I did it!

I made my first apple pie from the apples we picked at the orchard (see post below)! And it wasn't even a disaster! :) I have to say it turned out really good and I got a big pat on the pack and a "WOW! Great job sweetie!!" from Michael. :)

Now of course I count this as my one apple pie for my lifetime. These things are hard work and it took me MUCH longer than the cookbook said it would! The homemade crust is for the birds and I had a cramp in my hand after peeling 6 cups worth of apples. But hey, it was worth it.

Mmmmm!

Minnesota Apple Harvest

Well we had a slight change of plans for this weekend. My friend Amber wasn't able to come b/c of a sad death of a family friend. :( Please keep her and her family in your prayers. We will find another time soon for Amber to come visit but we both knew it was best for her to stay and be with family.

Today there is a chance to break the record high of 85 degrees! It's really surprising just how warm it is outside! So today, we decided to go enjoy the great weather and headed to the Minnesota Apple Harvest orchard. It was really neat! They had a petting zoo, horseback riding, a store with everything apple, a pumpkin patch area, and of course a HUGE apple orchard filled with dozens of varities of apples I have never heard of! We came home with a "peck" of apples which is about 10 lbs. We bought the Honeycrisp variety for eating and the Harelson variety for baking! I'm going to attempt to bake my first apple pie when I finish on the computer. :)

Pics from our day:

The road that leads up to the orchard.

Entrance - notice the bitten off part of the apple
is the shape of Minnesota. hehe

In line for the tractor ride out to the orchard.

Michael picking Honeycrisp apples.

Me picking Harelson apples for my pie!

Harelson apple tree

Michael with our peck of apples

Tractor ride back

The Overall Geniuses

Right now, Cargill is having their big United Way kick-off. Today they had some games in the atrium where different business units competed and guess what 2 of the 3 BUs were....DSO (my group) and Ag Horizons (Michael's group). :) Michael got "voluntold" to be on his business unit's group. All the teams dressed up so Michael's teams were the "Overall Genuises". So they put on overalls and put on Einstein wigs and glasses to complete the look.

The games consisted of a relay between the team where they competed in 4 different activites: corn shucking, hula hoop, jump rope and carry the egg on a spoon after spinning in circles. Michael got stuck with the jump rope portion and was quite speedy with it. He had to do 30 rotations and would have done it non-stop except for a couple of instances of costume interference. You can see why....

Where's Waldo? :)

Come take a tour!

Ok, so I've finally come to accept the fact that not every person we know and love in Texas will be able to come visit us in Minnesota. Although I am still expecting quite a few of you so get booking those flights! ;) Speaking of which, we are SO excited for my friend Amber from Ft. Worth to come visit this weekend! She arrives tomorrow! We met at A&M and actually haven't seen each other since my wedding, so we are thrilled for this weekend! Check back for pics from our weekend.

Anyways, I finally remembered to take pics of our apartment tonight! I couldn't really capture the whole rooms or size of everything b/c of bad angles. They probably would have come out better too during the day time when it was really bright, but well, you gotta take what you can get. :) So here is where we live:

Here is the front door with kitchen to the left. W&D in doors on left of pic.

This is the office, walking in front door and looking immediately to the left.

This is standing at the dining room area looking to other end of the room.

Another shot - LOOK! Our new recliner!! :)


Guest Bathroom with standup shower


Guest bedroom (hard to capture b/c of wierd angle)


Our bedroom; we do have more furniture in it, just can't see it.

Master bath

Recall! Recall!

Oh boy, how embarassing.

So today, Michael sends an email to 5 people in the Minnesota Aggie Club asking if there are any groups getting together to watch the A&M game this weekend and whether there are other opportunities to meet up with other Minnesotan Aggies. Wahoo! I was thinking "Another way to meet friends! I'm so glad Michael sent that!" So naturally, he copied me on the email as well as the other 5 people. So what do I do??? I accidentally hit reply ALL and say "Good job fella! I hope they respond! It would be great to meet other aggies!" As soon as I hit send, my mouth dropped. Oh no! I just let 5 strangers know I call my husband "fella"! hahaha Ug, I hit recall to hopefully recall the message so they wouldn't see it, but who knows if that function ever really works. oh well, what is done is done.

So I did one massive grocery shopping trip today. I realized it was time when I opened the freezer last night and there were a bag of frozen peas, a box of Weight Watcher fudgecicles and a package of pork chops. And that was it! (oh yeah, an an old freezerburned pork tenderloin that we won't eat, but that doesn't count) So I go, and after $12.00 in coupons and discounts, I still spent $160. eek. I tell you, my buggy was full to the top and it was so heavy the wheels started doing wierd things and it made this wierd groan every time I pushed it. Even the old lady in the grocery scooter in line behind me said "I want to come eat with you! You have some good stuff in there!"

While I was at the grocery store, I realized all little kids are the same. They always want anything in sight while at the store. I kept running into this mom with her little girl that was probably 6-7. On one aisle, the girl ran to the flavored water and pleaded for the flavored water. By the dairy section, she was asking for something else. Then again, by the cheese selection, her mom finally told her "You have already picked out many special treats!", but yet she pleaded "Oh boy, I SURE wish I could have some cheese sticks! (over and over again). Oh it was funny. I'm like "really?? now you want cheese sticks??" blah. What's funny is that I have heard kids plead for things at the grocery store, even in languages I can't understand. I could just tell what they were saying. haha Anyways, I couldn't help but to laugh on the inside as I pushed my overloaded cart away...