Christmas Activities

Here are some pics of our recent Christmas activities!

On a tractor ride through the apple orchard to see the holiday lights. It was about 18-20 degrees at this point and quite windy. Burr!
Inside the main building at the apple orchard

Us with Becky & Brendan after the tractor ride
My 2nd grade faith formation class making Christmas crafts :)

Making gingerbread houses with our young adults group

Die Hard Christmas Shopper

Well I don't want to be too annoying with a lot of posts about the weather - so I'll incorporate into a story. :)

So I went and did all my Christmas shopping last night! I went to three different places, lugged around tons of bags, and crossed items off my list left and right. Good times! Until I had to go outside to my car.......holy buckets it was COLD yesterday! We had a massive front come in on Sunday - probably the same one that made Texas cold. It dropped about 35 degrees in a matter of hours - crazy! Except when you are starting at 36 degrees, you do the math! Then yesterday was the coldest...our high in the Metro only got to -1!! THE HIGH! MINUS one! Now let's add on the wind chill - because the wind WAS blowing all day and it was around -20. When I got home from Christmas shopping at 8:30 last night, the temp was -9! No wonder I was freezing my tail off!

Everyone asks me what it feels like and it is kind of hard to figure out what to say. So let's just say that once you hit the low single digits or lower, the cold stays super cold but the sharpness to it gets worse. It is a little more bearable if the air is totally still. But if the air moves the slightest bit, BURR. When I first walked into a store, I walked past a mirror and thought I saw Rudolph. But no, it was just me with my bright red nose! (hehe) But you just walk fast and get to where you are going quick! Poor Mr. Zippy too - he is not a fan of these temps and makes all kind of funny noises when I turn him on. And you should hear our garage door in the mornings when it is raising! It's cracks and groans all over the place!

So if you are receiving a Christmas gift from the Z's - know that I literally walked through snow and ice and subzero temperatures to get it! :) (it's ok, you're all worth it)

Let the countdown to warm weather in Texas begin!

Getting ready for Christmas

Well, I finally got in the holiday spirit. Last week, Michael was out of town all week and he will be gone the majority of the next couple of weeks too with work stuff. And since we are leaving on the 19th for Christmas in Texas, I was debating on whether it would be worth it to even decorate the house for Christmas (I know bah-hum-bug). Once Michael got home though, it was much easier to get in the Christmas spirit - plus it snowed on and off all weekend, so that helped too. :) So last night we went to a Christmas dinner at Becky's and then we spent today decorating our house for the holidays!

We decided to just do a little tabletop tree this year since we (mainly I) will only be here another couple of weeks to enjoy it. It's pretty though - it at leasts makes the upstairs more festive.

Here is a little video (pardon Michael's singing and rough camera angles) of us getting ready for Christmas in our place! Also, here's a few pics too of a little walk we took in the neighborhood to get some snow pics!

View from our bedroom

Burr - it was 14 degrees and a bit breezy when we took our outside pics!

Turkey Day in Texas

Last weekend was such a blast. We got to Texas Tuesday night. We actually volunteered to take a later flight because ours was oversold. So in exchange, we got two discount Continental vouchers and got upgraded to first class for the next flight out - sweet! It was fun...it was a small plane though so we didn't feel super first class. But it was nice to not sit in "steerage" for once. hehe And yes we enjoyed the free cocktails.

We stayed with Michael's sister Lauren and her husband Luke for the night and then headed to Temple the next morning. It was great to see all of Michael's family, including a couple of the grandparents. We had a yummy Thanksgiving feast with all the fixins - Mmmm!! The weather was just heavenly - in the low 70s...ahhhhhhhhhh (and for the record, it is 10 degrees outside and windy as I type this, ug)! After the big feast, we played all kinds of board games - so fun! It was nice to know that when we were sad to leave, we knew we would be back in 3 weeks for Christmas. And yes we were able to fit in Chickfila and Casa Ole while we were there!

