I did make time for a few fun things over the past couple of months though...so here are the highlights:
Labor day weekend my friend Nick from elementary/middle/high school, married his beautiful wife Christina. They had a gorgeous day for the wedding and it was fun to catch up with old friends that I don't see very often.
Nick and Christina dancing the night awayA month-and-a-half later, Nick's best friend followed suit and got married as well. :) So the weekend of October 23-25 I made the long trip out to Bismarck for my friend Nate's wedding. Nate and I have always been extremely close, so I was happy to be able to celebrate the big day with him and his wife Brook. I have known Nate's whole family my entire life, so it was very much like going to a family wedding, rather than a friend's wedding. They are fantastic together and I wish them a lifetime of happiness!!
I was home again this year for Halloween and my friend Jessi had a Halloween/Surprise 30th birthday party for her husband Curt. I had a really hard time coming up with costume ideas and had pretty much decided to just go as a witch (how original and exciting huh?). I think I have probably been a witch 12 times in my life (ok...so maybe I'm exaggerating). Anyway, I was at Halloween Express trying to get some other ideas when I decided it would be fun to be a hippie. I found a great wig and went with it! It was a fun night....my favorite part of my costume were the sunglasses. :)
"Peace dude"The day after Halloween was the day that the Vikings played the Packers at Lambeau. I went over to my friend Lisa's to watch the game with her and the kids. Here's a picture of the kiddos in their Vike's gear!
Maddie, Noah, and MakennaLisa's husband (a former soldier) has been in the VA hospital in the cities for about 6 weeks. He ruptured his Achilles tendon back in March and had a couple of surgeries on it. After the second surgery (in late summer), Brian developed a severe infection in his leg (due to the surgeon not closing the incision completely). He ended up being transferred to the VA by ambulance and went through numerous additional surgeries where they ended up having to remove the tendon completely along with a lot of muscle and skin tissue. After an EXTREMELY long surgery where they did some tissue and skin grafting, he has about another 4-6 weeks left before he will be able to come home and then a long road to recovery. We are all just very excited that he didn't end up losing his leg (which was a very real possibility). He is too young to have the limitations that he will have once he is done with the recovery process, but he ended up being fairly lucky all things considered.






