Native American Day/Fall Break

I had such a wonderful time with Julie during my break from school a couple of weekends ago! There's nothing like time with sisters... Friday after the pumpkin patch excursion, Jules had to stay at Kiddie Kollege till her work day was over. I stayed for awhile to help get all the kiddos down for nap time, but left soon after to do some napping of my own. After being up since 3am, I was ready for a good 2 hour nap which I got and then some! haha! When Jules got home I had to totally remake myself after sleeping so hard - haha! ewe...and then we went out for coffee w/Beth and some other friends of Julie's from her college days at Maranatha. Left to Right: Kim, Esther, Beth, Lindsay and Jules. These girls had me cracking up quite a bit over the course of the night. I never attended Maranatha, but I attended a Christian college and lived in a girl's dorm, and therefore could relate to most of their stories.... We were at the coffee shop till closing and then stood outside talking and shivering convulsively for another hour or so. :)

BREAKING NEWS (for real!) I JUST got a phone call that Beth Deiss (the tall gorgeous girl in the middle) got ENGAGED yesterday! Congratulations, Beth, I'm SO excited for you guys! and what a sweet story! :)

Saturday morning Jules and I got up bright and early for a day of shopping in Milwaukee. Okay, it wasn't that early...we got up in time to get ready at a relaxing pace and start our shopping day with lunch. I had never been to the Cheescake Factory, so we went right at 11, opening time, so we wouldn't have to stand in line. Julie said it gets really busy, and sure enough as we were sitting there eating it started filling up quite a bit! I love the big beautiful double-door entrance! And INSIDE is even more elaborate! I don't know that I've ever eaten anywhere that looked SO fancy! It was fun!Here we are outside of the Cheesecake Factory ready to walk off all our lunch and cheesecake as we shopped the malls. I say mall-s because we shopped through the entire Milwaukee mall with no luck since it was EXTREMELY GHETTO! haha! So we went to another mall nearby that was more up our alley ;) We each found something there! :)We did get our nails done at the Ghetto mall, though, and they actually turned out the best either of us have ever had over anywhere else! It's our sister tradition to get our nails done whenever we go shopping together. :)We shopped till we dropped and then headed to Watertown for supper with Doug at Noodles and Co. and then got to hang out with him for the rest of the evening! Notice I'm in the middle, that's cause I'm their chaperon - J/K! I'm just their babysitter...heehee! ;) Miss you, Doug!Sunday we went to church at Calvary where I got to see Doug's parents again (they're so sweet!) and meet his youngest brother, Ben and his girlfriend, Jill. So I have finally met his whole family :) The Pastor preached from I John 4 about "Love."

Jules and I went to Applebees afterward for lunch. We got an appetizer along with a full size meal. We both enjoyed the appetizer so much that we hardly got to make a dent in anything else. It was disappointing to not get to eat my favorite "plate" there, but we both thoroughly enjoyed the artichoke/spinach dip w/chips (mmmmm!!) appetizer. We thought our big spread of food looked pretty pathetic, so we took a picture.We went to a park with a crazy name - one of those Wisonconsin-Indian names :) - to walk off our food. We had a nice stroll through the path in the woods to the lake, and then along the lake where we spent time lying on a deck over the lake. It was a beatiful day!I took a picture - Julie wasn't ready...There we go! There's me in my ruffle shirt. I got a shirt at Forever 21 (how fitting!) cause it looked so cute on the hanger (the dressing room line was over 10 people long and the workers there weren't too motivated to keep things moving) and it was WAY cheap, so I just got it! Turns out when I put it on Sunday afternoon, the ruffles were a bit overwhelming. O well...I wore it anyway, and then made myself wear it Wednesday, too. It's got to be worn for what it's worth, so I figure if I wear it one more time that ought to do it ;) Haha! I call it my Jabot.Here's Julie soaking in the view. It really was beautiful out that day! 87 degrees and sunshiny!

Our walk back to the car undid all our relaxation. It was a long, steep, and steady incline...but I'm sure it was good for us. Haha! We then drove back to Watertown to visit Mrs. O'Neil! I didn't think to take any pictures of her :( but we had a sweet time visiting with her. It brought back fond memories of the days her and Mr. O'Neil used to live in Blue Earth when we were little kids. I miss those days! After the evening service we went out for Custard at Culvers and then back to Donna's where we got ready for bed and got all cozy and watched a movie (a chick flick, of course)! Monday morning I got to watch Julie teach (she is an excellent teacher!) and I got to see Bryce and Bryan again - such cutie little boys! Jules and I had lunch at Subway and then had to say goodbye :( It's always difficult to say goodbye, but it helped to know I would get to see her the very next weekend at MY house! Yay! I made it back to MN without ever feeling drowsy (amazing!), but I think the trick was all my stops at different outlets birthday shopping for the 2 boys in our family :)

Happy 26th Birthday, Jordan! Heehee!