Dear Minnesota...

Dear Minnesota,
I have been enjoying your lovely fall colors and the crispness in the air, but I guess I didn't get the memo that it snows in OCTOBER. I was hoping to not start the hibernation process until November, maybe even the beginning of December, but you have left me no choice but to start hording food and supplies (aka books and Netflix rentals). I know, I know, the snow melted in a few hours and everything was back to normal, but you just caught me off guard. Also, I don't appreciate the cold you have given me either - just so you know, San Diego would have never treated me like this.

Sincerely,
Erin

New Favorite Website

If you know me, you know I am a Target kinda girl. But here is a funny website I just heard of, which I'm sure all of you have been visiting forever, but I'm a little behind the times on these kind of things:

www.peopleofwalmart.com

I can't get it to link, so you'll have to old school it and cut and paste!

President Obama & Education

I was talking to my mom on the phone this afternoon and somehow we started talking about President Obama's speech to school children today. First, a little background information: I voted for Obama, my mom voted for McCain; she watches FOX News, I do not. My mom was down right SHOCKED when I told her who I was voting for in the 2008 presidential election. A little more background information: my parents are very conservative and I grew up with very conservative views, many of which I still have today. I was always one of the few "republicans" at high school and college and I was always very opinionated on topics such as immigration. I was the lone person at San Diego State who voted for George W. Bush twice (gasp!). But as I grew up, graduated from college, got married and was not living at home anymore, my views began to change.

Anyways, back to the lecture at hand....

As soon as we started talking about President Obama's speech, the first words out of my mouth were "You're not one of those weirdo's who would of kept their kids home today because of this speech" and she said "oh yes I am!". Now at this moment, both of us had not seen or read the transcript of the speech. I have since watched it and was very impressed with what was said. I don't understand why parents would not want their children to hear the following statements President Obama made today:

-"...We can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. That's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education."

-"What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends on you. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future."

-"But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life -- what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home -- none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not trying."

Education has always been important to me. I may have been on the "8 year plan" for college, but I graduated and have a Bachelors Degree. Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher - I majored in Social Science for Secondary Education - but by the time I graduated I realized that I still wanted to be a part of education, just not in the classroom. But I know that the time I spent in school was and is not wasted. Education can never be wasted.

All in all, I was impressed by what President Obama said on the importance of education and individual responsibility. Even though I am not in school anymore and President Obama was not speaking directly to me, I still take his words to heart: "I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down. Don't let your family down or your country down. Most of all, don't let yourself down. Make us all proud."

So Long Summer...Minnesota Style

Unlike San Diego and Phoenix, Minnesota actually has seasons, and I hear that any day it should be snowing. Ok, not really, but this California Girl is having a hard time picturing that yes, the day will come in the near future when it will get cold outside and this white stuff will start falling from the sky. And not San Diego/Phoenix cold where we turn into "weather wimps" and complain how cold it is and that we actually have to put the flip-flops away (gasp!) and put on a sweatshirt.

In other news, we had a pretty busy summer. The middle of August we went to Phoenix - I had to go for work and I made Adam come with. IT WAS WONDERFUL to be back in that glorious dry air! This was our first visit back to Phoenix since we've moved here, and I didn't think I had really missed it, but I actually missed Phoenix! Let me be more specific, I missed the food! Ok, i missed my co-workers too :) But back to the food - Adam ended up eating Mexican food for five consecutive days - I had a few, but it's hard to get good Mexican at the Phoenix Convention Center. Here's a restaurant-run-down: Rosa's in Mesa, Valle Luna, The Gelato Spot, Lolo's Chicken and Waffles. Adam made it to Ranch Market 2 days in a row, while I ate Rubios and Chic-Fil-A at work. Our rule was to eat at places we could not eat at here, which wasn't too hard.

Last weekend we went to the Minnesota State Fair and ate ourselves silly (do you notice a pattern here, Erin likes food!) Mini-donuts, funnel cake, fried fruit on a stick, cheese curds, Sweet Martha's Chocolate Chip Cookies, and ice cream from the Dairy Building. We walked around all the exhibits, got free crap, the usual fair type stuff.

Mom and Dad will be back out in October for another visit - Mom and I are going to the Time Out for Women Conference and Dad plans on doing a whole lot of nothing :) We're going to check out some museums and of course EAT. When they were here in June we had Jucy-Lucys at 5-8 Club and of course Culvers, hit the Mall of America and the Outlet Mall in Albertville. This time will be a little more low-key.

Well there is our summer in a nut-shell. My goal is to actually update this thing every once in a while, but don't hold your breath :)

Las Vegas Trip Wrap-Up

Ok, so we went to Vegas like weeks ago, but I'm finally getting around to writing about it. Overall, we had a great trip. I forgot how much I missed the desert air!!! As soon as we walked out of the airport to wait for our shuttle, it felt WONDERFUL. We stayed at the MGM Grand, in 4 different rooms in our 3 day visit. Let me just say that the front desk of the MGM Grand was less than helpful - we had reservations, yet they said since we were checking in so late, we had to just take what was available, which the first room was across from the bar - um hello, bar, in Vegas, I'd never get any sleep - so we got a new room ASAP. ANYWAYS, I've had a few weeks to get over all the room changes, so I will save you the drama. In the end up in a lovely room on the 18th floor in the Grand Tower.

