And so it begins...

As of Tuesday, May 11th, our house is "staked"!



Tomorrow starts the picking everything out portion - tiles, carpet, you name it, we have to pick it out :)

Home Sweet Home

In case you live under a rock or do not live close enough to hear me talk nonstop about this, we are building a house! Construction will start next month and we should be ready to move in the beginning of September. Here are pictures of our lot:





Our lot is three quarters of an acre and includes just over half of that pond. It is in the Maple Creek Estates neighborhood in Maple Grove, MN (for the locals - Bass Lake Road and Lawndale) The neighborhood is just one street with a cul-de-sac on each end. There are about 16 lots total and just over half of them already have houses built and people living in them. This development started a few years ago, but went under, and new builders have come in. Our neighbors to the left, the O'Connor family, have lived there for 2 years already - we met them while looking at the lot with Adam's parents. The husbands name is Mike O'Connor (my maiden name is O'Connell, and my dad's name is Mike) and his wife went to USD (where Adam went). He was in the Navy and lived in San Diego - if these weren't meant to be out neighbors than I don't know who was! They have 3 young kids - all with Irish names :)

The house itself will be custom and about 2600 sq ft, 2 story with 3 bedrooms and a loft. Adam is getting his dream kitchen - 6 burner gas cook top, double ovens - and a huge island! Downstairs is an office, kitchen and great room; upstairs is the 3 bedrooms, loft and laundry room. The loft will be where my work office with a built in desk! So far we have decided the kitchen will have white cabinets with black granite counter tops and stainless steal appliances. We're going for a "craftsman" style home, so I've been spending lots of time drooling over way-out-of-our-price- range craftsman style elements - light fixtures, etc. The exterior will be a dark blue with white trim and white garage doors. I will post pictures when we get final drawings from the builder. We're still in the process of picking everything for the exterior out - who knew there were so many choices!

More updates to follow - we plan to take pictures throughout the whole process.

Catch Up!

So ya, its been over 3 months since my last post. Wait, that sounds like I'm in confessional....let's start again:

Whoa! Where has the time gone! (that's better...)

It is beautiful in Minnesota! In March we had NO SNOW, which for Minnesota hasn't happened in over 100 years. Everything is green and blooming and weather has been great. Andrew and Stephanie came for a visit the end of March and the weather was perfect. We went to the Mall of America (duh...of course!), Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a walk through the sky ways in downtown Minneapolis. Of course we ate good food too - Chino Latino was AMAZING.

In other catch up news, we are building a house! This deserves its own post, so more to come on that.

We saw Avenue Q this past weekend - too funny! Who knew puppets were so inappropriate! Tomorrow night we are going to see Anthony Bourdain, which I've been looking forward to for awhile :)

Next month brings more travel - Dallas/Fort Worth, TX for work and then Adam and I are off to San Diego for a mini-family reunion. Grandma turned 90 in March and mom and dad thought this would be a great time to get all the family together.

Once again, I will tell you I promise to keep up on my blog, but we both know that's probably not going to happen, but hey, one can dream!

Well Hello 2010

So I guess I've already failed at one of my resolutions - to blog more! It's only the 16th and I haven't posted since October...oops! Time to hop back on the wagon and get started!

I spent the first few days of 2010 in sunny Scottsdale at the office. We have some exciting changes going on at work, so I was able to escape the cold and snow for 70s and sunny. One day when I was leaving the office it was 83 degrees!!! Of course I ate lunch at Carolina's on my way to the airport and picked up some yummy tortillas to bring home :)

Since then it's been the same old same old here. Some days I feel like a crazy lady because I don't leave the house if I don't have to. But I guess it's a good thing because I'm not out shopping and going out for lunch! This weekend Adam is in Las Vegas with the guys from work, and I'm catching up on a lot of stuff around the house. My desk is atrocious - the past week I've relocated to the living room and set up my office on the couch, close to the fireplace and the TV - almost finished season 1 of Mad Men! So on the top of my list is to organize my office and desk so it is "workable".

Last night was a girls night out and I had my friend Cecia help me buy make-up! She of course always looks fabulous so I knew she would be the one to ask for help. I don't think I've worn make-up since my wedding...2 1/2 years ago. Since I'll be the big 2-9 next week, I figured I better learn how to do this make-up stuff.

The last week of January, Adam and I will be in Phoenix for a wedding and then I'm off to San Diego for a week - whooo hooo!!! Hello Mexican food, goodbye diet! I'm going to Disneyland with my brother and his girlfriend, so I'm super excited about that. They'll going to come visit the end of March - hopefully the snow will be melted by then!

Well, there is your "What in the heck is Erin up to" update. I know you've been dying to read it and I'm hope I didn't disappoint!

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."