Saturday morning, we headed back to Houston for the baptism of our new Godson Luke! He is the son of our great friends Stephanie & Ryan who we know from A&M. It was such a special day. Little Luke cried during the baptism but I told Steph I thought it was cute because it just meant he was aware of what was going on and could enjoy all that Holy Spirit coming down on him! :) After the baptism reception, we got to spend the rest of the day with them and their sweet little family. It was so wonderful to just sit and talk like the old days. Then we went for a yummy dinner to mexican food - real mexican food. Oh yum. As always, it was very hard to leave them but it made me realize just how blessed we are to have them as friends. And yes Ryan, we are still counting on you to find Michael a job to get us back to Houston one day! ;)

Before the baptism - Luke is getting ready!

Meet our new Godson and a new member of the Catholic Church - Luke Michael!

BFF's :)

Time to Give Thanks

Well Michael and I leave for Texas tomorrow night! Can't wait! And as usual, I haven't even started packing and I have 2 loads of laundry going. :\ We will be spending Thanksgiving with Michael's family in Temple this year - so we are looking forward to seeing everyone there! Then, Saturday we will head to Houston for the baptism of our new Godson Luke - baby boy to our friends Stephanie & Ryan!

Anyways, we wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you all have safe travels and have wonderful times with your families!

And as a closing note, just a few things to mention I'm thankful for...

1. God and the opportunity he has given us to live in Minnesota and try new things.
2. My amazing husband who finds a new way to make me laugh every single day.
3. Our incredible families and all their support they have shown us.
4. Our friendships that have grown even stronger with the increased distance.
5. The opportunity and means to be able to travel home for the holidays.
6. Knowing that we will have a nice Thanksgiving dinner to eat this week, followed by some amazing dessert to be baked by Grandma Springer. :)
7. The fact that in the next four days I will be consuming both Chickfila and Casa Ole. (mouth totally watering as I type it) Sorry, i had to add a silly one (yet serious)!

and last but not least....

8. TEXAS and it's 70 degree Thanksgiving weeks. Enough said.

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless!

Fun weekend with the gang

Boy this was one busy weekend! But, it sure was fun!

Friday night after our usual dinner at Big Bowl, we went to our friend Joe's house and played games with him and his girlfriend and our friend Sheena. It was pretty late when we left so we were surprised to open the door and see about 3/4 inch of snow on the ground! Made it a bit tricky since the roads weren't plowed.

Saturday we got up and watched the Casino Royale movie we had DVRd because we went to a matinee showing of the new bond movie with Heather & Jim. Everyone said it is a continuation of the Casino Royale so we wanted to be sure to watch that first. So it was basically a morning/afternoon full of Bond, James Bond. hehe After the movie we headed to mass and then I went to do some early Christmas shopping while Michael watched Tech get stomped by OU (whoop).

Today, we had a tailgating and Vikings party at our place with friends from our church group. There were 8 of us total. Most people came over around 10:30 or 11 and we had official outdoors tailgating (35 degrees) while Michael smoked some delicious ribs and brisket for lunch. Then we moved inside for our lunch while watching the Vikings game. It was very fun and we loved having everyone over. Here are some pics from earlier today:

Michael & Jim throwing the football

What a throw!

Tailgate party at the Z's!

Watching the game! (by the way, I totally fell down the stairs after I took this pic) :\ Apparently I was standing on the second stair taking the pic and not the first. haha

Funny Quote of the Day

“When you talk in your sleep at night, don’t talk so LOUD!” said by Michael to Kyla this morning.

Gas prices

Ok, I just had to blog and say how happy I am about the low gas prices!!! I am amazed that it keeps going down and down!!! The gas station near our townhome is now at $1.84! Wahooey!
Although Michael has a different perspective on things. The other day I excitely pointed to the new lower rate and he just grumbled that it's 25% ethanol now so we aren't receiving as good of quality gas. :\ Then as we were talking about it, he said that he needs gas prices to get back higher (??) because that makes corn prices and other commodities go higher - which is better for his crop insurance program! haha Guess that is what happens when you're married to someone affected by the futures markets! So for his sake, I sarcastically said that I wish it was back to $3.95/gallon. Whatever - I am so relieved it's cheap again!

