Christmas Card Deal from Shutterfly!!

I've been using Shutterfly to manage my pictures (and to create some pretty great photo books) for the past year or so. I've also fallen in love with their card collection - especially the myriads of choices of Christmas cards! Here are a few I'm struggling to choose between:



(Can you tell I'm sorta obsessed with the awesome 5x5 size?)

Well right now, they've got this GREAT promotion going on! Before I get into it, let me ask you a few questions:

1) Do you need to order Christmas cards?
2) Do you have 50 or more to order?
3) Do you have a blog?
4) Wouldn't you love to get 50 Christmas cards for FREE (well, probably not including shipping)?

Well, if you would love to get 50 free Christmas cards from their site AND you have a blog, do like myself and my buddy Mel Dilling have done and write a quick blog post about this great deal, then click here to let Shutterfly know about it!

I'm warning you now, though - there are a LOT of really great options on the site, so you may end up wasting a good part of the afternoon on these lol

Weekend in Chicago (Nov 5-8)

I had been planning this weekend since I found out my friend, Cole, would be having her baby shower on Saturday the 6th :) I decided after my last whirlwind trip to Chicago to extend the trip by a couple days this time around, and while I only ended up extending it one day (I'll get to that), it was a great trip!!

Friday

I left Friday around 1pm and arrived at Cole and Joe's around 9:30pm, just in time for a little visiting, then off to bed!

Saturday

Saturday, Cole and I bummed around for a while, having some breakfast and coffee and visiting :) Louie and Vinnie were pure entertainment for a little while, until they conked off lol Joe went to help a buddy, so Cole and I took the pups for a walk, then settled in to watch an old Hallmark movie - Christmas Cottage :)

Cole's shower started at 3, so we got showered up, I packed my things up, and we headed to the shower! It was such a great time, and baby Joey is going to be SO spoiled when he gets here! A picture recap :)






After the shower was over, I helped clean up a bit, then headed over to my friend Gundee's place in the Ravenswood area (somewhat close to Wrigley Field) and enjoyed a latte for a bit while she finished being famous for the evening :) (A friend of hers is just getting started in filmmaking, and she was an extra in a few scenes) We were initially planning to go find some Thai food, but neither of us were really that hungry, so we decided to just hang out at her place instead, which was great! We changed into our jammies early, then talked for a couple hours before settling in for bed with a movie - ELF! - a little wine and some popcorn :)

Sunday

The next morning, we visited a while, had some breakfast, then I showered and packed up again. It was such a short little visit with Gundee, but so great to see her!!



After I said goodbye to Gundee, I headed down to Crete, IL for brunch with my friends Amanda and Carrie!



After lunch, Amanda and I said goodbye to Carrie, then took a little trip to Kohl's before I headed back to Naperville to do a little more shopping, then and picked up a yummy apple cider and relaxed at Border's to unwind a bit from all the driving of the weekend.

After a little while at Border's, I headed back to Cole and Joe's for some yummy Sarpino's Pizza and a movie - Losers! (Thanks, guys!!)



Initially, I had planned on staying in Chicago until Tuesday morning, but on Sunday night, we realized that Monday's supper plans were becoming iffy, as both of the girls we were meeting up with were in San Francisco as of the time we went to bed on Sunday night. As supper on Monday night was the main reason I was staying through Monday, it wouldn't have made sense to use another whole day of vacation to stick around if the supper plans fell through :( So we visited after the movie a bit, then headed to bed, unsure what was going on the next day.

Monday

When we woke up to find a text from Mara saying she wouldn't be able to make it, and with our other friend's (Rach) flight status in limbo, I made the decision to get on the road Monday instead of Tuesday, so as to reserve a vacation day for later in the year.

I got on the road shortly after 10, and decided to take a more scenic route (via hwy 20 instead of I-90) so that I could meet up with my little brother, Jason, in Cedar Falls for supper! It was nice to visit with my buddy, but there's never enough time to visit, it seems. I dropped him back at his place around 6 and got back on the road!

I made it home, after a super long day on the road (and numerous stops), around 9:30pm. Feels good to be home again, but what a fun weekend :)

Proud Wifey Right Here :)

Congrats to my hubby on his 8-point buck this past weekend!! GREAT JOB, MARK!! I can't wait to enjoy some deer sticks and sausage this winter :)

October Recap (2010)

Johnson Ladies Orchard Day

With the weather starting to cool down, and the apples ripe for the pickin at the orchard, I gathered together some of my favorite Johnson ladies for a day picking some apples (and punkins) at the Ocheda Orchard, and then making apple dumplings at Dean and Barb's house. (click the link to read all about the day) :) Here is a photo recap :)

The Dumplings

Shopping Weekend with Mom

Although our initial plans included a shopping trip in Mankato, we changed our plans after I arrived down in Humboldt Friday evening after a pretty bad day at work. Mom wasn't feeling up for a long day of traveling and shopping, and neither was I, so we decided to do our shopping in Fort Dodge, and hang around Humboldt for the weekend. It worked out well, since we got to spend more time with my niece and nephews there, and to prematurely celebrate my 29th birthday!

Shopping in Dodge and Lunch with Mom

Mom, Amanda, Caleb, Kaleigh and I all made the trek down to the mall in Fort Dodge to pick up a few deals at Younker's before we parted ways for lunch: Mom and I went to Sadie's Tea Room, and Amanda took the kiddos home, since Sadie's isn't terribly toddler and infant-friendly.

Play Time!

Caleb has been overly obsessed with his tractors lately - SO cute!

Kaleigh Joy trying some tummy time on for size...the verdict is she's not a fan!

She still hasn't figured out how to turn her head right away, so this picture makes me laugh. Looks like she's thinking, "Who is this weirdo and why is she taking my picture?"

Caleb loves his "baby" :) Has to learn to be a little less rough with her sometimes though lol

Josh, Tiff and baby Reign came over for fiesta night. Here are the two new additions to the family - Reign and Kaleigh. Reign is only 8 days older than Kaleigh!

I just loved all of Reigns cute little poses

And Kaleigh's big eyes

My sis, Amanda's 2 little cuties :)

Aunt Tiff holding Kaleigh Mae :)

Mommy and Daddy with baby Reign

My adorable sis and her two adorable kiddos :)

Birthday Girl

We celebrated my birthday a few days early with some yummy cake and ice cream after our fiesta meal :)

My 29th Birthday

For the first time since I have known Mark, he actually was finished with the harvest by my birthday! To read all about the big day, check out my blog post about it. We didn't really do much that evening to celebrate the day of, but planned to celebrate on Saturday :)

PumpkinFest with Drew and Megan in Tea

Mark's cousins, Drew and Megan invited us to Megan's place in Tea for a fun night of pumpkin carving and pizza!










Thanks for my birthday cheesecake, Megan!

Birthday Weekend in Sioux Falls

Mark and I decided to get a hotel room Friday night so we wouldn't have to drive all the way home Friday night after PumpkinFest, so we had a fun, relaxing day in Sioux Falls on Saturday :)

We slept in a bit, then I went to pick up a latte and some breakfast and brought it back to the hotel. We found out my old boss from Raven (Melander) was staying at the same hotel, so we visited with him for an hour in the lobby before picking up Rach at her place for lunch at Qdoba. It was so great to see her, as it had been a while!



After lunch and visiting with Rach a bit, we ventured over to the west side of Sioux Falls for a little shopping for most of the afternoon, then had supper at HuHot (our favorite eatery), and caught a movie (Inception) at WestMall 7 before heading home :)