my life is average

Life as of late..

It’s been a busy few weeks. Preparing for the summer months at work which means I’m a little bit of a workaholic. Couple long evenings at the office, but I know some day my lack of social life and dedication to the job will pay off. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Shortly after St. Patty’s day.. our company had it’s “Annual Event.” Basically all the properties come together and there are presenters, speakers, and awards. I was super proud as Uptown took home a boat load of awards. All of them can be attributed to the hard work of my boss, Deanne.. she is such a great manager! It was super hero themed, so I just just elated to have a chance to put my ninja turtle gear back on. Needless to say, when I saw a whole pack of turtles from the Lemay Lake property, I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. A great day all the same.

I also spent some time as a full-time nanny for my two little Uptown boys while their parents were out of the state. I babysit them all the time, but I had them for the majority of the week which was a big change. The week included some hockey games, a trip to the zoo, and a lot of play time. I always hear talk from parents about exhaustion and weariness after spending a full hour/day/week with their kids. Even from just babysitting for a few hours at a time, I knew this to be true. But when you throw in trying to work a full-time job and no one to help… Wow. That was truly and entirely exhausting. 

This is no complaint. I had so much fun and learned a lot over the weekend. Things I learned:

• I want to be a mom. Really really really want to have kids. 
• I don’t want to be a single mother. I don’t think anyone has kids with this goal in mind.. but I just needed to get that out there. It was tough.
• I will let my kids do any sport they want. But unless my future beautiful husband wants to take it on.. I really hope they play basketball instead of hockey. There was SO much equipment and I wasn’t quite sure what went where. I laced/taped/Velcroed the kid in so many places that I couldn’t be sure he would even be able to move when I was done. I guess part of it is that Iowa isn’t really into hockey as much as these wacky Minnesotans.. but we’re going to have to let the hubby take care of this one.
• Kids truly don’t like to eat vegetables. I made all natural home cooked meals while I was there because that’s what I do at home. They ate well, but definitely struggled to eat the greens. When the parents needed to extend their trip another day, I had to take the kids to Target to get more food. I grabbed my usual chicken and fresh vegetables, but as soon as we passed the section in the frozen food aisle with the chicken tenders.. it was like they had seen the light. “Laaaaaaaaaaaa” Choirs of angels sang praises of mystery chicken goodness to them from on high. I knew I wasn’t leaving that  aisle without hormone induced frozen chicken in a bag. I can’t believe kids like this stuff. 
• Bed-time is a curse. These days, I run myself so thin that by the time I get near a bed or a couch, I’m in a 5-6 hour comatose. Especially after the days we spent playing for hours at a time or out at the zoo, I thought the kids would tucker out at some point. Heck no. No naps. No dozing off. Nothing. These kids go HARD. And even when 8 pm rolled around and I was struggling to keep my eyes open, there they were.. running around with oodles of energy. Maybe there is something special in those horrible chicken fingers after all…
• Little boys think that bodily functions are the coolest things ever. From fart, to burps, boogers and poops.. I’ve seen it all. Ew. Another thing that I’ll have to leave to my future husband.

That’s all for now. I love these little guys more than anything and so excited that I get to nanny for a few days this coming week :) 

St. Patrick’s Day Madness..

I’m not sure how else to describe St. Patrick’s day in St. Paul when it actually falls on a Saturday and it’s 70+ degrees outside. Amazing was an understatement. 

The morning began with homemade breakfast by Mr. Droske at Sammy and my place. This was supposed to be our filler so we could consume massive amounts of beer through the day, but I was so excited about my ninja turtle shirt and backpack that I completely forgot to eat. Whoops. We got ready: Sammy had made a puff paint shirt the night before, there was a lot of glitter involved (which is still stuck all over my scalp) and some green face paint. 

Now, the day was perfect, but I do need to throw in a bit of a complaint: The parade sucked. Not a single float.. just people walking, the occasional bag piper or firetruck. If I wanted to watch people prance down the street.. I’d go to a cross country race. Word of advice, don’t go to the parade next year. Just get to the bar sooner.

Okay, now that I have that off my chest, the rest of the afternoon was filled with many a beer and a couple a shot. Seventh street was packed.. literally arm to arm, butt to butt at every bar we went to. No complaints, there was some live music, great company and many memories made. Well, at least the ones I remember.

Sammy and I just played a game of “Guess how I got that bruise.” I actually think my fondest memory of the evening was watching Sammy chase after her green hat that blew away.. and proceeding to knock herself to the concrete and scrape up her elbows and knees like a clumsy kid. Concrete pavement-one point! Sammy…. zero. 