In other news, it's been cold and windy this week. Freaking burr. I can remember last year that we got to a point to where 30 degrees actually felt warm. So I thought it would be a fairly easy transition back into the cooler weather. Yeah, not so much. It's cold people. The wind chill makes it worse and just takes the breathe out of you. Tonight I was leaving a work event with a coworker and it was so windy, it blew the valet guy's tip money right out of her hand. Which resulted in us chasing it down the sidewalk and picking it out of the bushes. Grr. So just prepare yourselves, the time is rapidly approaching when you all get to listen to me gripe about the cold for the next 6 months. ;)

Nothing new

Nothing too exciting to report. Michael had to go to Illinois for a quick overnight trip Tue-Wed. He went to Peoria, IL on a very small plane and was quite freaked out when the flight attendants made everyone scoot around and sit on the rows of the wings in order to balance the weight of the plane! Eeek!

Work is keeping me quite busy and is getting a bit more challenging - but it's great b/c I love what I'm doing and feel like I'm learning a lot. If anyone ever needs a hotel contract negotiated, I'm your girl!

I finally got a hair cut this week after almost 4 1/2 months! My coworkers told me I looked "sassy" with my new trim. haha Other than that, nothing too exciting. Faith Formation class was fun again last night. The kids continue to bring me so much joy when I see their innocence and perception on life. For all my Catholic friends, I spent last night trying to explain that it wasn't a life sized human Jesus crammed in the tabernacle.

Promotion

Great news - Michael got a promotion last week!

When he started here, his title was "Product Development and Support". While he was doing product development, he created and implemented a crop insurance program for Cargill. While this kept him very busy, he still had a lot of support type of work - pricing out contracts, writing crop reports and commentary, etc.

Well they finally made him full time crop insurance! His new title is "Senior Product Specialist - Crop Insurance"! :) This is great because now he can focus all his time on his crop insurance project, training his agents, etc. Unfortunately, it will mean a lot of traveling for him between now and March. :\ Ug. But regardless, I am so proud of him and thankful he has been blessed with this opportunity!

Election Day

Well today is the day (uggg)! Michael and I went and voted this morning. I worked from home so that we could just go together around 10 am, since Michael had to leave for Des Moines right after voting. Luckily the crowds were down so we walked straight in, registered on the spot, and voted.

So the little old election judge man hands me a big scantron ballot with a pen and points me to the little booth. So I (with my Texan self) have to ask where the machines are that we cast our votes. Yeah, he looked at me a bit odd. He repeated the instructions of "just fill in the oval next to the candiate you're voting for". Then afterwards you stick it into this little machine that sucks it up and reads it. Tricky. It is quite intersting to me though that there are so many different ways of voting in all the different states. I mean get with technology people!

So far, things aren't looking too good (results wise). I'm still praying for a miracle - but if the worst happens, I'll just begin praying for the quickest 4 years of my life and that our country survives. :\

Good Times with the Webbs!

Well my sister Katherine and her family came up last week and stayed until Tuesday - it was so much fun! We had a really great visit with them! I had intended to get pics posted sooner but we had something going on every night this week, so it was a bit busy. So to make up for my long delay, I've downloaded tons of pics from our visit - lots of them of my cute little newphews too. :)

So Kat and Jim got in Thursday night. Michael and I were both off on Friday so we headed to a new apple orchard we had never been too called Minnetonka Orchards. It was a pretty big place with all kinds of fun stuff for kids. It started off pretty cold and cloudy, but by the time we left the sun was out and it felt nice! Jacob loved the apple orchard and all the little kids stuff there....except for the wild turkeys roaming around in the petting zoo area. ;) We picked a peck of apples and enjoyed several tasty ones right off the trees! Jacob was so funny...he was so excited to eat them right after picking them off the tree, that he thought that is what you had to do to every apple you picked! Before we knew it, he had 3 or 4 apples he was trying to eat off of at the same time. :) So, I had to explain to him that you only eat one in your hand and all the others you put in the bag Uncle Michael was holding. hehe

Luke bundled up and ready for the orchard!

Jacob on the tractor at Minnetonka Orchards

Pretty fall colors on the hay ride to the apples

Bundled up on the hay ride!

