Tangled roots

ahhh sorry about not catching everyone up since my last post! This week/weekend I've been lucky enough to get a lot of alone time with my husband and I've totally been enjoying it =) But here we are, back for updates! Here are a few pictures from our weekend at Bunny's. Tangled Roots are amazing, talented musicians and their sets are so energetic and fun. We went out for pizza and then headed to the concert and had a blast...my family is crazy and so much fun!

The concert was at the Oak Center General Store near Lake City. If any of you have a chance to get there-it will be an experience you'll never forget!! I don't even know if I can put into words what it is like. It has a bit of a "hippie" atmosphere :) Everything is organic in their store and the building itself is really old and unique. They only take "what you can afford" to pay for the concerts, but no more than $15. They sell old fashioned coca-cola and other beverages in glass bottles for a buck, as well as ice cream cones. It's a small town, old-fashioned feel....it was great!

Congratulations...

to Jay for winning second place in the Biggest Loser contest! He lost only to the winner whom everyone is convinced cheated (supposedly last week she weighed in with weights in her pocket so this week it would appear she lost a lot of extra weight) Sad story but we dont care-he worked so hard and is in great shape!! He also won $165 for second place so we'll take it...what a nice chunk of change and just for getting healthy. Way to go babe!

We had a GREAT night last night, starting with our delicious mexican food and ending with coldstone! We were going to get a movie but he suggested going home and watching twilight together....and how could I resist? It was a perfect night !

Look at that stinker hiding from the camera! he thought he was so funny!! you can see him cracking up! Tonight we are headed to Rochester to see a concert with my Grandparents/family....and we are really looking forward to it. Alright I need to go get ready to leave, but I want to finish by saying I can't believe 3,000 people have visited our blog! I just noticed the count as I logged in and was amazed...that's a lot of people that are interested in our lives! Thank you for visiting...I hope we make it interesting :)

Earth Hour

For those of you who are "green" lovers like me, you may want to participate in Earth Hour tomorrow night! People around the world are turning their lights out for an hour to conserve energy. Show your green side by turning off your lights tomorrow. All you have to do is turn your lights off for an hour starting at 8:30 p.m. local time. It doesn't take much to help the Earth, and who doesn't want to hang out in candle light for an hour?! :) we'll be participating!

The Finale

YES! today is the last day for the biggest loser and we are so excited to celebrate tonight! Not only does that mean we can start cooking normal meals for dinner-we can also enjoy a night out to eat again :) Jay weighed in this morning and his final weight loss amount was 32.6 pounds!! I can't believe he lost an extra almost 7 pounds this week...he has been working so hard. Tonight we are going to celebrate at our favorite mexican joint and then have a date night. We're so excited! Tomorrow we have a lot of fun planned so we are really glad the weekend is here!

I'll keep you posted with the status of who wins as soon as I find out...hopefully it will be good news!!!

The last stretch!

This is the last week of the biggest loser for Jay's work...and he is currently in second place. Someone mysteriously lost 8 pounds last week and slipped into first. Now there is big controversary because they think she cheated! Anyways, he's lost a total of 26 pounds!!! Man he is he smokin'!! :) He looks super good and even if he doesn't win I'm still very proud of him and all his hard work. First and second places both get money from the pot, so he's hoping to come in at least second place. The pots up to $500-something dollars now-wow! That's a lot of money. I'll let everyone know on Friday what the end results are....come on babe you can do it!

phase 2 planning!

Tonight me and Jay are getting together with my Dad and Al for phase 2 of the planning process for our Eurotrip! Soooooo excited :) My sister will be picking where we go since it's her trip-but we don't care where we go, we are just elated to be traveling out of the country together!! Al's got her heart set on Southern Italy and an island off of Albania that is part of Greece. We shall see after tonight :) In honor of our Italian holiday, we'll be going to Olive Garden! We are so lucky, so much to look forward to!

Tonight Jay practices late so I just ordered some pizza and I'm going to relax and watch a little Twilight and Dancing with the Stars....a perfect night!! If only he could join me ;(

There is one thing I am sure of whenever my girlfriends get together: lots of laughs. We are crazy!! What a great weekend. we had so much fun together and surprisingly for our friends, minimal drama ;) It was a whole weekend of good times and more funny memories. Here we are decked out in our "Bride's Entourage" shirts with our Bride. On the way down we stopped half way (since it's a long drive) and stayed in Story City with Jenni's grandparents. We had a new Twilight fan among us, so the obsession was still raw! We ended up stopping at the Borders in Ames for the midnight Twilight party release, and waited to buy the movie. Even though it was late, it was a fun memory....and Meghan bought a dvd player so we could watch the movie in the car!!! Saturday night we went to the Melting Pot for dinner (yummy!) and then we went out in Kansas City to some fun bars. I think Amy had a really good time so it was a success!!

