41 degrees in February

The twin cities are under a warm spell. It's been great for commuting, walking Penny, and generally avoiding freezing misery. It hasn't been good for winter sports, or winter carnivale in downtown St. Paul. I have heard many a groan that Michigan has received more snow than here. 

So what has been going on in the world of Stephanie and Ryan? Well recently, thanks to a work trip for Ryan, we were able to visit my friend Jessica in New Orleans. Picture above, from left to right are Jessica's cousin, Ryan, and my friend Jessica. This is actually in St. Bernard parish where she works in a charter school. It was great to see outside of the city. We even got to see the ninth ward where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are building crazy beautiful houses where there was so much destruction and death. 

Jessica seems to love it down there but I could never live in that area. There is too much to rebuild. While they sure know how to have fun down there, there is a certain lifestyle you have to get used to, and MSP has spoiled us horribly. I can't wait until it's really spring/summer here. Walking around the city is the best part of living here. 

Our little Penny is doing well. She has grown incredibly more comfortable around us, and is now "more like a dog" as Ryan says. I can't help thinking that she would do really great in a fenced in yard where she could chase the squirrels she's obsessed with. But the park behind us serves us very well. Speaking of which, she is sitting by the door so I think I will take her out. 

Until next time. 

Keep calm, and carry on. 

Penny for your thoughts

This is our dog Penny and she is our forever dog. Things to know about Penny: she is a mini-pinchser/dauschound mix (no I cannot spell either of those words). She LOVES other dogs, they are all her best friend and she must play with them. She also loves children. She isn't interested in toys unless other dogs or children are playing with them and she won't eat unless someone is home with her. 

In short she is a bit strange and is the first dog I have ever met that isn't motivated by food. In fact she will turn her head to food. We love our crazy ninja/food despising dog and so do the people in our building. They think she's adorable and that it's great she doesn't bark...ever...seriously....and when she does it sounds like she's afraid she's making too much noise. Instead she does these little whiny noises when she's sad because the toothless wonder chihuahua down the hall won't play with her. Imagine a tiny chihuahua with no teeth and a tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. Did I mention Penny loves ALL dogs. I think that dog is creepy and weird. But not Penny. That could be her new BEST FRIEND!!! AHHHH!!!!

Poor rejected Penny is now sitting next to me on the couch all sleepy like because that's another thing she won't do without someone around, sleep.

I should say that work is going a whole lot better, especially since I've been able to incorporate social media into my job. I am now the twitter master. Never thought I would be the ultimate authority on twitter but here I am. Of course it's not that hard in an organization who works with people who get annoyed by email. Not all of them are like that, but some, some think they are allergic to electricity. I kid you not. This donor gives us lots of money, but they are a little crazy. If they found out we had wifi they would disown us.

Ryan seems to still like his job. He said he had fun working on Indiana stuff today. I like how his projects always involve states. Because I was a scorer for a little while, I understand a lot of what goes on at his work. Therefore we sometimes get in these weird conversations where I'm pretty sure people are confused as to why, "New York is a pain" and "we hope we get Wyoming." States suddenly become a single entity that his company must interact with.

Because of Ryan's work, I am especially interested in NCLB (no child left behind) and what is going to happen with it. His work has literally changed my perspective on education. I thought I knew.....I really knew nothing. Testing is now a love/hate relationship for me, because now I have seen why it's good, but I also know why it's bad. So many necessary things are this way. Some states (and I know this for a fact) really could care less whether their kids are as smart as others. They don't want to compare, they just want their kids to be good enough for them. And sometimes, that means setting a painfully low bar for expectations. If they keep getting away with this, we are going to get nowhere. And that's my rant for the day.

Until next time. Keep calm, carry on.

Not So Lucky

You can't tell from this picture, but our foster dog Lucky had an issue with guys. 

Lucky would be fine when I was home. Below  is a picture of him all curled up in my lap. We knew he was much more cuddly with me, and we knew there was probably issues because when he had come in to the shelter he had bb gun pellets stuck in his leg. Now we, and the shelter, are guessing that a guy hit him with those pellets. Hence the freak out session when I stayed at an event at work, and Ryan was left alone with him for the first time. 

So we said goodbye to Lucky. We are fairly sure that we are going to wait on the dog issue until we have a house. We are too heartbroken and we are enjoying our freedom too much to attempt to get another dog. I would like to thank our friend Autumn for helping to give us some advice and help us make the right decision. You are our official dog guru. 

