Happy New Year!

New Years came about a little too fast for us. We had just gotten home from California on the 30th and we both had to work on the 31st and we figured we would be tired so we had accepted the invitation to our neighbors New Years Party. That way if one of us wanted to leave before the other....it was a walk 2 houses down or if we couldn't keep our eyes open it was a walk....2 houses down. We went to Tim and Sally's, reacquainted with some bonfire friends, met more of their family and made some new friends. It was a great time. AND we even made it until midnight!!!

A little after midnight another one of our neighbors (Cara) came by and invited us to join them if we still had any juice left in us as they had some friends over too. So we went over to our other neighbors' house - Scott and Cara. Us ladies had a friendly game of darts which myself and Robin won and the guys played a little pinball - I don't know who won that....but knowing the competitive streak in Jerad...I'm sure he was up there in points. Before everyone started for home...we got in a great picture of the men. We finally made it home a little after 3AM!! Can you believe it????!!!! Good thing it was just a short walk across the street.

*sniff sniff* Time to go home :-(

Yes...it is that time. Time to go home. Rob and Nancy were kind enough to send some fresh naval oranges home with us. I can honestly say that I am eating somewhat organic now with the fresh oranges and avocados. Now I have been told that my blogs are rather long so I did actually shorten them quite a bit that I did leave some things out. Below are some other random pictures of the week we spent in California.

Quick recap: 1. family time on the beach looking for Amanda's shells 2. Paul and his boys found a ball to play with on the beach 3. Pelican (I think) hanging out watching a sand volleyball game 4. one of the many seagulls hanging out on the pier 5. Seal Beach Surf Weather report (I think we need one of them just for Minnesota weather) 6. MAN TIME out at the fire pit - I was told I could only be out there just to take the picture 7. Parrot sitting outside eating dinner as we were walking by...I don't think he liked it that I disturbed his dinner for this photo 8. Andy playing tug 0 war with Mtani...I think the dog won 9. We now know where the Goodyear Blimp lives.

Well we finally made it on the plane to head home. We were happy to be heading home but very sad to leave. We had our Nattie to get home to!! Below are some shots from the plane before I fell asleep for 3 hours.

Can you tell that Nattie was VERY happy to have us home. :-)She got some reindeer ears left for her by my parents. I think she loved them...don't you?

Time to get Inked

Paul's family left today so that only left Jerad and I along with Nancy, Rob and Charlotte. So we were able to do some last minute tourist things that was easier with a small group. Does anyone else watch LA Ink on TLC? Well we found the tattoo shop. It is really named High Voltage Tattoo. Kat Von D was there doing her art on a customer so we didn't get to meet her but I got a good shot of her!!

Jerad and I also took our picture in the back with the famous mural and Kat's car. (We didn't need to be by the car...but it was in the way of the mural) We each got a T-shirt and then headed out to have some sushi again before we left. Again....it was a place that knew Rob. He called to see if they would still be open when we got back to the area around 1:30-2ish and she actually recognized his voice on the phone!!! I think I would have to go out to eat a lot more to get recognized like he does at these sushi joints.

They have some of the best Sushi places in the area and it was fabulous once again. And the best part is that it is so much more reasonably priced out there. Side note: Did you know that you can get a pedicure and manicure out there for the price of one pedicure here!!

After sushi I wanted to walk on the beach eating ice cream. So they took us to Huntington Beach where I picked up a few more shells for my collection. Then it was time to head home so Nancy, Charlotte and I could go to our final workout class of our visit. This was a total body conditioning so there was 30 minutes of cardio and then 30 minutes of toning. Nancy is tough....if she were here and I were to workout with her everyday I wouldn't need the self-imposed Bridal diet!! After class we headed home and Jerad and I decided we wanted chill out and pack before heading to bed so for dinner we ordered food in at yet another place we had never eaten at before. I had wanted to get shark...but the menu that Rob had was old and they no longer had it on the menu so I got swordfish instead and Jerad got ahi tuna in a Cajun seasoning and we got a side of calamari (totally redeemed the calamari from Parkers Lighthouse). We were also able to sample Rob's Killer Adult Eggnog. As far as eggnog goes...it was very good...but I can only do so much...it is just too thick for me. And for the "Adult" portion he used Southern Comfort. I never thought that I would ever drink that stuff again.

