We love being busy!

I pretty much spent the day laying on the couch recovering from this past weekend. That's a sure sign of an awesome weekend! Here is what we managed to pack in:

• saw The Dark Knight Rises with Jason, Mahlia, and a group of their friends
• went to Rachael and Jason's beautiful wedding
• went tubing and water skiing on Prior Lake
• went out for dessert with Meghan and Kevin
• learned how to play a new game that Steve bought- Settlers of Catan (pretty cool!)

before the wedding, ready to go! 

The Strahota girls

Alan learning how to water ski

Pretty sure winter came too early!

It snowed for the first time on Oct. 10th. That is entirely too early in my eyes. We haven't had a chance to go to the orchard, or carve pumpkins, or even prep our yard for winter.

So instead we hopped in the car and went straight to Walmart to purchase fall and Halloween decorations.

Here's a picture of the first snowfall of the season.

My dream car came sooner than expected

Well, my stupid piece of *#&$& car decided it was done. The transmission went out last Monday and is not worth fixing so Alan and I went car shopping! I've known for a couple of years what kind of car I wanted next so we checked online and found one in South St. Paul. It was in great shape and had everything I wanted and even more important, it fit our budget!

New baseboards

Some of my friends are probably laughing at me right now. I know that new baseboards do not seem super exciting, but when you've been looking at broken plaster pieces for 3 months it gets kind of old. My dad and Uncle Jerry spent the better part of their Saturday installing the baseboards that I carefully stained. And our living room looks great! Check out the before and after pictures.

Le Gourmet Chef

During the summer, when I actually have time to breathe, I enjoy cooking. Alan loves Vietnamese food and received a few cookbooks for Christmas a couple of years ago. I finally opened them this summer and have been practicing my culinary skills. Mahlia also LOVES to bake and decorate cakes so she has been teaching me.

Picture #1: My first cake! Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting

Picture #2: My second cake- almond cake with strawberry filling and chocolate buttercream frosting

Picture #3: egg rolls