Let it Snow!

Saturday night it snowed and snowed! Sunday morning we received a phone call that church was cancelled. Here are some pictures of the snow courtesy of Cindy from work.

Not bad for one night! Sunday was actually pretty sunny all day. Nels and I just stayed indoors though. It was a very nice and relaxing Sunday. Well, we might have a white Christmas this year after all!

Quick note. Nels made it through finals week, so to celebrate we got take-out Outback Steakhouse. Mmmm good. I love steak and potatoes. For some reason Outback has the best green tossed salad too. Now Nels gets to learn how to relax for the next three weeks. But if he gets bored I have a list of things for him to do just in case. :)

Christmas Tree

We finally decorated a tree for Christmas this year. Our kind friends let us borrow a little tree this year. We listened to Christmas music while we decorated it and had a good time. Here's some pictures:


Finished Product.

It also brought back memories of our very first Christmas tree together. I was still in school and Nels was working. I really, really wanted a tree. So, we went to Lowe's and bought a real tree. This was my first time with a real Christmas tree. I still remember laughing so hard when we brought it home because the tree holder was almost bigger than the tree! Well, we had spent all of our money on the tree and we did not have any lights or ornaments to put on it. Sad tree....but I did have a Santa's hat that I proudly put on the top. As people sent us Christmas cards, I put them on the tree. So, by December 25 we had quite a few cards on the tree. Aw, our first tree holds a lot of memories. We haven't had a tree since (because of several moves and transitions), but this year we have a little one to bring in the Christmas spirit.

Here's the picture of our first Christmas tree December 2003 before the Christmas cards came.

Roses

Nels is such a sweetheart!!! Last night he went and ran "errands," and he came home with a dozen roses! Just out of the blue for no reason at all...well other than that he loves me. I love when he surprises me with flowers. So Thanks Nels!

Catch up on Thanksgiving

Well, I haven't updated about Thanksgiving. The first great thing was that it snowed for the first time while we were up in Valparaiso. We tried to take a picture while it was snowing, but you can't really see the snowflakes. But it snowed quite a bit as you can see from the accumulation on the barbecue. Of course, it's not like an Idaho snow, but it still set the mood for Thanksgiving.


Here's Anna-Lisa cooking in the kitchen. She cooked a ton! We all went in and out of the kitchen helping to prepare the meal, but Anna-Lisa stayed the whole time! She's great!




I caught Nels actually reading his Economics book on Thanksgiving day! I kind of made fun of him for reading it, so he stopped and helped make the pies. It was a lot more fun when he wasn't reading! I guess you can take the boy out of school, but you can't take the school out of the boy....well you know what I mean.

After dinner Nels challenged his parents to a checker match. Nels loves playing checkers. He plays online often. He won both games he played with his mom and dad.

We did go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. We did not go at 4 a.m. or any time in the morning. We went in the afternoon up to Michigan City to the outlets. We had a good time and bought a few things. That about sums up our Thanksgiving. I can't believe it is already December. Yesterday, I put up our few Christmas decorations and burned a Christmas scented candle. Well, that's all for now.

Basketball Game

After the Event (See Below Post) we went to a Purdue baskteball game. We had a great time and the best part was the tickets were free! We totally won! The team we played was called Bethune Cookman. I've never heard of them, but they weren't that good. So here's some more pictures of our fun night.


The Mackey Arena.




I just thought this was a funny picture.

In action!


Cheese! My long arm snapping the picture of all 4 of us.

Picture of the strong and talented cheerleaders.


Score 66 to 40. They got stomped!

Perfect video of a three point shot, one of five that they made. It's only for the first 10 seconds, the other 10 seconds I don't know what I was doing. (Probably trying to figure out how to turn it off!)



After the game we went to the Silver Dipper and had banana splits. Yummy.

Nels and I shared a banana split. Donna (Nels's mom) said she wasn't very hungry, but still wanted a banana split. So Bob (Nels's dad) said that if she ordered it he would help her finish it. We ate and talked and Donna ended up eating every last bit of the banana split. Bob didn't get one bite. We had fun teasing her about that.

Great day!

Honda

Nels in the spotlight!

All semester Nels has been working on the Honda Project. This is a national competition that Honda is sponsering. Nels was apppointed Agent Coordinator or CEO for the project. This has been a huge project that has taken over Nels's life for the past 3 months. Yesterday was the climax with the event taking place on campus. The ad campaign focused on the Purdue market so the activities and ads were specific to this market. Also, the campaign was to boost awareness for the new Honda Accord Coupe. Okay, so I won't bore with all of the technical stuff. But he did a great job. The class ended up with 64 people and Nels was coordinating all the efforts and communicating with the client (Honda).


