them in the future together. The weather was nice (for January) the food was great, the reception was a blast, and the drinks were free! It couldn't have been any better.

On a more awkward note, both me and my ex-fiance were in the wedding party and made for an interesting night. We pretty much avoided each other the entire time and it seemed to work out great...until the reception. He had his date with him and boy was he plastered! Every time I looked around the room to find Nicole or one of the other girls, he was literally RIGHT there and was constantly making out with her. A little too much pda. It kind of made me nauseous. Luckily, I had my little brother there as my date to help me feel not so left out since Bryan wasn't able to make it. It definitely helped, but it made me miss Bryan even more.

It's now been over a month since I left Cali and I have no clue where the time has gone. On one hand, I'm so excited that the time is going fast so that way I can see him sooner. On the other hand, it means that I have that much less time to spend with my friends and family before I have to move again, and this time it'll be awhile before I get to come back. So I guess that means that I've got lots to keep myself busy with, including taking my final 2 classes for the semester so that I can GRADUATE!!!! We'll see how it goes, but until then, I hope everyone's spending as much time with the ones that really mean the most to them. :)

It's a new day, and year!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

The day started out bright and sunny, but now it's freezingly cold and very windy! Dispite the weather, I've started my new year on a great note...NO HANGOVER lol! I had a great evening with some of my favorite people, the very soon to be Mr. & Mrs. Blake and Nicole Larson. They are getting married a week from today. I'm very excited to be a part of their wedding and very special day as one of her bridesmaids. It'll be an interesting wedding to say the least as one of Blakes' groomsmen is my ex-fiance :/. This will definitely be a test for one of my new years resolution: be an overall more positive person. I've been known to let things get to me, and to see the down side of situations more often than the good. I began working on changing this as of 8:30 this morning so I've got a pretty good start.

Some of my other new years resolutions are:
-become more confident
-start and maintain a regular work out schedule
-start saving as much as possible
-take better care of my body
-deal with things as they come along, don't let them build up
-find a boot to kick my butt into gear so I stop procrastinating!

Of course none of these things are exactly measurable to see if I'm actually getting anywhere with them so I've got to make them a little bit more descriptive. We'll see how they go, but I'm going to give an honest effort for each and every one of them. I'm curious as to what other people have for their new years resolutions. What did you put down for yours?