Football Sunday

You know, when I go on vacation, I usually think that the activities would be different than what we would normally do at home. But it was the day that football was on all day and Uncle Rob wanted to spend the day watching all of it. Jeff (Jerad's dad) left for home on a very early flight this morning and then we went to church a little later in the morning and when we returned Paul's family wasn't there yet so I turned on an ABC Family movie. Such a wholesome movie that the entire family could watch. Who knew that I would be vetoed immediately?!! Well while the guys were doing their thing, Joanie, Nancy, Charlotte and I took off to do our thing. We went to one of Nancy's friend's housewarming party which was right on Belmont Beach. Can you imagine getting up every morning and looking at the beach or walking right out of your living room sliding door and be on the beach? It was so amazing that Joanie and I did take a quick walk down to the beach and back while Charlotte and Nancy visited with their friends. After that we did a little shopping on 2nd St. No purchases, but we did run into a store owner who grew up in Minnesota. What a small world.

Now you all saw the lights of my neighbors.....and I am truly sorry that i do not have pictures of the lights of California. Lets see if I can paint a picture for you. Now if you can imagine some of the most extravagant lighting displays that you see in the midwest...but add real palm trees, cactus and no snow. Not to mention that real estate land in the LA area is not as vast as it is here in Minnesota/Midwest. So put about 30-40 different lighting displays of different sizes and shapes and then add the cotton batting wrapped on the grass to look like snow. That is how Rob and Nancy's neighbor decorates. Yes, I did say they use cotton batting as snow!! And it wasn't just scattered around....it lined the yard perfectly. I really wish I had taken a picture.....it truly was a sight.

We did have a little family night tonight also....we all sat down and watched the movie Elf. If you have never seen it....it is cheezy but very funny. All of us made it through the movie.....well except for Sam and Vanna. The red light is from others taking pictures also. :-)

Time for the Beach!!

Today everyone who was able to make it to California for the Holidays was finally all together. Jerad's uncle Paul, aunt Joanie and their boys Andy and Sam had spent Christmas in Hawaii and were here to spend the next couple of days with us. So the family line up: Rob and Nancy, Grandma Charlotte, Jerad's dad Jeff, Jerad and I, Paul, Joanie, Andy and Sam....and I can't forget those dogs.....Mtani, Tia, and Vanna.

Paul and Joanie and boys arrived just in time for a great breakfast prepared by Chef Rob. I had just finished my workout upstairs on their elliptical as I didn't really feel up to going to the early morning spinning class that Nancy was teaching....plus I really didn't want to embarrass myself in front of future family. After we were all fed and cleaned up, Rob and Nancy took Jerad and I and Paul's family to meander around the shoreline. We headed out to Sunset beach (I think) and it was amazing. I got to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the very first time in my life. Plus I found some amazing shells and the others were in search also....Nancy found one of the greatest little treasures...a starfish!! I would like to say that no live sea life was killed or hurt in this collection. Just check out all of my treasures!!

This last little guy you can see him pulling him self back into the ocean/sand (he was under the water)....I just thought it was a cool thing to actually see. I really enjoy being at the beach. I think I could spend just hours there just walking along. The surf drones out any noise or conversation of strangers. Another fun aspect was writing names in the sand before the surf washed it away. I'll have this one ready to put up come September 19th. :-)

After the beach we headed to Seal Beach pier. There were a ton of people fishing as we walked all the way to the end of the pier. It was getting close to dinner time so it was hard for Jerad not to look at the menu of the grill at the end of the pier...but he quickly looked away after seeing that one burger was $8. This was not a gourmet restaurant at all. But the view from that little grill diner was amazing. Where else can you be standing virtually on the beach and see palm trees and the mountains in the horizon?