Their ad campaign slogan was "Live outside the Lines." Here's the website:


http://www.liveoutsidethelines.com/



They also did YouTube commercials. Nels is in one of the 4 commercials. Here's Nels's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9mh4lSSwdw

Some background behind this: Here at Purdue we have the "Breakfast Club" where the students dress up in costumes early Saturday morning before a home football game and go to the bars. People wear the strangest costumes. On the commercial Nels's costume is very conservative.


The ad's also have the theme of students transitioning from school to work or the "real life." Drawing the comparison to the Honda Accord Coupe which looks very business and professional on the outside but very stylish and fun on the inside.



They also had bus ad's that looked awesome. On the website, if you click on RLR's you'll see the ad that was put on the bus. Evolution of Collegius Crazius to Alumnus Serius. Or from the bike to the car, from student to business professional.






This is Nels by the ad on the bus.

This brings us to the event yesterday. Even though it was freezing cold, there were a lot of people. Nels said they got about 360 surveys completed, and this doesn't include the people that stopped by, but didn't fill out the survey. Overall, it was a success.

I stopped by the event on my lunch break and had a blast! The event had RC car racing, basketball, bean bag toss, food, and karaoke from inside the car. I do not sing. But they made me sing a song with Nels. "Sweet Home Alabama." Good thing Nels was with me because he sang all the words and I came in on the chorus. We had a good laugh though. It was a lot of fun!

Here's some pictures:





Here's Nels with the Accord right after it came off of the delivery truck, straight from the factory. He was way excited. He zoomed away with his V6 engine!



Here's the car at the event. People would sit inside and karaoke.







Nels and I singing.





They teamed up with Apple and gave away free Ipod shuffle and other apple products.


Lots of people!



RC Car Track.






The event was great and Nels is sooooo happy that it is over. His parents came down to see it. After the event we went for dinner and then...(See the above post).

Yummy Pie

Saturday night we had some friends over. We played Settlers of Catan. I love that game. I think it's a lot of fun. We also made a yummy frozen pie called Strawberry Margaritta Pie. It is so delicious. I found this picture online, but I put mine in a glass pie dish so it didn't look this pretty.

The recipe that I found online is slightly different from the one I actually used, but here it is PIE

I like frozen desserts because you can do them ahead of time and they taste really, really good!

I started and finished a book this weekend called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It's a fast read and a very good story. Nels was studying all week so I cuddled up on the couch and read. The book is about a boy who follows his "personal legend" and learns about himself and the world as he travels to various places. I don't want to give too much away....

That's all for now!

Tagged: Interesting Things

I got "tagged" by Rachel Greenhalgh to tell 6 things that you might not know about me. Some of these things many of you probably already know, but oh well.

1. I love Ice Cream. There's nothing like a bowl of ice cream to make me happy when I am sad and happier when I'm happy! When I was in the seventh grade I wrote a long poem about ice cream and how much I love it. (I am a little obsessed, but that's okay.) Right now I think there are 4 cartons of 1/2 gallon ice cream containers in our freezer. I love Cold Stone ice cream. My mom bought me my own "cold stone" and scoopers. So for dessert and when we have people over we will have homemade cold stone. Yummy!

2. I was on the radio. At the job I used to work at last year we listened to the radio and every morning they would ask a trivia question. I usually didn't know the answer, but one morning they asked the question. "what can you do that will burn 5 calories in a minute?" I knew the answer. So I hurried and called in. I was so nervous because I haven't ever done anything like that before. The phone rang and the DJ's answered (I can't remember their names now) and asked, "what's the answer." I said "Kissing." "That's right!!! How did you know?" I said, "I learned it in a health class a long time ago." It was by valentine's day so they asked if I had a valentine and someone to kiss. We talked for a few minutes and then they asked, "And you just won on what station?" I shouted "96.5!" That was the end. A few minutes later I heard it played on the radio. I won a T-shirt and $20 gift certificates at Taco Bell which Nels enjoyed.

3. I love fast thinking games. My favorite games are when they go fast. Sometimes Nels will take a while for his turn and I will get frustrated. I like playing Nerts and double solitare because they are fast. Lately, Nels and I have been playing Chinese checkers. Because of my need for speed, we put a timer on so it goes faster.

4. My de-stressing treatment is yoga and a bubble bath. I have a ten minute yoga routine that works wonders. I always feel more relaxed afterwards. I love bubble baths and this is usually when I get most of my "AHA" moments. Clear my mind and relax my body leaves me feeling calm and much better.