Sweet surprise....

As excited as I am to head down to Kansas City for Amy's bachelorette party, I was a little bummed that Jay and I would miss another consecutive weekend together, after a week of spending little time together due to baseball in between....and I had just found out that Sunday night when I return, he has a baseball meeting for a few hours. So it was a cute little surprise that when I left the house I had a little note left on my windsheild for me! It was just what I needed to pick me up, and get me excited for the weekend. Don't get me wrong I'm always up for a weekend with the girls!!! It just happened to fall during a busy month. Now I am waiting for them to come pick me up so we can get this party started! I can't wait to see Amy :) Amy, if you're reading this.....PREPARE YOURSELF!!!!! If this is anything like my amazing bachelorette party, it will definitely be a weekend to remember! (and I'm sure it will be!!!).

march madness!

March madness totally disrupts the office this time of year :) It's tradition for one of the lawyers to bring in a tv, and we order pizza and watch the games in the large conference room. Looks like the office won't be too productive today! Last night Jay and I filled out our brackets, and they were slightly different so we'll see who has a better record....you can probably guess who :)

Last night Jay got done with tryouts a little early so we had fun spending the night together. We got dinner and then went to rent a movie from Redbox. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's literally a red box that are in various places around cities (ours is in the McDonalds-not sure if thats the only place that has them) but you can rent movies for a dollar! It's awesome. They have tons of movies to choose from, including new releases. We rented Eagle Eye. It was pretty good! Even though Jay continues to be busy, it's always fun and more meaningful when we can spent a night together like that.

Tonight I have to pack and get ready to leave with the girls tomorrow for Amy's bachelorette party in Kansas City! This week has been so busy and I have had much to do. It will be nice to be on the road and just sit for a few hours! I am looking forward to seeing her since I didn't get to visit with her a ton after her shower a few weekends ago.

I am really excited to have pizza for lunch :)

my new ride

...Isn't she a beauty? My Dad got me a bike for Christmas but I haven't had a chance to get out and ride it yet...so I took her out for a spin today! What a great gift :) I'm super excited because Justin has a really nice bike too- so now we can ride together this summer. The only thing about her is she's BLUE! my least favorite color. (I didn't get to pick it out, it was a surprise) but I'm slowly warming up to it. I've even named her in hopes of liking her better. Big Blue.

This was taken mid-ride. Please do not attempt at home! Only a skilled rider can take pictures of this sort, not to mention a talented photographer ;)

Baseball=spring

The baseball season is officially underway at the highschool, which means my husband has gone relatively MIA. He's got two weeks of tryouts and then the regular season with practices and games begin. This week he won't be home until 9 each night! It's kind of a bummer since he was gone last weekend and I'll be gone this weekend, but I know he loves it. And when baseball starts, it also means that spring is here, so it's not so bad. It just means date nights will have to start a little later than normal. It also means a little free time to work on a few projects that I need to get done oh... um, right around the end of June ;)

I just went for my first outdoor run since last year! so exciting! It was so nice out today and I was able to slip out of work and head home around 3. It was awesome.

Twilight!

Our party was a success :) We made tons of twilight-inspired food, wore vampire fangs, and drank vampire-blood punch. We had so much fun!! Here is a shot of my Mom's kitchen pre-party (I was baking and they were decorating). It was a mess! I'll have to post more pictures later because a lot of them aren't on my camera. Here they are sporting their "fangs"!

My red velvet Twilight cake :) I've been making this cake a lot lately!

I made werewolf cupcakes in honor of Jacob.

Here is the package my brother sent us the dvd in, we thought it was so funny that he addressed it to Abbey & Aly Cullen...on the other side it said TWILIGHT! If I was the postman I would have stolen it :)

Chocolate dipped-strawberries we made while dinner was cooking. I requested mushroom ravioli for dinner, but we had lobster instead ;) It was delicious though!

My sisters decorating job.

I was able to get a lot of stuff done this weekend with Jay gone and I finally got together some pictures....so here are a few more shots of our room. Here are some flowers my Dad gave me :) They make me think of spring!






I took a close-up of the pattern on our bedspread because otherwise it looks plain white...and it's actually really detailed!

I finally got my second vase (the tall skinny one) to sit besdie the short, fat one to complete the look.

What a beautiful day!! I love spring weather. I just woke up and am getting ready to take Nemo on a walk because it's so nice...then I will be preparing for our Twilight party this afternoon!! ahhh we can't wait :)

blast from the past...

