TGIF

So, living in Minnesota, I have grown used to the fact that in February there will be more snowstorms. Regardless if the temperatures were 45 degrees the week before. But one thing that I am a bit disgruntled about is the fact that the snow removal company came through last night to clear up the snow at around 2:00am this morning and were very loud. A couple of the guys were physically YELLING to each other. It took me forever to fall back asleep and Tucker was in the bed with me last night and he was such a bed hog!




This weekend Derick's cousin, Joe is coming over and bringing his big dog, Jake with. So, that means a house full of boys and boy dogs playing video games all weekend...I am thinking I might need an escape!
This is Lynnea's dog, Morgan, who also came to visit us on Saturday! Tucker had so many playmates!


But yay for MacBook Pros and video chatting capabilities! I was able to talk to Ben in Texas this morning! And later today Lynnea and her puppy, Morgan are coming over to play with Tucker and Jake!

Valentine's day

Alright, so I forgot to post about Valentine's day. I finally decided to dump the photos off my camera and there were some on there from a LONG time ago! Valentine's day included!

So, for Valentine's day, it marked 4 years that Derick and I have been together. So he gave me ONE purple-tinted rose (for our FIRST year of being married for Valentine's day) and a bunch of purple-tinted daisies. He also got me a bunch of Reeces peanutbutter cups and a book I have been wanting: Jon and Kate (the tv show) Multiple Blessin8s. (The 8 looks like a g on the cover).

We had a pretty low-key day. My dad came over early that day to help us finish off the garage with our cabinets and shelving and to drop off groceries for that night. We were going to be cooking dinner for them at our place.

Here are some pictures of the yummy food and the festivities:

Corporate Layoffs Suck

Today at work, right after our touch-base meeting, we were informed that our company was laying off 11% of staff, or about 25 people. It really affected our department. The whole rest of the day was really rough for everyone. I don't think that much work was accomplished. The really bad thing though, is that I didn't see any of this coming. The company did a great job of painting a picture of "rainbows and butterflies," but in reality, they were plotting the occurrances of this morning. My heart goes out to the people that lost their jobs. Some of them were the nicest, hardest working people. I just don't get it.

But also in this blog, I was going to write about growth! I think that I inherited my "green thumb" from my mother. I have really liked caring for plants and growing them from seeds especially. (I think it goes back to the days of growing the bean seeds in the cup in like 2nd grade and watching them grow! HA!)

I started some seeds earlier this month and they have been shooting up like CRAZY! I decided to also try my hand at a couple veggie plants - beans and peas! (see, I think that this is where the bean plants from elementary school play the biggest role!) I am hapy to report that they are all doing really well! There is one part of the tray that is slow, but they really like the shade and are taking their time :)



These were taken tonight, look how tall they are getting! the far left are the bean plants and the ones above this are sunflowers!

These are our new fish that we put into the 45 gallon tank:

Salvini Cichlids. We have 4 of them. They are kind of fun to watch! We have some other fish mixed in with them too, so it keeps things interesting!

One of the most productive and fun weekneds

So this weekend was pretty much one of the most fun and productive ones that Derick and I have spent at our house together!

Friday night we went to Target to get some last-minute groceries for Valentine's Day dinner we were having with my parents. I also made dessert for Sat. night - mini cheesecake bites! yum!

Saturday morning, my dad came over to help Derick finish up the garage project. It looks SO nice out there now! We have cabinets, a couple counters and more cabinets and shelving! That is one thing about living in a townhouse, there is very minimal storage space!

Saturday night, Derick and I cooked and cooked - steak and lobster tails, salad, cheddar garlic puffs (like the ones at Red Lobster) and baked potatoes! whew that was a lot of food! They came over, we ate, talked for awhile and then went upstairs to play Buzz Trivia! I think that they liked it...their first video game they played with us!

