Happy Birthday Kristin!

dear kristin,

i know you don't look at my blog and will therefore probably never see this (thank god because you'd kill me for putting that picture up...but you know...you really should let me take more so i have more options :)) but i just wanted to write you a little note and say 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD WOMAN!!!'

yes, yes, i know you are actually younger than me - but i can't help the fact that i look younger, can i? (kidding! kidding!) remember how in the 7th grade we were science lab partners and you thought i was incredibly annoying? well - some things never change, eh?

it just occured to me that you're one of the oldest friends i have (not age wise - that would be chris - ha!) but one of the friends i've had the longest and that i continue to talk to on a regular basis. pretty amazing! you're a terrific friend kristin - always there for me, always giving it to me straight and never sugar coating it. i can always count on you - thank you. i hope you can count on me too (except remembering you're actual birthday - i lucked out this year. i always know that it's the day before or after V-Day....).

i'm glad we've become closer this past year. playing tennis, walking in the dog park, drinking cheap alcohol and/or expensive bourbon (i know how you love that stuff!). thank you for continuing to play Monopoly with me despite the fact that i kicked you at Gina's house that one time. thank you for continuing to let me drive - despite the fact that i turn into a horrid driver whenever you're in the car with me (i swear - only you would make me stop in the middle of a freeway!). thank you for letting me lodge at your house for awhile (and for letting me continue to use it for a lot of my stuff) - for letting me use your squeeky bed! (ah memories...that sounded bad...)

alright. i'm gonna get going here. hope you had a fantastic birthday. sorry i bailed early on the celebrations - i'll make it up to you next week with a cake! maybe i'll even back into your car and knock your plates off for old times sake :)

love you, michelle

Happy Birthday Chris!!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Chris.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!

i love you

You Say It's Your Birthday?

well...

It's MY Birthday too - Yeah!


and I'm gonna have a good time!


On the agenda:

Lunch with Chris - he's bringing it into work :) (what a sweetheart!) Along with the 2 trays of Rice Krispie treats he made last night (one regular and one peanut butter with chocolate on top!)

Dinner with Chris and some friends at the wonderful Tum Rup Thai followed by a few drinks at Figlio's :)

Movie Shoot! Chris and I are going to be extra's in my friend Carrie's film 'White Man's World' this evening!


I love birthdays! You'd think I'd be better at remembering them because of that but for some reason I'm not - need to work on that! Chris and I felt like asses yesterday after realizing that we had called his dad on Saturday and mentioned that my birthday was coming up only to realize last night that we completely forgot his birthday on the 10th! Oops!

It was a great weekend! Friday night myself and 3 friends headed over to Minneapolis to be extra's on the 'White Man's World' shoot. Carrie gave me an early birthday gift - some beautiful yarn that I cannot wait to use, some note cards (I need to start writing more letters) and yummy chocolate :) Then 3 of us headed out for drinks and some good girl chat time :) Saturday Chris and I headed out (along with Nattie whome we had for the weekend) to Willmar to see his family :) It was a gorgeous day and we went out on the lake for a boat ride :) Yesterday his mom gave me a cake (Carter - his nephew - was super cute and kept sticking his fingers into the icing!) and an awesome birthday gift - knitting needles, 3 skiens of yarn, and a fabulous felting project book! (I've never done it before but am really excited to give it a go). We also got to see his sister Megan's new apartment - very nice! So yeah - it was a great weekend!

Alright - back to "work" :) I'll post some pictures of the night's festivities tomorrow :)

And as of yet - 12:11pm I'm still 26 :) Got a few hours left at least :)

Sunday Monday

Happy Days!

One year ago this past Sunday - Chris and I met :)
One year ago this past Monday - Chris asked me out :)

We spent the weekend up in Duluth - beautiful weather for once! :) Our main reason for heading in that direction was to see my sister who flew in with her baby (my nephew..guess that's obvious though...) Max from NJ. I haven't seen Max since he was born - and he was absolutely adorable!! Unfortunately I was rather dumb and forgot to bring my camera - well we brought the camera but failed to buy batteries for it! (the pictures below come from Carrie - thank you!)

We drove up on Saturday and stopped in to see my friend and former co-worker Chevra at Michelina's (working that fantastic Saturday shift!). It was fun to see her and chat (hi Chevra!). After that we headed downtown to see Carrie and her new offices for 4TrackFilms (check them out!). It was beautiful - great color choices and great location! I was very impressed and in awe of it all! Next we headed to the lakewalk and enjoyed a nice stroll with my sister Amy and Max. It was great seeing her and I'm glad she was finally able to meet Chris :) And Max is just the happiest baby I've seen - all giggles and smiles - so cute! (tick tock tick tock tick tock.....sigh....)

For dinner we met Carrie and Steve at Sammy's Pizza to celebrate :) Without them Chris and I would never have met! So thank you very much Carrie - I owe it all to you! I still can't believe it's been 1 year! It's just flown by!

After dinner we headed back to their place for dessert - I made a spice cake with chocolate frosting and coconut (I died the coconut to make it look like fall leaves but ended up with with something that looked like the Jamaican Flag threw up on) It was really great to see Carrie again and actually have the time to sit and chat! She's looks so adorable with her little belly! (Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock....[pouty face]...)

Sunday we relaxed - walked downtown and along the lakewalk. Had lunch at the Brewhouse (yum!) and then dinner at my parents. All in all it was a great weekend although it made me miss Duluth a lot. I just love that town - especially in the fall. And I miss beling able to hang out on a weeknight with Carrie and just sit and knit/crochet. So that kinda made me sad upon leaving - I'll just have to try and make it up there more often.

I'll post more about Chris and I on our (or what we've determined to be the 'official' year anniversary) year anniversary - October 7th (our first date). Suffice it to say that I've never been happier in my life! I love you Chris!! :)

Happy Birthday Aunt Fran!

Happy Birthday!

Friday was Fran's Birthday!

To celebrate I made a German Chocolate Cake. Then Nathan, Chris and I took her out to dinner at the Birchwood Cafe (very good!). It was nice evening. Good company. Good conversation. Good food. Good times :)

And here are some pictures from the evening....

a night out

mary and i in all our tongue-ie glory

it's not like i haven't had the time for a 'night out' - but i don't have the funds to really justify driving across two major metropolitan cities and then to buy drinks on top of that. but seeing as how every time mary came to duluth i was in the cities it was high time we see each other!


mary lives in st. cloud but was in the cities tuesday night to visit her sister becca (hi Mary and Becca!) so we all met up at figlio's in uptown. i love love love figlio's. not so much becuase they have outstanding food that you can't find anywhere else - but they're presentation of that food is awesome - so i love going there. and it just so happened to be happy hour - which did not stop me from ordering a sugar mama martini - not on the happy hour list but absolutely heavenly. i forget all that's in it but i know it has vanilla vodka, pureed strawberries, and champagne. it is awesome. try one.

becca and jordan

after the martini i decided that i really needed to get a piece of cake - red velvet! mmmmm! very tasty! and big - that piece of cake was massive and i had help in eating it :) all in all it was a really good evening! it felt good to get out! and it was wonderful seeing mary! hopefully soon i'll have a job and will be able to afford going up to st. cloud to visit her and kevin :)

red velvet heaven w/strawberry ice-cream

becca and i eating the cake
i don't know why i have that look on my face