A Few of My Favorite Things...

It’s a rare occasion that Ben and I are not “Up North” on a holiday weekend, but this year was a little different since I had tickets to see one of my top five singers (more on that later). 

If anyone knows me (or has read my recent blog/facebook posts), you know that I LOVE the Minnesota State Fair.  And by “love” I mean I would love to go multiple times each year.  Once to see stuff and eat and another time to sit on a bench and just watch people (and eat too).  It has been quite a few years since I’ve been to the fair more than once and this year was no exception, but I had one of the best times at the fair this year with just Ben and me.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had fun with groups of people in the past, but it was so easy this year with just the two of us not worrying about what everyone else wanted/didn’t want to see.  We just did our own thing without an agenda.

We were a little concerned with how busy the fair would be going on a Friday this year, but it actually wasn’t too bad until about the last hour we were there…we left at 4.  We ate a lot of food and did A LOT of walking…22,000 steps to be exact.  Although our first food stop wasn’t on my list of things to eat this year, we thoroughly enjoyed the deep-fried Minneapple Pie (also sold at Target Field).  Wow…it was SO GOOD (< ---- that’s for you bff).  It was a fairly large portion and came with a scoop of ice cream for only $5.  Our next food was sharing a footlong corndog and French Fries.  It was a tragedy when Ben was taking a bite of the corndog and the batter on the last ¼ fell onto the ground.  I almost cried.  Not really, but man was I bummed….sad I know, but it’s like my favorite food at the fair.  I’m not sure of the order of the rest of the food, but we also enjoyed a gyro, mini donuts, sweet corn ice cream with honey butter bacon topping, deep-fried pickles with cream cheese, and a Dole whip.  Our only disappointment with our visit (besides the corndog tragedy) was that the largest pig had already gone home.  I was so exhausted by the end of the night and was eager to get to bed for another exciting day on Saturday.

It was another early start on Saturday for friend Amy and me that began with a  trip to Fleet Farm at 9 am to pick up some cowboy boots so we could be a little honky tonk (did I spell that right?) at the Carrie Underwood concert at Mystic Lake Casino.

Side bar: I’m realizing now that this post is getting long and I still have a lot to say.  Bare with me.

After we bought our cowboy boots that were on clearance for only $11 we made our way to Albertville to do a little shopping.  The shopping was pretty uneventful, but we both came out with a cool watch from Fossil’s clearance table.  I thought Ben would have some words with me since along with my tennis shoe collection I seem to have a collection of watches going, but all he said was “what, did you win the lottery?”  Little did he know that I only paid $20 and I LOVE it!

                                                           

We didn’t spend too much time shopping because we know what was next on the agenda….hitting the slots!  By the time we arrived at the casino, we still had six and a half hours before show time.  It sounds like a ridiculous amount of time to gamble but it’s awesome if your money is lasting.  Shockingly, we both did pretty well and by the time Carrie started we both had more money than we came with (a rare occasion at the casino).

I’m not sure how to rate the concert.  Carrie herself was awesome and she had great interaction with the crowd, but I must say that the outdoor amphitheater was a HUGE disappointment.  After paying $100 for “good seats” I was expecting a lot.  Not so much.  We literally could not see the stage from where we were sitting unless we craned our necks to see in between people’s heads and even then could only see a speck of the stage.  The seats didn’t have enough of an incline and the stage was set too low.  The 50 degree temps didn’t help either!  Her set list was pretty much the same show we saw at the State Fair last year, but I didn’t care because she is incredible.

Cowboy boots and flannels!

 

As if the six and a half hours of gambling before the show wasn’t enough, Amy and I headed back inside (with 8,000 other people) after the show for another hour and a half of gambling.  We both walked out even which is a huge win.  The drive home (at 1 AM!) was brutal since I’m known for getting heavy lids, but Amy did a good job of keeping me alert.

With such busy days Friday and Saturday, Sunday and Monday included a whole lot of nothing besides watching crime shows on the ID channel (best channel ever).  I can’t believe how sick and twisted some people are…creepers.

And that concludes my weekend.  If you made it to the end…thanks for reading!

Ben's Driving - 1 Lana - 0

Who would have thunk that water could be so unforgiving?  We had another great Sunday on the boat with some friends.  Thankfully the sun stayed out most of the day because it got a tid bit chilly when it was hiding behind the clouds.