5. I am very goal/list oriented. I probably got this from my mom. She would always write us lists of things to do, especially when we said that we were bored. I find that I'm a lot more productive when I take a few minutes to write down what I need to do and prioritize my day. It drives me nuts to have something written down and not complete it. My favorite thing is to cross it off which is probably why I write it down in the first place. I feel accomplished when I take the pen and cross out the goal or task I was working on.

6. I love reading. I almost always have a book that I'm reading and sometimes two. I also love when Nels reads to me. When we travel I will drive for a while and Nels will read to me. He just has a great voice! I love reading because I love stories and learning. So if you come across a good book, let me know!

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed it and I tag whoever reads this. If you don't have a blog feel free to email me or leave a comment. :)

Our Apartment

Nels and I have been living in a cute little apartment while he's going to school. We were so happy when we found this place. We had spent a couple of days looking for a nice and somewhat new apartment. The apartments here are generally pretty old, unless you go far away from campus. We live about 3 miles from campus and that is considered "far" for many people. Anyway, I know many of you haven't seen where we've been living for the past year and half so I thought I'd post some pictures.

This is the outside of our building. The far window on the first floor is our apartment.

Here's the entry to our apartment.



Here's the living room. I love the fireplace. We don't have very much. Our little entertainment center and my keyboard (a gift from Nels's parents that I have thoroughly enjoyed!) look kind of small in this room. But we like it.



Opposite the TV is my FAVORITE couch ever! I love this couch because it reclines. I love to put my feet up, so we splurged and bought a reclining couch. I love the pillows too. Notice the floor lamp....it's connected to a clapper. The clapper has been a great form of entertainment for us and our guests. It's not just claps that will make it turn off and on. Sometimes you'll be saying something or laughing just right and it will turn off/on. It's fun, so if you're bored and you don't want a pet, we suggest buying a clapper.


Here's the dining room. The sliding door leads out to the patio. The door behind the table is for the pantry.

The kitchen, bathroom and bedroom are all pretty normal. The closets are huge and so there's lots of places to store things. Overall, we really like our apartment and we have great, quiet neighbors. We also like the trees that are out are back window. We see squirrels, bunnies and birds. I saw my first cardinal up close last spring. Anyway, we've had good times here and hope to continue for the next 6 months.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Nels is so sweet. He went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and came home with a pumpkin to carve. He said that it was one of the last ones. We had fun carving it. We had a flimsy knife though and so the carving was slow going. But we finally got it done. We stuck a birthday candle on the inside. Here are some pictures of our fun Halloween night.


Spooky!

A tradition that my family had growing up was that when we went trick or treating to my Grandma's house we would eat donuts and drink apple cider. Nels likes this tradition so we have continued it. He stopped at Krispy Kreme and got a dozen donuts. Yummy! So that was our Halloween.

Fun Weekend with Nels's Family

Nels's parents and younger sister Anna-Lisa came down this past weekend. We had a blast! Here are some pictures of what we did.

Nels's birthday was October 22 so when they came down on the 26th Anna-Lisa surprised him with a birthday cake. I don't know how Nels does it, but we ended up celebrating his birthday 4 days. On the 20, his parents took us out to dinner, on 21 I made his birthday dinner because he had a school dinner on his birthday. I made him a birthday dessert on his actual birthday. Then on the 26th we had cake in his honor. He's pretty lucky if you ask me!

The cake was pretty cool though. It's a ghost. The eggshells are the eyes. You light a sugar cube with lemon extract on fire so it has a bright flame. The picture didn't show that part very well.

Boiler Up! The mascot for Purdue is a train. So the above Pre-game picture is us tooting the train horn.

We figured out how to use the timer on our camera. We had fun taking pictures. The below pictures show how funny Nels's dad is. We wanted to take a nice picture, but he kept being goofy. I thought they were funny though. So here they are:

We finally got one by shortening the timer from 10 seconds to 2!

Here we are at the game. On each of the seats was a black pom pom. That's what we're holding. Our seats were in the End Zone. Luckily, almost all of the points were scored on our side. So we had a great view. Oh, we played Northwestern by the way.

The picture below shows the suites above the stadium. Neil Armstrong was attending this particular game. He was in town for the dedication of the Neil Armstrong building.

Here's the final score 35 to 17! You never would have guessed that it was tied 14 to 14 at half time! Purdue really jumped ahead in the last quarter. It was awesome.

Victory! Nels was way pumped after the game.

Quick picture in front of the stadium.

This is a video of the last winning point for Purdue. It also shows the "P" flag running across. I actually figured out how to use the video on the camera!

Well, that was our weekend in a nutshell!