friends far and near

I finally found some time to scrapbook this week! Wednesday Sarah came over to scrap. I helped her with a scrapbook she is making for her grandma, and made us chicken quesadillas for dinner. I actually only finished 1 page and started on another! Sarah stayed until 1:30AM. Time just flew by. We had a great time!

(These photos are from summer 2007)

I think it was good for me to spend some time with someone that lives in the same neighborhood as me, because I’ve spent almost the whole summer with people that don’t live anywhere near me! I treasure the times I’ve had with my dear friends and family this summer. It’s been so so good and a lot of fun, but then I get sad and wish everyone didn’t live so far away from me. I’m about to meet up with Renata for lunch, and she flies back home to Brazil on Monday. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye again, not knowing how long it will be until I see her again. She is such a lovely friend.

Thoughts on my brother’s wedding weekend

On Thursday we headed to Chippewa Falls, WI. I practiced the songs I would be singing with the pianist and then at 5:00 was the wedding rehearsal, with the rehearsal dinner following. Friday Trev and I ate lunch with a bunch of my Pedersen relatives (who were there from Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, & Wisconsin) and then the wedding was at 4:00. Photos followed, and then a great dinner and fun dance! What an awesome couple of days!

A few thoughts on those days:

*My dad was the wedding officiant. I love that he is a preacher AND a poet. The two go so well together. What a beautiful wedding message!

*I have really fun brothers who love to laugh, smile, and dance. They both look great in a suit/tux. 🙂

*My brother Eric can dance like Michael Jackson? And swing dance? Had no idea.

*My relatives are hilarious. I have really great family.

*It was an honor to sing at my brother’s wedding! I am happy that I made it through both songs without tears.

*I am so thankful that my aunts and uncles came to the wedding, and that all my dad’s siblings are still around and laughing.

*The most fun times I’ve had dancing at weddings are with my cousins (like at Jen’s wedding and this one too)!

*I will never forget Trevor running on to the empty dance floor and dancing like a mad man to Brittney Spears’ “Oops I Did it Again” all by himself…and then Eric and Amy later joining him and dancing their hearts out. I have such a wonderful, fun, and loving husband!

*I can’t belive my baby brother is married! I am so happy for him and his bride. They are such a perfect match/team, and they look so good together too! I was happy for them and their beautiful wedding and wonderful friends. The matron of honor and best man gave such beautiful speeches unlike any I had heard at other weddings. Eric & Brittany really are a special couple and will touch so many people as they continue on in their life and ministry together!

places i want to travel to

Baltimore, Maryland

New York City

Washington D.C.

Greenville, Texas

places I want to go to again:

Florida

The Carolinas

San Diego, California

Denver, Colorado

Chicago, Illinois

Brazil

Norway

Awesome day

Today was great! Got coffee with Renata and then we walked around Lake Harriet and ate supper at Green Mill. We also stopped in Kowalski’s and Walgreens and I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. Love it when that happens! And if that wasn’t all fun enough, we got the new IKEA catalog in the mail today. 😉

Eight Things

Got this idea from Vanessa’s blog.

8 things I’m looking forward to:

1. Being with family and seeing my baby brother get married this Friday!

2. Having my other brother, his fiancee, and her daughter stay with us on Saturday.

3. Getting coffee with Renata this afternoon.

4. Our garage project being complete. The new garage roof is almost done, and next month we are getting a new garage floor and new driveway!

5. Going to the Minnesota State Fair with my in-laws.

6. Having some Tungseth cousins stay at our place in a couple weeks.

7. The Sunny Day Real Estate show at First Ave. next month.

8. Finding time to scrapbook again.

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Called Emily Jipp.