After a stop to the shell shop, we headed home for some dinner of steak filets, salad and mash potatoes. You know I love my steak!! We did our grab bag Christmas game which was a ton of fun. I introduced them to my Sorenson side family dice game. I can now say that I know where Jerad got his competitive streak....the Barker side. All of the men have it!! After the game we decided to head out to the fire pit and enjoy the great weather.

I didn't get any pictures of the final event of the night....when the family of dog-sized raccoons decided to join our festive night at the fire pit. They were climbing all around in the trees in the neighbors yard just above where we were sitting. You know....I don't think I have seen Jerad jump from his chair so fast.
In the pictures would be Jerad and myself, myself and Jerad's cousin Sam, myself, Jerad and his dad and then the first picture would be the fabulous hosts - Rob, Nancy, Tia, Vanna and Mtani in the back.

What a day!!!

I almost forgot...Jerad did make some wonderful appetizers....bacon wrapped stuffed jalepenos. This picture does need to go in here as lately it is very rare to see him in the kitchen.

Tourist Time - What a day!

I got up bright and early this morning to join in Nancy's Body Conditioning class that she was subbing for at one of the gym's she works at. I'll tell you what....my muscles were a little numb afterwards. Maybe I'm not in as good of shape as I thought I was.

We headed home to shower and get ready for the day so we could go check out all of the LA sights. Before we headed out, Jerad's great aunt Tres and her daughter Tracy came over for a quick visit and were kind enough to bring over FRESH avocados from her very own tree. (Thank you so much Tres!!) After Tres and Tracy left we had lunch at one of their favorite sushi places called I love Sushi and it was like walking into Cheers....everyone knew Rob's name. I'm just guessing, but I think he may go there quite often.

Now on to being a tourist - we went to Beverly Hills (amazing houses), drove down Rodeo Drive (no way I could shop there), walked on the stars in front of Grauman's Theatre and put our feet in the stars' foot prints, saw the Hollywood sign and just soaked it all in.

As we headed back towards Cypress, Rob and Nancy wanted to show us Parker's Lighthouse in Long Beach. The Queen Mary is located there and we were lucky enough to see a cruise liner just before it was going to leave port. It was beautiful there as we arrived just in time for sunset.

We had a drink and some very poor appetizers at the restaurant there and the area was full of fun shops so we walked around for a very short time, but enough to head into the Hat Shop and try on a few stylish hats. I really think I could pull off those big fancy hats. I think I would really like to get one of the floppy hats for the summer...I just refuse to pay so much for that little luxury. So it is now onwards to home....I promised to make Rob some cookies and there is a hot tub waiting for us.

Merry Christmas!

Today was a quiet day. Businesses were closed (as they should be) so we hung out around the house. It was a little rainy today so we weren't laying out by the pool. We opened up the gifts from the stocking and gifts from the rest of the family. Santa was very generous and gave us all kinds of toys. We got slinkies, juggle balls, Hello Kitty neon pens, Hello Kitty hair clips and pocket calendars. Such fun stuff. I tried to round up a race of slinkies down the stairs but they were a little too short to go down the stairs. Later we had a very nice dinner (made by Chef Rob) of turkey, ham, potato salad, stuffing and other side dishes. Chef Rob was not pleased with this output of dinner and he thought all of the leftovers only deserved to be trash. Quite honestly, his rendition of a "poorly prepared dinner" would probably be one of my better dinners.

Like I said, we didn't get out to the pool today, but we did sit in the hot tub that evening. It was also the first time we met Rob's archnemisis - the skunk!! Rob's weapon of choice - the garden hose...apparently skunks do not like to get wet but they do like to walk along the top of their brick fence. I think they have skunks like we have squirrels.

Whoo Hoo..Christmas in California!!

It is Christmas Eve and Jerad and I are up at 4AM and it wasn't to see if Santa had stopped at our house. We were heading to the airport for our 7AM flight to California to spend the holiday with his dad's side of the family. We had a very nice flight in and I think you all would be happy to know that I did find out where the sun was hiding.....up above all of those cotton ball clouds.