I still can’t get over how busy downtown was. Absolutely no cellphone service because there were just too many people in one place at once. This made for an interesting afternoon as we all kept getting separated and it wasn’t like you could just go find your friends.. you had to blitz through a solid wall of humanity to get from one side of the bar to the other. You would have been better off just crowd surfing over everyone. 

All the same, pictures attached and we’ll see ya next year!

Long time.. no blog. 

I’m sitting here in my bed, with a 125 lb dog lying next to me. Why? Because Minnesota is abnormally warm for March and my bedroom AC is the only one that is working. Big fluffy dog, AC=Louie up on the bed.

I should technically be getting some work done.. but this seems way more productive. Kind of. 

So, the last few weeks have been eventful. Mami Javi and Austin decided to come up and visit. Always a great crazy time when any of the Javellana’s get together. The Twin Cities is definitely a fun and entertaining place to live. However, trying to entertain people on a Thursday night in March is much more difficult than in the summer. So what do you do when you have a just recent legal adult from Iowa? You take him gambling. Yep. For my Minnesotan folk, you can’t gamble in the big ole IA until 21.. so, it’s kind of a rite of passage to drive to MN to go get your money taken away by some stupid slot machine.

This was only my second time gambling, so I guess I was somewhat looking forward to it. Started with twenty dollars and then… POOF! Those damn penny slots ate that right up. I was feeling pretty cool when I won $3 back, but to be honest.. I should have just stopped then because luck purely wasn’t on my side. 

Mami Javi ended up being the big winner of the night… she got her money back. 

Anyway, the festivities carried on into Moose Country. I believe I blogged a quick snippet about Moose Country a few months ago. We watch Iowa State bring home a win (thank goodness, I had them in my bracket for one win) and proceeded to drink goodies and watch SNL until of course.. Anna passed out first. 

The next day we decided we really wanted to go shopping. So off we piled to MOA when Austin and I saw the rides. God, you would have thought we were ten years old again, but we just wanted to relive those Camp Snoopy Days. I still think it’s pretty lame that it’s now Nickelodeon Universe, or whatever. Back in the day when Dad would take us up to visit the other Javellana’s, Austin and I would always get really quiet on the way home. Joby always caved and ended up taking us… muahahaha. But yes, we went on every single ride that would hold our weight capacity. And it… was… awesome. Well, minus the Pepsi rollercoaster—I really should have just let that one live in my memory. 

Austin and I purposefully left the log ride for the end of the day, as this is the ride we loved most as kids. And it was just as cool as it was ten years ago.. maybe even better. Mami Javi does not particularly like rollercoasters or anything of that nature, but was all about the log ride. So off we went, logging along. Now, I don’t think you’re really supposed to actually get wet on this ride. I mean, everyone who we saw going through the exit line came out primarily dry. Yeah… everyone. But leave it to the Javellana’s to mess that one up. I’m not sure what happened, but all of a sudden we got splashed. And not even during one of the big slide parts, just trucking through the damn chute. And guess who was sitting in front? Yep.. you guessed it. Me. Soaked from head to toe and had to spend the rest of the day like that. Aaaawweessoommmee. 

Great day all around. 

I also had the chance to see Boyce Avenue this week. I looooooooove Boyce. If you don’t know who they are, let me link you my favorite song by them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHrq_xncP7E I always imagine my future husband singing this song and wondering where where the crap I am… but I don’t know what he looks like, so that’s an interesting daydream.

ANYWAY. Boyce Avenue is a band of three brothers and some other guy who’s clearly not in the family who do a lot of covers. Thing about it is, they’re extremely creative and take a lot of liberty to make the covers their own so I love them dearly. Their original tracks are also good stuff to listen to. 

Had the opportunity to see Josh Nanke, who I haven’t seen probably since graduation, as he met up with Brittany who I have recently been reunited with in the city! A great little mini CFHS reunion and an awesome show to go along with it.

Ended the night at O’Donovan’s and went to sleep with dreams of marrying Alejandro Manzano.. the lead singer :)

Part two of the blog..

So, girls night quickly turned into Wartburg Choir reunion night. Trevor Carolan, dear friend and former student body president of the Wartburg class of 2011, is studying at St. T’s up here. And Mr. Carolan just happened to have our dear friends Kenton and Brittan visiting in the Twin Cities. Also, Joy was meeting up with Nick.. not a choir member, but definitely a Knight. Lo and behold, my dear friend PCL just happened to be hosting our newly engaged Krog’s and Meghan, so one by one… this weekend became a Wartburg pow wow.