So how are we doing? Based on today I would give the following ratings to these 2 different areas in my life:

Love: 10

Work: 5

Work is not fun for me right now. As of today I am incredibly frustrated, and we'll see what happens. I am praying to Krishna that things get better. 

Ryan rates it this way:

Love:10

Work: 8

Work is going much better for Ryan. So even though I'm frustrated, the lesson is here is that love conquers all. I think....either way we are enjoying our life and feeling blessed to have what we do. I am honestly probably giving work a low rating based on a singular event and am therefore being unfair. We all have good days and bad days, and today just wasn't that great. 

I wish my writing was better. Take that last sentence. That is pitiful and wrong. However I am too tired to fix this entry and make it better. Hopefully as the year progresses, I will be able to make the steps towards being a better writer. It's my unofficial new years resolution. 

In the meantime. 

Keep calm, carry on. 

City of Lights

While my camera isn't the best for catching movement, I did manage to get a few photos of the holidazzle parade in Minneapolis. The theme this year was fairy tales and below is Ryan's favorite, Pinocchio! 

A few days after Ryan played the drums with the retired Minneapolis police, he had a holiday concert with his symphonic band in one of the richest counties in MN, Edina. His band, South of the River Community Band, does three holiday concerts during the season. It's great to see Ryan keep up with his drumming. Hopefully I can get him to write one of these blog entries and talk about his drumming plans.

The city of Minneapolis is beautiful, especially at night. The best part about moving around the city is that in the winter you do not have to go outside. There are skyways everywhere to walk around without braving the freezing weather. I love Michigan, and always will, but I love my twin cities too. If only we had teleportation. Then maybe I would never leave. 

Until next time, keep calm, carry on. 

The Juggling Act

Part of being married is juggling families. This is especially hard when your families live in different states, neither of them being states YOU happen to live in. Our compromise was to switch holidays. Each year one family gets Thanksgiving and one gets Christmas so hopefully neither feels slighted. 

This year’s travel plans did not get off to a good start. The closest airport to Ryan’s family is in Charlotte, NC and it’s a US Airways hub. We were on the last flight out on Sunday. The flight was packed with people who had obviously been getting in some beach time before the bitter cold Minnesota winter. We pull out of the gate and then stop. 

Never a good sign. 

They tell us at first that it’s a computer error. After a half hour on the runway, we go back to the gate and find out our engine isn’t getting fuel. Basically if we had taken off eventually we would have dropped out of the sky. Thank Krishna* for computer warning systems. So while we are all glad we are alive, we now realize we are going to be stuck in Charlotte for the night. 

Everyone is making phone calls to work and family with varying degrees of annoyance in their voice. By the time US Airways gets everyone rebooked and in hotels, it’s 2am. Ryan and I only get around 3 hours of sleep before we have to crawl out of our hotel room, which doesn’t have shampoo, and get over to the airport again to make a connection in Detroit and finally make it back to Minneapolis.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of Ryan and I sitting in the Coney Island restaurant in the Detroit airport, my hair a frizzy, slick mess and Ryan with odd spots of facial hair, both with bags under our eyes, chowing down on a greasy burger.  Simultaneously horrifying and hilarious. 

It was great to be in Charlotte where it is warm and Ryan can go golfing with his dad and brother. Where we can hang out with his crazy dog Rudy and watch the Notre Dame game we had to record. Most of all I’m just glad he gets to see his family. Michigan is just a little easier to get to than North Carolina from Minnesota. My parents are even coming up for “spring break,” the perks of my mom being a teacher, and my dad having 6 weeks of vacation a year.  

Who I really miss is my brother and my friends Heather and Ashley. It’s difficult for my brother to fly on his own, and it’s really hard for my friends to find time to get over to MN, or for me to get over to MI for that matter. They are the people that keep me sane and laughing. I wish they were a building away like they used to be rather than a state and a lake away like they are now.

But we can’t have all that we want in this world. In the end we need to be thankful for what we have. And what Ryan and I have is a lot. 

Until next time, keep calm and carry on. 