If you haven't already noticed, I've posted a photo strip Jay and I took at the Minnesota state fair a few years ago on the left of our page. After finding the picture of my Grandparents from a photo strip and framing it (part of our bedroom makeover), I dug through all our old pictures to find one of us at the same age. Underneath it is one of our favorite songs, and a song that Jay always says reminds him of me. Just a little something to share with you! Happy Friday!!

Jay safely on his way: check
glass of wine in hand: check
acoustic cities sampler playing on repeat: check
a thousand creative ideas swirling in my head: check
one wonderful evening ahead of me: check!

Who knows what this night will bring...all I know is that it is already fabulous!!

Tonight the boys leave for their big ski trip! I am so excited not only because I get to spend a lot of time with my Mom and sister, but because Jay's really excited to ski with the boys. When I was younger and more adventurous, I enjoyed skiing. I've never loved it but I really did enjoy it. Now the thought of being stuck on the mountain skiing all day in the freezing cold makes me shudder!!! The older I get the more I hate being cold and being outside in the winter! So I'm really glad he is getting a chance to get out on the (real) slopes of Salt Lake City without me :) I would have considered going if they were headed to Colorado, because I could curl up in front of the fireplace with a good book or go to the spa. But SLC just doesn't do it for me, and plus...it's a guy's trip.

I usually see my Mom and Al a few times a week and once on the weekend, but when Jay is gone I get to spend so much more consecutive time with them... and my sister begs me to sleep over. It's so much fun and I have been looking forward to it for quite some time now. Right now, at this very moment a copy of Twilight is being sent to us. We should get it tomorrow, and we've planned a Twilight dvd-release party for Saturday. Yes, we are nerds and we love it :) We have so much fun planned and I am anxious for Saturday to come! I'm also extremely excited to have the office to myself tomorrow...I can't even tell you!

A little direction..

I came across this website where you can take a short quiz to help you determine what your home decorating style is. This was really helpful for me because it put into words (and pictures) what my style looked like. It gave me a little direction so I am hoping it can help someone else who wants to decorate efficiently in their home! My personal decorating style was a 50/50 mix between "Rustic Revival" and "Modern Elegance" and a little bit of "French Eclectic" mixed in. I totally agree. For those of you who don't know what Rustic Revival is (I had no clue) here is a definition:

You can take kid out of the country but you can't take the country out of the kid... or is your theme "you can take the kid out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the kid?". Either way you play it, you are one of the unique individuals who loves a mix of modern and country. The clean lines of the modern softened by rustic/vintage elements is the perfect mix in your mind. And can we blame you? You've taken the best aspects of two popular designs and mixed them in a manner that appeals to young and old alike. A subtle background of white or light colors provides a nice canvas for all the wonderful flea market, eBay, or garage sale finds as well as the classic modern pieces that you love. French Eclectic somehow manages to be both formal & casual, classy and unassuming at the same time. You like your spaces to feel inviting from the moment you (or your guest) opens the front door & this feeling should continue even after you've entered your most formal room. Here are a few example pictures of my style:

This is totally me!! I love love love the clean, modern look but don't have much of it currently in my home (it's expensive!) but I love mixing in rustic and vintage elements that give a room character. Too much modern elements make a home seem too formal and stiff, but I love a sophisticated and vintage mixture. I tend to gravitate towards neutral colors for the majority of the room, with a splash of color here and there. I am so impressed with this quiz because I often find it hard to put my style into words, and they did a great job! Now if I can only implement it in our home :)

Last night was fun! We had a good dinner and watched DWTS....I'm so excited Melissa joined the group, she did so good! Now we get to see her every week :)

Here are some updated pictures of a part of our room.

We loved how detailed our photographer was. She captured moments in pictures I never even knew existed! Jenny was amazing. We picked out two pictures to be our "centerpiece" of this arrangement. We highlighted a few of our favorite moments. One of my absolute favorite pictures from our wedding day is the one of Jay touching his ring.