Now I have never been to California before so I was soaking it all in and nothing screams tourist like a girl standing outside of the airport taking pictures of the palm trees. I just couldn't help it......it looks nothing like MSP airport!

We had just gotten our bags and Jerad's aunt Nancy was already there ready to get us. It was fabulous.

Jerad and I didn't get much sleep the night before and didn't really sleep on the plane at all so after an hour or so of visiting and having some lunch (which was FABULOUS homemade chili) at the house it was time for a nap. Who knew I could sleep for 2+ hours?!! I haven't been able to do that since I was in college. After our nap we got up and got ready to head to church for the Christmas Eve service at Nancy and Rob's church. Now I have to tell you...this was the biggest church I have ever been in. I think they told me there were about 3000 seats with a huge stage and had cameras going and 2 big screens on each side of the stage. The singers for the church were amazing. I think I could have sat and listened to them all night long. But we had to get home for some dinner. Rob is a fantastic cook with more "chef-like" skills. He made some lasanga that had spinach and mushrooms and I could have eaten the whole pan all by myself. We ended the night by sitting by the firepit in the back yard....what a life!!

A long lost friend

The holidays seems to bring everyone back home and that is one thing that I cherish. I only get to see my dear friend Tasha about once or twice a year. I don't think I would ever get to see her if I didn't live in the same city where she flies into when she comes back to the Midwest from Florida. We always have a great time together even though our time is limited to about an hour or two. This time we headed to Hooters in Burnsville to have a late lunch before she and her brother Dustin headed back to Belmond. Some times I wish I could just round up all of my friends that I don't see very often and just hang out like we use to. How does time get away from us so fast?

Such a treat for the eyes!

One of the things I enjoy the most is seeing all of the lights that our neighbors put up each year. Jerad tends to find it all a little tacky. I saw on the news that there was a neighborhood in Burnsville that goes all out so I told Jerad that we needed to go on a little adventure. Boy was he happy when we came upon all of the lights. ;-) I was a little disappointed b/c it was after 10pm and some of the lights were already shut off for the night. But I thought I would still share with you some of the "art" that my neighbors have in their yards.

Who knew that Santa's sleigh was lead by flamingos?

Winter weather brings the winter driving.....and my FIRST ACCIDENT!!

First off I would like to state that it was NOT my fault at all!!

As the winter weather has settled into Minnesota with snow packed roads, the traffic has becoming worse. This past week I think the longest I spent driving home was about 2 hours and I only live about 10 miles away from work. But if you would now allow me to step up onto my soapbox for a moment. I have lived my entire life in the Midwest where it does snow every winter and it does reach freezing temperatures so I have learned to drive in the snow and ice (if necessary). And I'm pretty sure that most of the people that live here now grew up the same way. So why don't they learn to drive when inclement weather strikes? Why do people feel the need to rush, tailgate or budge in front of other drivers when the roads are slick? Don't they realize that everyone else is in the same boat? I think it is much more important to make it home safely than it is to get there in the quickest time possible. Why is there such rage? Speaking of which, one guy actually scared me with his rage the other day. I-35W going southbound (towards my house) was practically at a stand still only inching forward as the minutes passed by. But there was one guy that thought he deserved to be considered more important than everyone else on the road. I was coming up to an on ramp and there were about 3 cars waiting to merge in but the guy in the 4th car was the one better than the rest of us. He decided he wasn't going to wait for his turn to merge and basically took a 90 degree turn right in front of me where he was basically perpendicular to the front of my car (please note that I had not even reached the area where the merging lines meet). So of course I honked my horn and he glared at me and flipped me off for about 15 seconds. COME ON DUDE! Okay to be honest he scared me a little bit b/c it looked like he just snapped. We were at a stand still so if I had flipped him off back, I kind of wondered if he would have gotten out of his car and come after me. I was actually in shock. Then when he was fully in front of me as we started going, he actually slammed on his brakes for no reason at all. Probably to cause rage in me, but it just kind of kept me in shock for a while. But he continued his rage and swerved into the middle lane in front of someone else and eventually went to the carpool lane....I have to say that I am guilty of wishing that he eventually went into the ditch b/c of his rage. Actually I felt really bad for his passenger...who knows how he treated that person.

