Afton 2008

This is the first Christmas day I have had off work in the last 5 years. Where do I decide to spend it? You guessed it, the annual Jdub ski/snowboarding "gathering" at Afton. Oh boy, it's been a while for me, and now there is a whole new group of teenyboppers there ready to make their purchase at the meat-market. Yes, I was one of those at one time, but 10 years later I am very delighted to see some oldies but goodies too. Nothing like seeing old friends and do what we do best. HIT THE SLOPES!

Even Jake with his half torn ACL was getting tempted to go in the snowboard park and hit the half pipe and race all his homies down the hill. Of course he beat all the contestants down the hill, but never attempted the half-pipe.

Summer and Hilary made an appearance too!

I have to say, the weather was perfect, we actually had REAL snow on the hills for the first time. Going up the lift we also had nice views of pretty snow on top of the tree branches. For skiing in Minnesota that's a big deal, right?

In the olden days I used to be out on the hill until they close, but nowadays I prefer to intermittently come into the chalet and warm up, re-energize, and chat with everyone. This year one of Jake's old buddies Cam showed up (he's one of those really crazy, goofy guys you know) and kept saying he would go down the hill in his shorts and t-shirt. Little did I know I was gonna convince him not only to ski down the hill half naked, but to actually snow-board (which he's never done before). But as we all know there's a price to all things-$20 bet. Money talks I guess. After all it is recession times. I told him it would be the easiest $20 he'd ever make. Fortunately my homie Jake had my back to deliver my promise$ since I'm broke as broke and shouldn't be making money bets at all. Thanks again babe!

Cam made it down the hill safe and sound in his shorts with only a dozen wipe outs. I'm sure he has a few raspberries this morning-yikes! But all in good fun right?

We left Afton laughing, and that's all that matters.

Haircut part Deux

The saga continues...

I ventured out again for my haircut. Actually I was refusing to leave the house for days in a row because my hair looks like a scare-crow wig. I was getting worried since I started thinking of myself as a homebody not wanting to do anything but stay at home having babies. This needed an intervention immediately so I got online and found Juut's website, got the number and made an appointment for the next day (today).

This morning I was a little anxious to go Uptown and give my hair away to a stranger.. again. Luckily after much traffic/parking hassle I walked in, just a tad bit late (Uptown parking is enough of a nightmare to make a person crazy) and found myself surrounded by girls with edgy bobs, funky hair-cuts, and hair-colors of the rainbow. I knew I was at the right place, even though my hair was covered with a knitted 'mommy-hat' (no offense mommies). Shortly after I checked my self in I was greeted by a petite little schnazy gal in a teal vintage dress with an 8 inch wide belt that made her already skinny waist look itzy bitzy. Her hair was dark and long with huge fluffy curls in it. "Hi, are you Anna? I'm Jo I'll be doing your coloring today". Ends up Jo is a new-grad from the Aveda Institute specializing in hair colors. Not even a couple of minutes later this other girl comes up introducing herself as Kristen telling me she is very excited to cut my hair today after coloring. Kristen had red hair with a super edgy short haircut and after talking with her for a little bit I knew I was in good hands.

After three hours of foils, processing, washing, cutting and styling I walked out of the salon feeling like a supermodel. I texted Jake right away telling him he has to take me out tonight because my hair is way to sexy to stay home.

Jake felt like going to Bennihana's but it was completely booked for the night so we settled for Hullihans instead with no complaints from me since last time at Bennihana's I smelled like a Wendy's fryer the rest of the night. Jake insists that was only because we sat in the corner and the ventilation was bad. Anyways we were planning on going to a show down-town later in the evening, but after dinner we felt kinda tired and just for the heck of it went to Dave&Busters. We saw these complete nerd guys trying to beat each other in "fantastic dance". I thought I was gonna die it was so funny. I snuck a picture without them noticing. After playing a couple of games of air-hockey we came home and right now it's about 11:30pm, I'm blogging and Jake's on the couch snoring. I'm actually yawning quite a bit at this point too, I think we're getting old.

Wedding Favorites

I thought I would post some of my favorite wedding pictures.

Of course none of these pictures would have existed if it wasn't for our deer friend Lena the photographer. Thanks again Lena for bringing your camera and taking some really unforgettable snapshots. Congratulations again to Lena and Shea on your beautiful new baby girl born last week. We're looking forward to come and see you in Seattle.

Appliances are dying...

...one by one here in the ol' bachelor pad. Actually after 6 months of wifey living here it's not longer that. Dishwasher broke 3 days ago and I'm boycotting dishes (hence the pile-up). We are becoming regulars down at the Appliance Smart, they knew Jake by name, I giggled at that. Here it is yet one more appliance getting replaced, oj, I told Jake this time it wasn't my fault, I never cursed at it once.

Laid Off

I have officially been laid off from North Memorial Medical Center as of December 29th. They have decided to lay off around 120 RN's throughout the hospital based on seniority, and since I have only been there for 4 months I was FedExed the "Layoff letter" last Saturday morning. It wasn't pink. I never thought I would ever see the day of being laid off working as a Cardiac Critical Care Nurse in a Level 1 Trauma Center of the Metro Area. But here it is and I am in major denial. Unemployment?! Are you kidding me? Luckily I was offered another job at the Buffalo Hospital just 2 days later and will be starting on Jan 12th.

Buffalo is a smaller town about 10 minutes from where I live. It's hospital has 24 med/surg beds as well as a whole 4 intensive care beds and I will be working between the two departments depending on patient census. I will be going from taking care of patients that are intubated on ventilators with severe septic shock and post-0p open hearts back to appendectomies, pneumonia, grandma's broken hip, gall-bladder surgeries, and don't forget about the good ol' detox patients. Yay for me right?!