Sunday was pretty much the "projects around the house day!" We went to Fleet Farm to get some things to fix up the house, and we also ran back to Target to look at a few things. We got a really nice gray table that was 75% off (that we will use to put the large fish tank on). Lunch at Quiznos in Champlin, where I found out Ellen from camp works! We also ran up to Pet Smart to get fish filters and then next door to Office Max. I ran into an old friend from Junior High - CJ so that was really fun! we ended up making a big purchase that we had been waiting to get - a color laser printer and lots of paper! Then we ran to the hardware store to get spray paint for the table. After our errands and my "running into people" Derick goes, man, we really can't go anywhere that you DON'T know someone! haha. true...around here at least!

So when we got home, I set up the Target table in the garage and spray painted it black. I got that done, and then moved back into the house to get my potting soil and seeds started. I am SUCH a nerd! I love this part of gardening, planting things from seeds and then watching them grow and then transplanting them! I pretty much transplant plants many times once I get them! Derick even went on to say that when we move into an actual house in a few more years, he will make me a greenhouse! how cool would that be?!

Derick installed a new doorbell to our house - our first one never worked to begin with! weird, I know! And he also installed a couple lighted light switches in the house. He even set up the printer!

After all of that, we sat down to play NHL09 and BUZZ Trivia! I stomped some online players, which was pretty fun, and I scored all 3 of our goals in the hockey game, so at least I am good at that part of the game. I like to score and hit the other players...

Is it really the end of the weekend? They never seem to last long enough! Oh well. I am just glad that I have a job in this economic state!

A Bucket List

So I have been thinking that I need to get this down. My bucket list, or a list of things that I would like to achieve or accomplish before I "kick the bucket." And these are as follows (in no specific order):

1. Travel to Paris, France and spend an entire day at the Eiffel Tower.

2. Take a hot air balloon ride (over the st. croix river?)

3. Travel to Hawaii

4. Travel to Australia

5. Have a ritual Lutsen, MN retreat

6. Live by a lake

7. Work for an advertising or design agency

8. Work from home

9. Take a cruise somewhere warm and somewhere cold - separately

10. Learn how to play tennis

11. Have the Valentine's Day Dinner at the underwater world at the mall of america.

12. Be the boss

13. Live in another state far away for awhile

14. Find a brand of shampoo that "works" AND smells good!

15. Learn how to cook better and more interesting things

16. Work for a magazine

17. Play and beat a video game that I enjoy

18.

So today...I Googled myself, and my old self

So today at work, I thought it would be interesting to type my name into Google and see what came up. I tried my old name first and it came up with the following:

1 - Laura Krutzig - Linkedin

2 - Derick Doberstein and Laura Krutzig wedding (Bed Bath and Beyond wedding registry)

3 - Jigsaw business contacts (which I have never subscribed to before, but they have some info on me and where I work...creepy)

Then I tried my new name and it came up with things for different Laura Doberstein's (guess I am more 'unoriginal' now than I was before I changed my name after getting married! Who knew!

Well, those were my useless things I found out about when I decide to see if anything comes up about me on Google!

I am kind of excited about friends recently. I have had a bunch of people that I have not talked to in a long time kind of come out of the woodwork and say that they want to get together, and here is the kicker, we actually PLAN a day and time that we will be getting together to catch up and hang out. Unlike all of the other times when you talk to someone and say hey, we need to catch up and or hang out, call me! So that is interesting and eventful! Since Derick and I have been homebodies pretty much since we got married, it is nice to get out and do more things as well. Not having money really helped that part out - the staying home, not going anywhere or doing anything part. I will be SO glad when I have money to spend again! Then maybe we can plan an actual vacation or a honeymoon! whoo hoo!

Tonight Laura is coming over and we are having a Mary Kay lady come and talk make-up with us. I guess she was pestering Laura to have a party, so we decided to have it at my house because it was closer to the rep. Then Friday night we are having Paul and Jenny over to play our new trivia video game - BUZZ and on Saturday, Sabrina from camp is coming to hang out! I will get to finally get an update about life in CA and working for Medtronic out there!