*A note as to a) who Krishna is and b) why the heck I’m thanking him. Krishna is a very well liked Hindu god who is popular in their mythology. I have started to “thank Krishna” because it’s less offensive than thanking God or gods or Jesus or Allah, because no one knows who Krishna is outside of 1 billion Hindus and some people who have taken the time to study this stuff. ANYWAY,  it’s a way for me to get around my tendency to use God’s name in vain and offend someone. There is probably a Hinduism post coming, be ready.

Burying the Castle

“Everybody knows, it sucks to grow up, but everybody does, so weird to be back here, let me tell you what, the years go on and we’re still fighting it” –Still Fighting It, Ben Folds

My mom visited Ryan and I the last weekend in October. It was great to have her around and to show her not only the tourist sites, but also where I was living and working. I think it’s important for the people who are close to you to visualize in their head of what your life is like. The rest of my immediate family will be up during my mom’s spring break in April, and hopefully Ryan’s parents will be up when its “warm” aka: July.

Her visit, and some crazy work days, caused Ryan and I to both come home on Tuesday, plop down on our new couch and say: “this sucks.” The sucking part was growing up. Having ridiculous days at work, having slow days at work, coming home and feeling like we’re not relaxing because we need to do things around the house, and generally feeling like we got more than we bargained for out of this thing called life.

It was one of those rare moments when I was glad the topic of us having children was a difficult one, because at least I have a long way to wait before I even think about how much I’m going to love/hate life with a kid, and a house, and ugh. I don’t even want to think about it. These are supposed to be things we aspire towards and want in our lives. I’ve always wanted kids; don’t get me wrong. I just know realistically how much money that takes, and how scary it is. Maybe that’s my problem. I am way too realistic.

I watch House Hunters on HGTV and yell at people who take on a house over budget, or are too picky, or have unrealistic expectations. Luckily Ryan and I both have a thing about big houses. We don’t like them. I see huge houses and think that unless I’m housing 10 kids I adopted from a third world nation, I don’t get the point. So Ryan and I will live in our modest house, with our adopted children from India and our little Cairns terrier and be perfectly happy. Okay the India part is negotiable, but I at least want a girl from there. I need an excuse to have my daughter wear saris until it’s not socially acceptable.

“Go get your shovel, and we’ll dig a big hole, to bury the castle” –Brick by Boring Brick, Paramore

Ryan and I have had to slowly “bury our castle”. The kid part of us is already sinking, and while we don’t want it destroyed, we do have to put it away so we can take on whatever challenges we might come our way. But until then, we’ll spend our weekends sleeping and being thankful for all we have in our lives.

Until next time.

Keep Calm, and Carry On.

I think a change, would do you good

Life has certainly thrown some curve balls at Ryan and I this past week. The following is a day by day guide to our week of madness:

Monday: Ryan has a new Ford Focus. It's a beautiful fuel efficient little car that he is very excited about. What he is not excited about is the flat tire he comes out to in the morning. No Ford will not cover the tire, because even though he's had it a little over a day he's managed to get a nail in the tire wall. I don't know how this happened.

Tuesday: Car is back. It rains. We find out the windshield wipers don't work. Cue Ryan driving a rental car for the rest of the week while they order a new part. As for me, today my boss announces she's leaving. With her leaving I will be the only person left in my department. Luckily we have a new CEO coming in. Unluckily I cannot tell anyone else at work until the official announcement on Friday. Now I get to feel like I'm lying to everyone in meetings when they ask me what is going on in my department.

Wednesday: We finally get cable and internet and feel connected to the world. Our goal for the weekend will be to get a new couch, not only because our IKEA futon is insufficient, but because my mom is coming to visit at the end of the month and I told her she could sleep in our guest bedroom, on our IKEA futon. It folds out to a bed and is actually really nice.

Thursday through Friday is a blur as I get increasingly tired and go through drama at work with coworkers who can't believe my boss is leaving. I do feel good after people tell me they really hope I am not leaving too. I reassure them I have no plans of high tailing it out of there.

Saturday: We get a couch! For a really good price! And they deliver it to our apartment on Sunday. We find out we are really close to their distribution center, very convenient.

So despite a Lions and Tigers loss....it's a pretty good week. I am excited for possibilities with a new CEO at work and I am happy my co-workers think I could just run off and get another job. Haha.

And Ryan is good as well. He is connecting with a classmate who lives in Minneapolis this weekend. It's a small world after all.

Until the next blog post, hopefully with pictures. I do apologize for the lack of pictures. Keep calm, and carry on.