The first day we had breakfast at the Paris buffet - a WONDERFUL yummy goodness of breakfast! We stuffed ourselves silly. Luckily we walked everywhere - by the end of our trip we had walked over 25 miles in 3 days! I brought my pedometer :)Anyways, next we hit the pool and cruised the lazy river. I tried to get some reading done, but I'd forgotten how hot it actually gets in the summer and spent most of the time in the water. Luckily, I didn't get too burned. I'm afraid I am turning into a Midwesterner who is really, really pale :(

Now it's time for me to step up on my soapbox: Las Vegas is NOT for kids. Yes, there are things for kids to do, and Las Vegas has tried to make it all family friendly, but in my humble opinion - PARENTS DO NOT BRING YOUR KIDS. I have never seen so many absentee parenting then I did in these 3 days. When we came home I had it all planned out how I was going to rant and rave about this on my blog, but as you can see I've forgot. So again, I'll spare you.

The best part of the trip was seeing was seeing Cirque du Soleil LOVE. This was our first Cirque show, loved it so much we went to see Koooza that is performing here in town last week! we heard that Love is different from the typical Cirque show because it tells a story instead of different "acts". If you are ever in Las Vegas I highly recommend seeing Love - it was amazing! Plus it has a ton of great Beatles songs to sing along with :)

All in all, we had a great trip. Those darn machines ate my money. Adam placed a bet on the Vikings winning the Super Bowl, so we'll have to wait and see on that one. Next trip - Phoenix in August!

4th of July Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a great 4th of July weekend! We kicked things off Thursday night with a concert at First Avenue downtown Minneapolis - The Roots!!! I've loved The Roots since I was in high school (which I just realized this year is my 10 year reunion!!!) and when I saw they were going to be in town I knew we HAD to go. The show was AMAZING - they give such a great live show - playing new songs and old ones too - as well as a little of everything else. After the concert we walked and had dinner at Pizza Luce. It was here where I had my first official "I am old" moment - there were some girls at the restaurant who needed to find some more clothes to wear! I swear I have never seen dresses so small and inappropriate! That's when it donned on me - I am officially old.

Friday morning we left to head up north to our cabin visit at our sister-in-law's family cabin in Barnum. It was GREAT. I finished 2 books and started another while I worked on my tan. We went out on the pontoon boat and had smores by the fire. I also realized why Minnesotans have cabins - to get away from it all and relax! (This is along the same epiphany I had when we moved here in November about why Minnesotans also take vacations in the winter to warmer climates!) If you know me, you know I am not an "outdoor" person - my idea of camping is a hotel with a pool. We finished up the weekend on Sunday going to lunch at Smashburger in Golden Valley. These burgers were SOOOO YUMMY! We will definitely be back :)

Books Read: June 2009

1) Hungry Monkey - Matthew Amster-Burton
2) The Case of the Missing Books - Ian Sansom
3) Exposed: Confessions of a Wedding Photographer - Claire Lewis
4) An Idiot Girl's Christmas - Laurie Notaro
5) Scot on the Rocks: How I Survived My Ex-Boyfriend's Wedding… - Brenda Janowitz
6) Blue Shoes and Happiness - Alexander McCall Smith
7) Admission - Jean Hanff Korelitz
8) Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
9) A Catered Murder - Isis Crawford
10) The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs - Alexander McCall Smith
11) Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like A Skank - Celia Rivenbark
12) Mexican Whiteboy - Matt de la Pena
13) American Wife: A Novel - Curtis Sittenfeld
14) The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith
15) A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana - Haven Kimmel
16) Bad Twin - Gary Troup
17) Summer Reading: A Novel - Hilma Wolitzer
18) A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book - Frank Warren
19) Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel - Gregory Maguire
20) Don't Let My Mama Read This: A Southern Fried Memoir - Hadjii
21) Serve the People: A Stir Fried History Through China - Jenn Lin-Liu
22) The Girl with the Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
23) Looks - Madeleine George
24) I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales From a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing - Kyria Abrahams
25) Holly's Inbox - Holly Denham

7,603 Pages

Where has the time gone?

Tomorrow is JULY 1st!!! Can you believe 2009 is half over? I swear it was just yesterday that there was snow on the ground and I was dreaming about summer, and now it is summer and I have no tan to show for it! I think that is one of the few things I miss about Arizona is that nice year round tan :)

No Excuses That I Know...

I don't have any excuses for not blogging since FEBRUARY! Tons of stuff has happened, but I guess I didn't think to blog about it :( I'm in awe of all the gals in my ward who have the cutest, most up-to-date blogs - hopefully they will inspire me to actually update this thing and even add a few pictures now and then.

For now, here's a picture of my new nephew, Logan:

Addiction Alert - MTV JAMS

Hi, my name is Erin and I am addicted to watching MTV Jams. Yes, I'm white and live in the suburbs of Minneapolis, but I love my MTV Jams! I guess it reminds me when I was growing up in the hood aka National City and watched MTV religiously - even though my parents tried to block it on our cable, I knew how up unblock it. In San Diego I felt a little more connected to the music scene - I've seen my fair share of reggae concerts at The Belly Up Tavern. But moving to Phoenix and now Plymouth, I have no clue about music. So now I watch MTV Jams while "working" in my new office aka the couch or listen to XM Radio Hip Hop Nation to get my fix. I guess you take the girl out of the ghetto, but not the ghetto out of the girl.

Look At ME - I'm Twittering

Aren't I the coolest thing since sliced bread :) Thanks Stephanie for inviting me. I guess I was too uncool to ever think about twittering. Now I can bore everyone two ways - my blog (if I ever get around to updating it) and Twitter!!!