Fortunately my attitude is one of my better attributes and I am looking forward going back to a smaller hospital since I started out working at the Hutchinson Hospital as a new-grad. So the silver lining of the story is that I still have a job that is even closer to home and I get 2 weeks off to relax over new-years. And I don't have to apply for unemployment after all.

Since I'm on the topic of nursing here are some of my favorite quotes from the mother of all nurses, and the pave maker of women empowerment Florence Nightingale:

“I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.”

"Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion”

My new favorite band.

Ok, I Love Augustana's "Sweet'n Low". I'm sure you've heard it already, unless you only listen to the Current. I guess they aren't good enough to be played on that station yet. (Hint hint Jake, their forever loyal listener). Maybe they are too Pop'y. But I'm sure I'm not the first to say a little pop is good for the soul!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2D07wrBNMk

Actually one of the reasons I love Augustana is that his voice reminds me of Per Gessle, one of my #1 Pop Idols since before I can remember. If you didn't grow up in Sweden he's the lead singer of the band Roxette. Yes, when you were rocking out to Journey, Nirvana, Kiss, Queen, and Gun's Roses I was making routines to "She's got the Look" and singing karaoke to "It must have been Love", and don't forget "Listen to your Heart". Not those are oldies but goodies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sJPUTTfNbg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_QGyLqQ2CI

I can't stop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0DNQMzpG_s

Gettin' frisky with it.

I'm sorry Amanda, I know you're gonna kill me for putting this picture on the blog but it's too funny to pass up. We were having dinner and I wanted a *nice* kissy picture. Little did Derek know Amanda was gonna get all frisky with that tongue.

Dinner and fun at our house

This weekend Peter, Andrea and the Kids came over to our house for some winter fun. Jake made pulled pork in the crock pot with some German potato salad. The guys went hunting in the morning (they didn't get anything....again). Good thing there's Costco, how would we survive otherwise? Andrea was so funny, she told Jake that she was sure this house had seen many crazy parties in it's days, did you ever imagine your friends coming over and putting a play pen up for the babies? I guess that's just the natural progression of things, huh?

We set up the ping pong table in the basement just for old time sake, and we had a really good time in the tournament. Who would have guessed Peter would win? He even beat Jake of all people, the ultimate Ping Pong king. I can actually hit that ball myself too believe it or not. I went to summer camp for like 7 years in a row when I was a kid, and guess what we did when it was raining? Play ping pong tournaments in the barn. It rains a lot in Sweden.

Jenna was like Sasha Fierce with that ping pong racket, she was hitting "no mercy balls".

Jackson was having more fun beating Jenna in sliding down the steps.



Even though Harrison was napping most of the day, he had fun too!

Back to ping pong competition.

The Finalists!

Let me play too!

Even though it's December, Jake was insisting on having a bond fire after dinner. Let's roast some marshmallows and get those smores goin'.

Get that fire going HeMan!

Winter Wonderland...

...is Finally here!



First substantial snow of the year has finally come to Minnesota. Do you remember when you were a kid and the first snow came? I swear that exciting feeling keeps coming back year after year, even when you're 27 years old. But don't ask me about it in 3 months, or I will cuss at the word snow (Jake thinks I should have said "punch you in the ovaries" cough*anchorman*cough!.) As for now I was so excited to go to the Gap and buy a winter sweater for Jake (and of course a couple for me). We're getting ready for all winter routines, such as bowling on Sunday afternoons. I never knew until this weekend that we have a little sledding hill in our backyard. I think I'll get one of those butt flaps one of these days just for the heck of it. Other than that, skiing and snowboarding is coming up too, but we can't forget about the cozy hibernating inside too.

Jake's new Toy

Yo, check it!

We just had our new Kitchen Aid Mixer delivered. Jake and I have both been drooling over this thing for quite a while now. After much discussion back and forth about what size bowl, how many watt's and most importantly what color, this is what we ended up with.

Originally we agreed our favorite color was the tangerine, but for $80 less we could buy the silver chrome. And since old Anna has turned into the new frugal Anna I couldn't justify spending that much on just a color. It's recession times after all! Jake was so excited about this he didn't even shower after work, just got started on making bars right away.

Here is the trial run of the first pumpkin bars made with the new mixer. Don't you just love the heaping frosting over the edge?

Deuce Gustafson

I have to extend an apology to the third member of our family whom I have completely neglected throughout my blogs. Our dog Deuce is an Hungarian Viszla and Jake's best pal when it comes to hunting and hanging out with in the early mornings when I'm too sleepy to get up.

Sometimes I think he looks like "Santa's little helper" you know the Simpson's dog, so I call him Jake's little Helper. But his other nickname is "Master of Destruction" which is pretty self-explanatory since he's always getting into mischief.

Fun at Christine's

Last Friday we drove our buns out to Hutchinson again to have some fun at Matt'n Christines since she was throwing a party. The guys went hunting in the morning (didn't get anything...again) while us girls went for a walk and got ourselves pretty. Christine made two chicken soups, one chicken noodle and the other Thai pumpkin, oh so yummy! Her plan was to play games and such, but we were having too much fun visiting and forgot about the board-games.

After eating, it was pool-time for all, except if you wanted to sit and watch(and work on looking gorgeous). And as you can see Derek is totally hogging the Karaoke game. The best I could get was a duet with him singing "Wake me up before you GoGo". I shouldn't complain though, last time I played American Idol Simon told me if I lived 2000 years ago I would get stoned that's how bad my singing was.