I don't know why but that image touched my heart, it was the first time he'd ever worn a ring on that finger-he was just putting it on. Since we had a picture of Jay's hand/ring, we thought it would be cool to also frame one of mine. So he picked out the picture of my hands. It may seem weird that we choose to blow up detailed pictures, but we love that they are so beautiful and they are personal wall art, instead of framing a random piece of art that has no personal connection. This was the runner-up for my picture:

Inside the large shadow box is my favorite picture of my Grandparents taken inside a photo booth. In the bottom of the box is Bunny's pearl and diamond bracelet that she gave me to wear in our wedding. The other earrings are mine. The smaller shadow box holds a few important and meaningful keys from our past--My favorite childhood home where we first started dating, the key to Justin’s old chevy truck...the trusty rusty that would drive us on all of our high school dates, and the key to our first home together. The picture on the top left is my Grandma on her wedding day. Beneath that is a chinese proverb quote that we liked. We choose white frames, although it may seem stark-it stands out great and looks very clean. It also matches the tones and shades of white and cream in the rest of our room. It took me awhile to come up with the arrangement on the wall...and I'm glad I decided to stagger the pictures at uneven heights. I like that they aren't even and I think it gives the arrangement a little flair.

We finally received Jay's family pictures taken by a photographer in Missouri over Thanksgiving this weekend. I've been begging for him to get a hold of them because he's really bad at getting/finding/taking family photos. So we literally have no pictures of the Feldkamp family in our house and I've really been wanting some! So we got a few of the proofs and need to get copies of them to put up...so I'm hoping this weekend while he's gone I will be able to make some progress on that. We have made so many changes and done a lot of work but I need to sort through and find pictures so I can post them. Look for more posts this weekend when I have more time (Jay leaves Thursday for Salt Lake City!)

Daylight savings time is making me tired :) we had so much fun planned this weekend that I kept waking up early too, so I am really behind on my sleep! Friday night dinner at Forepaugh's was excellent. We had Grape Leaf Wrapped Goat Cheese for an appetizer (yum!), a classic Waldorf salad, and then our main entree. I had seared scallops in garlic cream sauce. Jay had Pork tenderloin. After dinner we went home and hung out at the house. We were going to open a bottle of wine but we were so stuffed from dinner! Saturday morning we went to the gym and then I headed to Amy's shower. After the shower I went out to dinner with my girlfriends and we had fun visiting and catching up....we are all so busy now!

Sunday morning we had plans to try the new Mexican restaraunt at the Mall of America called Cantina. It was sooooo good! Everything was flavorful and fresh. Jay got steak tacos and I got Swiss Enchiladas. They were Chicken enchiladas, served over a bed of homemade tomatillo sauce. Topped with Monterey Jack, Oaxaca cheese, onions, & sour cream...they were amazing! They are probably the best enchiladas I've ever had. The restauraunt itself was pretty authentic-I know the enchiladas were. We've tryed many, many Mexican places before too because it's one of our favorites. We highly recommend it!! The rest of the afternoon was a blast-we just bummed around together, doing nothing really. We shopped at the mall a little, and then we stopped at ikea on the way home to get the finishing touches for our room makeover. When we got home we took a nap and watched tv. It was sooo nice to be lazy and have nothing going on for once!

Tonight Jenni invited me over to make me dinner and have some wine. I'm so excited! The premiere of Dancing With The Stars is on so we are going to watch that too. It was just the invite I needed on a Monday morning....ick I did not want to get out of bed!!!

Finally Friday. I'm about to head to lunch with my cousin in a few minutes, but wanted to get in a quick update on Bunny. She's healthy and back at home with a steady blood sugar level !! The medicine seems to be mostly out of her system and things are back to normal. Thanks for all the prayers and support everyone! We are so blessed.

I am really excited for this weekend because we will have some time to spend together, doing nothing much at all. Our dinner party tonight is at Forepaugh's (yum!!) so that will be fun and afterwards we plan on seeing a movie. Saturday afternoon is Amy's shower and we don't have any plans for tomorrow night, so we'll see what the day holds for us. Sunday we are planning a fun little date day :) I hope this weekend goes by slow so we can enjoy every second!

Wow I can't believe it's already Thursday...this week has been a whirlwind! I am really looking forward to the weekend and for everything to slow down. Tomorrow night we have a dinner party with my work so that will be really fun, and Saturday is Amy's bridal shower :) I'm excited for her to come home so I can see her in between moments of wedding-planning madness. I'll finally get back to finishing up our bedroom too. Next week Justin leaves on Thursday for Salt Lake City, and the weekend after that I leave for Amy's bachelorette party in Kansas City, MO...so we are hoping to spend some quality time together this weekend. We have a very busy month ahead of us!

The Bachelor

Who was totally shocked by the Bachelor? We were!! We totally loved Melissa and were so happy that they ended up together...or so we thought. In the end, I think it was a good decision for Jason to break it off with her, but I thought that doing it publicly was a little inappropriate. Poor Melissa! What an awful way to break up an engagement...on national television. Throughout the show Jason was portrayed as this great, honest guy, but I didn't think the way he handled the situation was anything like him. He says that the producers forced him to wait to break it off with Melissa until they were on air, but that's absurd. Decisions like that are life-changing, and if he really was such a great guy he should have lived up to his character and done it privately. I think he owed her that. Who cares if he got in "trouble"-the show was over!