2. Ate a Turkey Tom at Jimmy John’s.

3. Went to Men’s Wearhouse with Trevor to bring him his suits so they could alter them.

4. Had church choir practice and practiced this song for next month.

5. Talked to Betsy for an hour.

6. Watched the documentary Maxed Out. It was good but was too one-sided talking about people as victims.

7. Talked to Mom and brother Andy.

8. Uploaded photos from Cate’s birthday party.

8 things I wish I could do:

1. Learn how to use our new camera better.

2. Learn how to really use Photoshop Elements.

3. Get a job that I really love.

4. Remember to take my dog for a walk every day.

5. Pray more.

6. Be a better gardener. Get more plants to put in our yard!

7. Travel a lot more!

8. Learn Norwegian.

8 TV shows I watch:

1. Lost

2. The Office

3. Fringe

4. Ugly Betty

5. 30 Rock

6. The Mentalist

7. CSI

8. The Little Couple

8 things I collect:

1. Paper

2. Bird stuff

3. My coke rewards points

4. Journals

5. Movies

6. Music

7. Jewelry

8. Miniature sized things

Nice day outside

I know this summer really has been busy when I think about the fact that I haven’t scrapbooked for myself since June! I have made some cards and gifts, but haven’t added to my personal scrapbooks. I have been trying to scrap my photos and get “caught up”. The last photos I scrapped were from June 2007….so I am a bit more than two years behind. Hopefully I can get more scrapping done after this month of craziness is over. I am hoping to get at least a couple pages scrapped this month!

I am about to go out and do some weeding in my garden. I just let the dog outside and saw a monarch butterfly flying around our yard! I don’t I’ve ever seen one in our yard before! This is my first day to myself all week. Yesterday I met up with my friend Jill for lunch and we walked around the lake at Como Park. I snapped this shot:

Jill has been living in Milwaukee for a year, and before that Iowa City, so I am happy any chance I get to spend some time with her. She is such a lovely friend!

Trevor and I also attended Live on the Drive last night, which took place just a few blocks from our house on Victory Memorial.

This month it was a salsa band called Charanga Tropical. It was a nice time to hang out with neighbors and hear some fun music. Trevor knows the organizers and had asked if he could help with anything, so they told him to get an approximate count of people in attendance. There were over 500 people there. I think they were hoping for more, but I thought it was a good turnout.

Renata

I’ve been busy all week hanging out with this girl:

I met Renata in 2002 when she was here from Brazil, living in Minneapolis with her cousin and learning English. Since then she’s been back to Brazil, and also lived in Italy and Spain. She finally made it back here and I’ve had so much fun spending time with her. I hadn’t seen her since March 2003! It will be sad to say goodbye again in a little over a week, but she is such a dear friend and I am so lucky to know her. 🙂

stupid vacuum cleaner

Trevor’s gone all day today hanging out with the guys. Before I hang out with my friend Renata, I decided to clean the house. For some reason the vacuum won’t turn on! I tried switching to a different outlet and that did nothing. So instead of vacuuming, I’ll show you the card and gift bag I made for Durwood (Darrin) & Kirsten’s wedding.

I tried to use colors similar to what their wedding invitation was.

Here’s the simple card I made with my Cricut. I like how it turned out. I really should use my Cricut more.

Trevor thinks he got the Norwegian wrong, but oh well, he’s just learning.

And here’s the envelope.

It was a rainy day yesterday, so I had to take these photos inside, which is why the colors are a little off. I still need to learn more about PhotoShop to really fix the color.

Remember the origami lotus flower?

This is what I ended up doing with the lotus flower I made when my cousin Jen was here. I mounted it in a shadow box I bought for 40% off at Michaels. It’s on our bookcase in the living room, next to IKEA vases, a couple paper figures from Mexico (we bought them on our honeymoon), and a finger painting from Milton.

A Cricut flower

I decided to make a gift bag for the wedding present we bought for the wedding we are going to today. While at Michaels I noticed some really pretty 3-D flower stickers, and instead of buying them for $5 I thought I would try to make some similar ones myself.

I am quite happy with how they turned out! I bought some little pearls from the MM Vintage Findings collection for 40% off and used those for the center. I used my Cricut to cut out the flowers. I used Walk in My Garden and cut out Asters at 1 1/2, 2, and 2 1/2 and layered them. I also used the same cartridge to cut out the leaves. I really like how this looks. I think I’ll need to make more similar ones in different colors. I thought these would be good wedding looking ones for the wedding gift bag.