Now for my accident...I know you are all waiting for this one. I had Monday off to do a little wedding dress/bridesmaid dress shopping with my friend Kristine and it had snowed on Sunday night quite a bit so the roads where not that desirable and that carried into snow packed roads on Tuesday. And if you know anything about snow packed roads, you know that it basically turns as slick as ice. I was on my way to work ready for the yummy food our department was going to have for our ALL DAY smorgasbord. I was almost to work and was almost to an intersection where the road was completely snow packed so I crept along like a grandma as the street was very slick and I was a good distance away from the car in front of me. As I was getting closer to the intersection I actually slid a little bit but it was controlled by the ABS in my car so I had no problems with the cars in front of me. By the time I got up to the lights, it turned red so I stopped......but for some reason the guy behind me wanted to follow so close on this slick street that he didn't make the stop and hit me. Of course I yelled out some choice obscenities but regained my control and was able to turn the corner and pull over. The other driver did too and he was very nice. He first asked if I was okay and then we looked at the damage.

Okay so the damage is really not that bad. You can see the two images above are close ups of the two sides of the bumper and this bottom picture is of the entire bumper. The gentleman gave me his insurance info and business card and I gave him my business card (there was no way I was going to report it to my insurance!) He said he would make a claim later that day. He was good to his word and the next morning his insurance agent called me. I had set up an appointment at a body shop and also arranged a rental in no time at all. I took my car in last night and got a Dodge Avenger as a rental. It is quite a fun little car. I am a little disappointed to come back from lunch today to receive a message from the body shop telling me that my car could be done tonight. I thought I could have this car throughout the weekend. :-) The interesting part is that the above damage did constitute a new bumper and repair of the absorber something that is behind the bumper and comes to the grand total of $788.00. That is just about meeting the guy's $1000 deductible. But he has to fix his car too which looked worse than my car did. And as a little side note.....had I backed into something or done something myself to cause the above damage....I probably wouldn't have gotten it fixed. It probably would have only cost me a lower price in resale in the future should I want to get a new car. But I don't have to worry about that b/c some other poor guy had to pay for it. I hope his holiday season gets better from here on out. He really is a nice man as he had emailed me a couple times to make sure that his agent called and that I was truly okay. All in all, I had a very positive 1st accident experience.

Party like a Rockstar!!

On Friday night we had our very last Christmas Party as Benfield as we are now Aon Benfield. A great time was had by all. The evening was started out by a Cocktail party at 6:30 (which we didn't arrive until 7:15) with dinner to follow at 7:30 (which didn't begin until about 8pm) I don't know if I have any pictures of my first glass of wine, but I will say it was basically the size of the water glasses and the bartender was generous enough to fill it to the top. I felt so lucky...that way I could catch up to everyone else ;-P

So I didn't get any action shots but down here there is Derek finishing up his singing with the Johnny Holm band. He did an awesome job...I wonder if he does any singing for weddings. Hmmmm?

And of course I had to get my shots in with the friends. It was a great to see everyone dressed up and having a nice dinner together.

As I mentioned, we had the Johnny Holm band as our entertainment and I was quite surprised at how many people got up and danced. I have to say my only disappointment in the evening was that I did not win any of the prizes they awarded this year. Let's see if I can name off all SIX prizes (for maybe 400+ people)

1. Nintendo Wii - Jerad thought I would win because I truly am NOT a fan of video games
2. $100 gift card to a salon/spa
3. $100 gift card to Target
4. $100 gift card to Best Buy
5. Bose Ipod docking station (I don't even own an IPod)
6. ITouch Ipod

I could have used gifts 2, 3, 4, and 6. But I was unlucky this year. Hopefully Aon Benfield will do a party next year. :-)