They released private e-mails between Melissa and Jason today on yahoo, and being nosey as I am (and bored at work) I read them. It seemed like Melissa was pretty blindsided and completely didn't see that coming...and that Jason had lied to her about Molly. To propose to someone when you are in love with two people (and know it) is just ridiculous. He should have chosen whomever he wanted without proposing and taken it from there to see where it would go. I personally think shows like these are ridiculous, but of course I get sucked in by all the drama and then I have to watch it every week :) But seriously, who can fall in love and get engaged all within a few months time? Isn't the season only 6 weeks long or something? That's crazy....but just my opinion. Obviously, this is just my two cents!! I hope they end up happy.

His strength was perfect in my weakness.

So the past two days have been really emotional for our family. Before I tell the story, I am unbelievably happy to report that everyone is ok and as always, God is unwavering in His grace and mercy upon us. On Monday morning my Grandpa heard my Grandma say "I'm really scared" and when he rolled over to talk to her she was unresponsive. He immediatly called 911 and they rushed her to the hospital. She had a severly low blood sugar level of 28, lower than they had ever dealt with before. When Papa told them she is not diabetic, and we have no family history of diabetes, the concern grew.

They hooked her up to IV's with insane amounts of sugar pumping into her body. When she was on the IV drip, her blood sugar stabled out to a low but healthier number. Monday afternoon they tried to take her off the IV twice and both times she slipped back into a coma. They ruled out a stroke, heart attack, and tumor, but were still puzzled. It was a hard day to get through-being so far away from her when I had just spent the weekend with them. Prayers were all we had to lean on. Finally, around 3 p.m. they had a break-through.

One of her doctor's asked Papa if she had started taking any new medications recently. We had just been to the Pharmacy on Sunday to pick them up. It turns out that the Pharmacy had given her the wrong prescription. She was given an extremely dangeous medicine made for diabetics. It's only used in emergency situations when they need their blood sugar level lowered immediatly. In those situations they are supposed to take one pill. She took two. As soon as they discovered that, they hiked up the IV sugar content so it would counter-act the drug...because as soon as her blood sugar started to rise, the medicine continually tried to kick it back down. Not a good combination. We were so relieved to hear this (well, relieved and extremely angry) but it was still a scary situation. The doctors at the Mayo Clinic had never seen a case like this. They woke her up every half hour through the night to make her eat and to prick her finger and check her blood sugar level.

Tuesday morning my Mom and Al and I drove down to see her. She was awake and alert and back to her old self, but extremely tired. I was so happy to see her because I was an absolute wreck the day and night before. It was so good to spend the day with my Grandparents and Mom and Sister. I spent the afternoon sitting with her in her hospital bed and learning all about how my Grandparents met, what their dating days were like, and their early years in marriage. I swear they have the funniest stories I've ever heard! They get into the craziest situations (this one is proof!). I jotted down notes so I will always remember. We were laughing so hard we were crying! It was so comforting. Even in her worst moments my Grandma is the strongest and sassiest woman I know :) By that time, her blood sugar level was continually rising and stabling out. We were so lucky-so lucky that she had happened to tell my Papa that she was really scared Monday morning. No one knows how she was able to speak those words because with a blood sugar level of 28, her entire body was shut down and not functioning-not able to function! If she hadn't said that, he wouldn't have checked on her before getting up for work (he usually lets her sleep in) she would have died. I was so paralyzed with fear when I found out, and yet, in my moments of weakness God always carries me through-his strength is perfect in my weakness. "My grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9.

I just got off the phone with Bunny and they have successfully taken her off the IV and she is stable enough to go home this afternoon! I am overjoyed with happiness that this serious situation did not take another course. It really hit home that your life can immediatly change in a matter of seconds. Totally and completely. I hope this story encourages everyone to do today what you are going to put off for tomorrow, and don't take any blessing for granted!!

the new me :)

I guess it's time to debut the new me. Yes, I'm a brunette!! A few weeks ago (probably after one too many glasses of wine) I decided it was time for a change... so Jay and I went to search for the perfect color. After a mild panic attack, and a few smacks to Jay's stomach (he told me it turned purple mid-dye)...I emerged a brunette! I've never had brown hair before, so it took some time to fully get used to but I loved it right away, and I love that I finally had the courage to do it. Give me some time and I'll let you know if blondes or brunettes really have more fun ;)