Both VMUs are done today! So that was a nice thing to get off my plate! The bad thing, dealing with the economy and work right now is that there are a lot more last-minute changes that need to be made to things we send to the stores. Also, recently more people have been let go, mostly out in the field in the stores, but a couple here and there in the building have been axed. It kind of sucks because it is like, ok, who is not going to be at work tomorrow...at least I am pretty secure in my job and in my area. For heaven's sake, they were completely freaking out when they found out that I might have to be on jury duty over one of the next VMU periods! So I know that I am indespensible and highly valuable, but sometimes that gets to be a lot too. I have "hot projects" that I get put on all of the time and my boss even stated to me, yeah, no one will be able to look at your schedule and tell you that you are not busy! I have something to do just about every day for the rest of my life...so...what does that mean about my vacation...we shall just have to wait and see about that.

-L

Tax Rebates getting more complicated...

Greetings from tax land! Whew, I can officially say that Derick and I have officially completed and filed our taxes together, for the first time as husband and wife, owning a home and having part of his taxable income come from Wisconsin!! Whew! It took us about three hours this morning to pull everything together, test-run on paper and then entering everything into the computer program.

I cannot believe that it got up to 41 degrees the ther day! Snow was melting! Derick and I had the windows open when we were driving over to my parent's house to have a "workday." Too bad that type of weather isn't going to be sticking around...I wonder what the groundhog will say tomorrow morning...? Hopefully that spring is coming!

On me: Well, I guess life for me has been pretty standard and pattern-istic. Get up, am thankful I have a job, get ready, go to work, work all day, come home, make dinner, relax for a little bit, go to bed, wake up and do it all over again. I am starting to think that the work life in a cubicle is not for me right now, at least not in a building with no windows. That is just plain depressing! I have had the strange itch to move somewhere else. Ya know, just start over with life and everything since we really aren't tied down to anything here other than my job and the fact that most all of my and Derick's family is here and in Wisconsin. Derick has said that he wouldn't mind moving either.

On Derick: Well, he has been getting more calls for work - subbing AND Gander Mountain call-ins, so that is really good. The bad thing was that they were all on the same day! He does have a second interview tomorrow night with an insurance company. If he chooses this job, there is a better chance that he could make money! Other than that, he keeps the couch held-down and the PS3 up and running. We did get a new game the other night (we owed it to ourselves) that we both love and think will become our new party game - BUZZ!

On Tucker: He is still as curious as ever and is now officially 39 pounds! He was just in (Sat.) for his last round of puppy shots and got a shiny new tag for his collar. He is only 6 months old! Laura C came over to visit today and he was only 2 weeks old when she first saw him! My how things have changed!

Back to me: Haha I just realized how I was writing this post...like the superbowl that I am currently watching...they have the ball, now they have the ball, now back to you Bob... who knows, I am not really watching much of the game. I am just watching some of the commercials. I am pretty dissappointed with them so far. Not too special. I liked one of the first ones of the little boy dressed up as a super hero. Derick and I are rooting for the Cardinals (since they have never won a superbowl before). But it doesn't look like they are going to win :(

Today was really nice. Laura C came over and then we ran over to World Market ( since they are all closing in MN *tear*) and then over to Trader Joe's to get something for lunch. I bought one candle at World Market. Their stuff isn't marked down very much yet. We plan to go again later. We are pretty much shopping buddies that all began when we interned at Target together! Let's see, there was World Market, Trader Joe's, Ann Taylor Loft, Teavana and Ikea! We are also going to make an Ikea run later when we have more money.

Ugh, is it really Sunday already? As much as I love having a job right now, I don't like these Sunday nights realizing that I have to get up and go to work in the morning! I like my sleep and relaxing time at home, I mean, who doesn't?! Well, that's all for me, Derick and Tucker right now!

-L