Jim and Jacob - not too sure about the wild turkey

Me and my little buddy with the miniature horse

Going into the corn maze!

Now that is some tall corn! Jim is 6'4" for a comparison

Which way to go??!

He loved those apples!

Eating yet another apple :)

Saturday, the guys drove to Ames, Iowa - about 3 hours away to watch the Aggies beat the Iowa State Cyclones. While they were there all day, Kat and I took the boys to the Science Museum in downtown St. Paul. Jacob just loved all the hand on stuff they had to do there - especially the Halloween events that let him touch the water from a smokey cauldron and make some "blood" with some glue and food coloring in a baggie. Although he wasn't too happy about his hands being stained red the rest of the day.

Getting ready to leave for the Science Museum!

Watching the smokey cauldron

Playing in the forensics lab

Having fun with my Lukeee after his nap at the Science Musuem ;)

Jacob at the dinosaur exhibit
Jacob took this picture for us!

Sunday after church, we just spent the day at home BBQing and playing games. And get this....it SNOWED for 2 or 3 hours!!!! THe high was 39 so it stuck a few minutes when it was coming down pretty decent, but then it melted very fast. I just don't know about snow on October 24. :\ But it did make a good day for staying insdie and making another yummy homemade apple pie with our fresh apples! Mmm!

Snowy Sunday

Play time in his jammies!

Bath time in Aunt Kyla's bath tub

Monday, we had to work but Kat and Jim got to visit with some of their Edward Jones friends that live in Minnesota. So we finished off their visit on Monday night with a late night of more game playing! Kat and I were a bit rusty on our Pictionary skills, but it was a blast nonetheless!

Good times! :)

Little People

So tonight was our 3rd Faith Formation class that I'm co-teaching at church for 2nd grade. I was so proud that my class remembered what the Holy Trinity was from our lesson 2 weeks ago. My constant repitition in having them say "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit" actually worked! :)

So tonight's lesson was "God the Father" and how he is our father and creator. We were talking about trusting God and I was telling them how God wants to be our friend and he wants us to talk to him, etc. So a little girl named Taylor raises her hand and says "So, how in the world do we talk to God? I have no clue!" So I posed the question to the class and they informed her we do it by praying. So then she wondered out loud how God talks to us in return....then she shared a little story with us: "One day, I heard this voice in my head talking to me! And I didn't know who it was! But it was God! He was talking to me in my head and I heard him!" :) Sweet right? Well then 3 or 4 other students in the circle all start yelling out stories about the voices in their heads too and what they are saying to them, etc. ?? Suddenly I have a group full of 7 year olds talking about the voices they hear in their heads! It really was such a cute moment, but at the same time it was pretty funny. I was just about biting my lip to not laugh. :) It's those little moments like that which come out of nowhere that make me so happy I decided to work with these kids. :)

On a different note....(speaking of little people)...Michael and I have been asked to be Godparents to little Luke Michael - the baby to be born to our great friends Ryan and Stephanie in Houston. We are so honored and humbled by this great priviledge and responsibility! Little Luke will be baptized over Thanksgiving weekend. Please remember Stephanie in your prayers though....she is currently 3 days past her due date with so signs of anything changing soon! (hang in there Steph!) ;) So please pray for her comfort and a safe and healthy delivery of our new Godson!

Speaking of more little people...my sis Katherine and her fam are coming up from Dallas to visit tomorrow night! Wahooey! She has Jacob who is three and little Luke (our other Godson Luke!) who is almost 9 months. Stay tuned for some fun pics!

LIFE

October is designated as Respect Life Month. So I thought I would share some things on the subject that both Michael and I believe very strongly in. I'm not trying to get all political on the blog, but at the same time I feel like we have a duty to stand up for what is right and what we believe in.

We believe as Catholic Christians that EVERY life is an incredible blessing from God - whether it is planned or unplanned. As Christians, it is our duty to make sure that all life is respected and protected. This includes the lives of the unborn babies, elderly people, etc.

