This Week #8

Top to bottom, L to R: Strawberries picked from our CSA//Winnie & I enjoying snap peas//A Friday treat//Hubby manning the parade candy

Happy Sunday! Hope your week was wonderful! This week flew by for me - I can't hardly believe it's already almost over!

We started the week off with Puppy II class, Winnie's favorite thing. She has become so agile and loves to run around on the agility equipment -- faster than I can even keep up with her at times! Makes me think that Agility and Flyball classes are likely in her future. It's so fun to watch her grow and learn. (Bonified crazy dog lady here... watch out!)

On Wednesdays we get to pick up our CSA box, and this week brought two types of kale, strawberries, sugar snap peas, basil and zucchini. I fully expected the zucchini to be the best  thing in the box (because I absolutely LOVE zucchini) but I think my favorite thing was chowing down the sugar snap peas with lunch. Winnie also loved them, as you can see above. She also loved the kale, and was jumping up on the counter to try to get the full head for herself! Like mama, like puppy. ;)

This week was my city's annual week-long celebration - there's food vendors downtown all week, various entertainment like street dances and kareoke competitions, and a parade to cap it all off. I spent Thursday evening volunteering at a booth selling pops and newspapers which was fun - I saw lots of familiar faces! And then Friday, the company I work for led off the parade and you can see my husband above, who stayed in the van and refilled the candy buckets for all the kids walking with us. It was lots of fun!

We've had a rather lazy weekend so far, which is totally fine by me. We got great walks in both Saturday morning and this morning, and we spent Saturday getting things done around the house and having dinner with Jake's family. Today we'll be running lots of errands and then hosting a friend for dinner. And the best part about this Sunday? Knowing we're heading in to a short work week for the Independence Day holiday! YAY!

Hope the rest of your Sunday is fabulous! See you all tomorrow! :)

This Week #7

Top to Bottom, L to R: Our CSA farm//Red lipstick//A reunion with old friends//My growing strawberries//My pup Winnie

Happy Sunday, everyone! Hope your week was splendid - I know mine was!

This week was a wet one here in southern Minnesota. We battled storms Mon-Thurs, some causing major flooding in areas. But I started Monday off right regardless, waiting out a major thunderstorm with good friends, sipping a cocktail. (top right) One dear friend was visiting town and it had been over 6 years since I last saw her. Needless to say, catching up was really nice.

On Tuesday I got to go to a really awesome fundraiser called "Power of the Purse", which raises money for the United Way and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. I got to hear Laura Ling (sister of the famed journalist Lisa Ling) speak on her time in captivity in North Korea, and it was so interesting. I was honored to be able to go to such an event. On Wednesday, my best friend came over for dinner and told us all about her honeymoon spent in the Bahamas. She just returned Monday and I am so jealous of her bronze glow. The work week was capped off nicely; Jake and I hosted my coworkers for a happy hour at our home. It was fun to catch up outside of work and see everyone's significant others. 

Saturday was the most beautiful first day of summer, and it actually felt like it arrived. 85 and sunny - perfection. Jake and I spent part of the day at the farm where we get our CSA box from each week, as they hosted their annual Strawberry Social (top left). We got to pick strawberries straight from the field, and then enjoy live music and stawberry shortcake. It was really interesting to hear about how they grow their crops and it made me very happy we picked this farm to provide us with our weekly CSA box. On Saturday evening, we cooked up the asparagus we received in our box this week, and made Pesto Pasta with asparagus, mozarella and sun-dried tomatoes. You can find the recipe here. Using the strawberries we got, we made Strawberry Gin Mojitos which I highly recommend you try out sometime. 

Today we'll be making our annual voyage to purchase fireworks for the cabin - my husband and soon-to-be brother-in-law are our firework show extraordinaires and they put on a great show each year.

Hope the rest of your weekend is peaceful and relaxing. See ya'll on Monday! 

This Week #6

L to R, Top to Bottom: Bridesmaids//Winnie being patient//Reading//Blooms in my yard//The bride & I//Grilled dinner

Happy Sunday, ya'll! What a blur these last 2 weeks have been (I skipped one week of these posts) - but they were filled with so much fun and happiness! I talked about it for quite some time, but last weekend my best friend got married! Above you'll see pictures of the bridesmaids and a picture of the bride and I on her Vietnamese wedding. She had two gorgeous ceremonies: a traditional Vietnamese wedding last Friday, followed by an American ceremony last Saturday. I was so thrilled to be her matron of honor, and honestly her wedding was the BEST time ever! I want to go back and do it all over again!

The week after her wedding, I spent a lot of time trying to catch up but the week was still a whirlwind. Winnie had her second Puppy 2 class which was a lot of fun. She's learning to go through tunnels (an intro to Agility class) and we're trying and trying to get her to learn "heel" but it's proving rather tough, despite what a smart girl she is. I'm sure she'll get it in no time.

One of the most exciting things about this week was receiving our first CSA box, or farm share. The boxes start out rather small, but we got a delicious haul of asparagus, rhubarb, a couple different kinds of lettuce, cilantro and some yellow onions. We've eaten nearly all of it already! I can't wait to see what next week's box will have - one thing is for sure, it will be fresh, local and organic! All three are a win!

I'm nearly finished reading my book (seen above) and I can't put it down! I'm currently reading Breaking Night by Liz Murray. I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Murray speak last summer and she has such an inspiring story about going from homeless to Harvard. I absolutely had to pick up her book, and let me tell you - it doesn't disappoint. I'd highly recommend it.

This weekend is being spent with family as we celebrate Father's Day with both Jake's father and my own. On top of that, we're squeezing in tons of cleaning and load after load of laundry as all chores were put to the side during these last couple busy weeks. Boring, but someone's gotta do it!

See you all on Monday! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!