Since I haven't been brave enough to try wakeboarding yet, my fun on the boat includes tubing (with a strict warning of "It's okay to whip me around, but no WAVES").  It was my first run of the day and Ben was doing a great job of following my instructions.  We hit a few waves because it was so busy, but no purposely made tsunami type waves.  A couple of the "whip-outs" were pretty intense, but my mighty strength kept me on the tube until one whip-out had me what seemed to be straight out on the side of the boat (far enough that I was out of view from the video camera).  When I could hold on no longer, it felt like I did about three flips and skidded across the water with a smack.  I managed to some how plug my nose during these acrobatics but when I came to the surface of the water, I was in so much pain (and in the weeds....grrrr).  I temporarily couldn't move my leg and could barely get back in the boat.  Here is the result....

This bruise is on the back of my leg and is about 4-5 inches across and still really swollen.  OUCH!

Is it weird that I'm glad that I bruised like this so people didn't think I was being a wuss?  By the way, Ben feels terrible that I got so hurt, but I keep reassuring him that it's not his fault.

Seriously Thursday?!

Seriously…I’m losing interest in blogging.  Mostly because I still don’t know what to blog about.

Seriously…I’ve finally officially lost 60 pounds.  I’ve been saying for quite a while that I’ve lost 60 pounds because I’ve been within two pounds of it.  I just didn’t realize how long it would take me to actually hit it.  Either way, I’m very excited – 60 pounds in 11 months.  I definitely could have done better, but I’ve been eating foods that I love and have still been +/- one pound from week to week.  Maintaining is perfectly okay with me.

Seriously…Ben and my five year anniversary is next month and he just booked us a trip to the North Shore.  Believe it or not, this will be our first trip together by ourselves (including our honeymoon).  The few trips that we have taken have been with large groups.  I’m very excited…to say the least.

Seriously…I know the State Fair is only a week away, but could it please come faster?  If it was up to Ben, we’d only go every other year, but he has to remember that he’s married to a gal that used to go multiple times every year.  No way in heck I’d ever miss it.

Seriously…I can’t believe summer is almost over.  The key indicators for me are that the State Fair is in a week and the fact that we took the boat out last night and I was cold almost the entire time.

Seriously Thursday?!

So I wrote most of this last week, but neglected to post it because I just thought it was too boring.  I still don't think it's anything too exciting, but I know BFF Andrea would be majorly disappointed if I didn't post again. 

Seriously…the cats neglecting to use the litter box and shitting in the basement has been solved.  All it took was putting back our shorter-walled litter boxes that were replaced by taller litter boxes.  It was that easy.  And here we were thinking that it was due to emotional/psychological stress to River since we adopted Percy or maybe Percy had attacked River while she was doing her business in the litter box so she was associating the litter box with hell from Percy.  I guess dealing with litter getting kicked out of the shorter boxes is better than dealing with shit…LOL, did I really just write a paragraph about cats and litter boxes?

Seriously…turns out the fish that wasn’t eating whose mouth was huge WAS actually carrying babies because all of a sudden the mouth was back to normal and it was acting like it had never eaten before…probably because it hadn’t eaten in a week and a half.  No sign of babies though.  They must have been eaten by the other fish.

Seriously...go check out thebloggess It's seriously one of the funniest things I've ever read.  This girl is amazing!

Seriously…if you want a great, quick read, get The Hunger Games.  Yes, it seems like it’s a horribly violent book with kids killing other kids, but the story is so “out there” and farfetched that it just didn’t seem as brutal as one would think.  I was able to read the whole book in a day and a half, but that could be because teenagers are the intended audience…not an almost 30 year old.

Seriously…I’m going to be 30 in less than two months.  YIKES!

Seriously…I know most, if not all of my readers are also my friend on Facebook, so this probably isn’t news to you, but Ben and I bought a “new to us” fish/ski boat last week.  Ben is a hardcore fisherman so the boat really needed to be setup mostly for fishing but have the power to pull a wakeboarder/tuber.  For him, this was very hard to find, but we found exactly what we were looking for at just the right price.  Our first time pulling the boat was two days after we bought it and wouldn’t cha know, some chic wasn’t looking and backed right into the boat/trailer.  Thankfully there was only damage to the fender on the trailer and a broken light, but still!

Seriously…why are flights so expensive these days!  It used to be no problem finding a trip to Vegas for $350, but now I’m having a hard time finding it for under $500 unless I want to stay in some no-name hotel off the strip.  No thanks!  Looks like I’ll be staying at the Excalibur again.

Seriously Thursday?!

It's that time already for Seriously Thursday?! with from Mrs to Mama.