I think we are living in a very scary time - we've taken the focus off of God's involvement in new life that is created and have put the focus on what WE want and what works best for our lives. What drives me insane is when people talk about it being a woman's choice of what she wants to do with her body. That is not the issue at all. It's not a matter of choice, it's the fact that the choice KILLS an innocent baby - not to mention the harm it does to the woman's body and spirit as well. It also irritates me to no end to see all these celebrities fighting for the proper treatment of animals, whales, the environment, etc. But where are the people standing up for the rights of the unborn babies - babies that have a beating heart after 18 days of conception.

Some people get angry with God when they see all the horrible things we have to face in today's world: cancer, disease, AIDS, and other incurable illnesses - and people wonder why he allows such things to exist. But perhaps we should consider that it is very possible that the person He created to invent cures for these things was aborted.

When you read in the bible about when Jesus was conceived - who was the first person to recognize Jesus? It was John the Baptist (that was in Elizabeth's womb) who was filled with the Holy Spirit and lept for joy when Mary greeted Elizabeth in order to acknowledge the presence of the Lord. It was an UNBORN baby that first acknowledged the Savior of the World.

In being prolife, it is our duty to defend the beauty of every life in this world - both born and unborn. We must remember that we have a Christian duty as the election approaches to vote in a way that will support the election of a candidate that respects life and will continue the ban on partial birth abortion and continue to fight to end any "rights" to abortion that people have. We must vote for a candidate that will not allow the killing of embryos in order to obtain stem cells for biological research. There are other ways to find these scientific answers - but when we get to the point where we are killing people in order to find cures for others, we are in serious trouble. All issues when considering who to vote for are obviously very important - but the issue of LIFE is one given to us from above that we must protect.

Please join me in prayer that as a country we will regain a proper focus and come to appreciate the gift of life. Below are a few great links in case you would like to read further on the subject:

http://www.prolifeacrossamerica.org/ - Prolife Across America
http://www.nrlc.org/default.html - National Right to Life
http://www.texasrighttolife.com/documents/comparision0909084c.pdf - Where the candidates stand on abortion
http://www.texasrighttolife.com/home.php - Texas Right to Life organization
http://www.mccl.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=183&srcid=-2 - Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life

Autumn is here!

We are having the most gorgeous Fall this year! The trees pretty much hit peak colors this week here in the cities. So this afternoon we drove out and took some pics of all the trees. Some pics are from Michael's drive to visit one of his agents the other day too in southwestern Minnesota. I have to say it really is nice to have 4 distinct seasons! Although I would enjoy Fall even more if it wasn't followed by the dreadful winter season that lasts for 6 months! haha

Enjoy! :)

Video

Please take a few minutes to view this powerful video. It is geared towards the Catholic Church, but I think it is very appropriate for any other denomination since we are all Christians and have a moral responsibility in the upcoming election.

http://www.catholicvote.com/

L&L

This past weekend, we had some new visitors! Michael's sister Lauren and her husband Luke (or L&L as we refer to them!) came up for a long weekend for their first visit to Minnesota! We had a great time with them!

Friday, we just did the touristy stuff in the cities: Mall of America, Cathedral, Cherry and the Spoon. That night we went to a trendy little place downtown called the Local for dinner.

Saturday, we had a fun filled day. We drove up to Duluth and stopped all along the way taking beautiful pics of all the fall colors. We saw Lake Superior and then headed a bit further north to Gooseberry Falls - some beautiful water falls in the middle of a big park/forest area. Then we went to an old famous light house called Split Rock lighthouse...it is on the edge of this really high cliff overlooking Lake Superior. We were there at sunset and it was just gorgeous - a bit chilly, but gorgeous! :)

Sunday, we went to the apple orchard and picked 2 pecks of apples. And as you can guess it - we now have apples coming our of our eyeballs! :) Lauren and I made a yummy homemade apple pie while Michael whipped up some pecan crusted pan fried walleye fish for dinner. YUM! We had a feast! :)

Here are some pics from our fun weekend:

On the drive up to Duluth

L&L in front of Lake Superior

Gooseberry Falls

The pretty falls!

Us having way too much fun with our shadows on the walk back to the car - we laughed so hard doing this...haha (especially since cars were driving by as we were doing it!)

Split Rock Lighthouse

The 4 of us!

Apple Pickers!