Seriously…this must be the year of concerts and show for me.  I’ve gone to Chelsea Handler, Rihanna, Britney/Nicki and now I just got tickets for Carrie Underwood who is one of my top three favorite artists (along with Rihanna and Pink).  She’s coming Labor Day weekend and this will be my third time seeing her.  The only bad thing is that she’s playing at Mystic Lake Casino…well I guess that’s not so bad since gambling is pretty high on my list of fun things to do.

Seriously…I think we are about to have baby fishies floating around in our tank.  One of our African Cichlids has not been eating (although it seems perfectly healthy) and it’s under jaw has become quite large in comparison to our other fish.  I’ve read that some Cichlids are mouth brooders which means they keep the fish/eggs in their mouth until they are strong enough to survive on their own.  I don’t know though, we’ll see.  Cichlids are quite aggressive, so I’m sure if it is babies, they won’t last long in the tank.

Seriously…do not go camping without an air conditioner when the temps are 100+ with the heat index near or at 110.  Awful, miserable, and wet…everything wet!  Thankfully our friends had a speed boat that we enjoyed on Saturday so we could enjoy a nice breeze on the water.

Seriously…you need to check out www. thebloggess.com if you haven’t already.  Everyday this writer has something hilarious to write about.  Very talented!

Seriously…one of our cats has decided that it’s no longer appropriate to shit in the litter box.  We’ve had River for over five years and Percy for nine months.  What the heck could have changed?  Thankfully it’s only in our unfinished basement, but still terribly annoying…AND we have no idea how to correct the problem.

Seriously…can’t believe it’s Thursday already, but seriously excited for the weekend to be here.

Seriously Thursday?!

It’s that time again for Seriously Thursday?! from Mrs To Mama.  We all know I’ve been struggling with blog ideas which is why I loved this edition, but even this is becoming difficult for me to come up with topics.  I don’t know what has happened to my brain, but I feel like I’m losing my creativity the further and further I get away from my school years.  I think need to go back just to get my smarts back.  Anyway…

Seriously…my husband Ben planned a camping trip on the river for this weekend and we have a whole hodgepodge of people going.  I’m so excited!  Activities planned are: tubing, wakeboarding, canoeing, kayaking, bags, ladder golf, a float trip in inner tubes from the dam down to our campsite (of course while drinking beer), and just having a good ole time.

Seriously…thankfully I do not drink Miller products, otherwise I might not have any beer to drink this weekend.  The Minnesota Government shutdown is causing Miller to pull all of their products from the shelf – an expired license while the Government is shutdown equals not good for Miller.  No skin off my back though…Miller Lite is awful!

Seriously…is anyone else having a hard time telling the difference between Ben and Constantine on The Bachelorette?  Does Ashley really need to keep both?  I mean c’mon, they are like the same person.  Tall, dark, not so handsome, and no personality.

Seriously…does anyone else think it’s as cool as I do that Kim Kardashian has been tweeting/blogging about her multiple trips to Minnesota including her first Twins game and partying on Lake Minnetonka?  She even made a trip to my neck of the woods in St. Cloud with a visit to Five Guys being that her soon to be hubby is part owner with his parents.

Seriously…what is my problem with Weight Watchers?  I’m still losing weight, but OMG, it’s so slow.  I’ve definitely hit a mental plateau.   My body has made such a dramatic physical change that I’m kind of okay with where I’m at now, but I know I have at least 15 more pounds to go.  I need to get over this hurdle and kick it back into high gear.

When is the Best Time to Workout?

I think a lot of people would tell you to start off your day with a workout 1) to jumpstart your day and 2) so you get it done with right away instead talking yourself out of it (like I do) later.

I hate working out unless it’s disguised into a fun activity like dancing, kayaking, or playing tennis.  That being said, I create any excuse possible not to workout.  These excuses include:

I’m too sunburned

I’m too sore

I have my period (sorry male readers…it happens, get over it)

I’m too tired

I have to watch xx show on tv (really any show is more appealing than working out)

It’s too cold

It’s too hot

I’m too full; I just need a nap first

My workout clothes are in the washer

The best solution that I could find is to get a workout in during the work day.  When I’m at work, I actually look forward to my 15 minute walks twice day because it gets me away from my desk.  It can help you clear your head from the stress or it gets you away from the monotony of a 9-5 desk job.

Ever since I started Weight Watchers and started wearing a pedometer, I have a daily goal to hit 10,000 steps every day.  With my two walks during the day, I easily have 8,000 steps by the end of my work day which makes it effortless to get the remaining 2,000 before I call it a night.

Can you find the time during work?