As previously mentioned, after a five hour shopping trip, Joy, Lauren, Rachel and myself began the female ritual we like to call “getting ready.” Soon after, Krog’s and Meghann joined our getting ready party. I’m not sure that Krog’s was all too thrilled about hanging out with six girls while they’re primping, but give the man a Busch and he’s a happy camper.

Off we went to Senor Wong’s (yes, it is really called Senor Wong’s) in St. Paul and enter PCL and Nick. It was a delicious meal, and while I wasn’t aware of it at the time, many of the cocktails were named after various sexual positions. Whew… apparently I am extremely inexperienced as I had no clue that the menu items had such crazy terminology. Let’s just say… I learned a lot at dinner that night. Our waiter was hilarious, truly added to the giddy atmosphere of our table.

We finished dinner and headed back to my place for some pre-gaming. Sammy and I tried to teach everyone the horse game that we learned from Cunard’s friend Jon.. but it wasn’t a hit so what did we play??? You guessed it..

Circle.. of.. death.

You see, I never have good luck with this game. (goo.gl/t9yqH). Ever. In fact.. I think I’ve lost almost every game I’ve played. But, I am proud to say… I DID NOT POP THE TAB THIS GAME :) Miss Rachel Douvikas was our little victim during that round and many good times were had. Just after the game ended, Joy decided she wanted to “raise the roof” (please see attached picture) and all of a sudden, Krog’s busted out some baloney on the piano. I’m not really sure what all went on there but it was time to go. 

So off we went to Shout House in Minneapolis. Shout House is a piano bar and lucky for us, Lauren knew the doorstaff so… free cover, yahoo. What a small world? The rest of the evening was filled with many drinks, laughs, singing, dancing, and making new friends. Uhm, yeah. Unfortunately, it seemed the night ended just as soon as it began. I was extremely disappointed when they did not start playing “Sweet Caroline” as the lights came back on. Truly, disappointed. 

So we began the journey back to our place.. Which was a little difficult for me: I realized about five minutes into the car ride home that I could not hold it any more.  I tried.. really, I did. By the time we got into St. Paul, there was no denying it… I was going to pee my pants. Sammy was kind of to swing off the highway and thus began my first (and hopefully only) public urination situation. Now, I honestly considered leaving this part of the story out, but I’ve been informed that if I didn’t blog about it.. that it would be blackmail later in life. I figured, if you can’t laugh at yourself, then you’ve got issues.. but really, if this ever comes back up to haunt me.. I’m going to kill you Joy Gibson :) You’ve been warned.

Whew.. now that we have the out of the way, we can proceed to the mess that was my apartment for after hours. The hour to follow basically included 4 air mattresses and a 125 lb. dog.. which never mixes well. There were also breadsticks, left over senor wong’s, cheesecake and a frozen pizza involved. And then, we all passed out. I woke up in the morning, came out to my living and room and wondered, “what… the… ???” All the same, it was worth it. Wouldn’t have traded that weekend for anything.

We ended the morning with some Baker’s Square and off everyone went to their respective homes. It was indeed a perfect weekend with some great people.. can’t wait until next year! :)

Part one of my two part weekend update…

Last weekend was by far one of the most anticipated weekends of 2012. We’ve been planning a bit of a girl’s weekend for my dear Wartburg ladies. Now.. part one of this saga is the actual girls weekend that occurred. 

I spent a bit of time prepping: Washed the dog, had the apartment cleaned, filled the fridge with lots of food and goodies, home cooked meal with cheese cake and of course… lots of wine.

You see… one of the most bonding nights that Joy, Zelle, Rach, Lauren and I had, was a night that was so memorable, it has been forever labeled as “wine night.” This “wine night” occurred back in May of 2010 and has been an evening that years later, we’re still trying to figure out all the details. There were also many crazy pictures from the evening that I’m quite sure will come back to haunt us as blackmail in the far future. So, now any time we get together, whether it be all of us or just a few of us, there are always many bottles of wine involved. 

Rachel and Joy drove up together and arrived much earlier than Lauren, so of course.. I had to introduce Joy to my favorite place in St. Paul. Do I even need to say what it is? Just in case you aren’t keeping up with me… we went to McGovs. 

Once Lauren finally arrived, the bottles popped and the next thing that came was hours worth of catching up, gossiping, and laughing. And then as always, I passed out like a rock on the couch.

Saturday morning, we rolled out of (air) bed, got ready in record time and spent 5 hours at the mall. A very successful shopping trip, indeed. I purchased the most awesome hat you can find ever… A PANDA HAT. Yes, picture included. Aaaaaaaand, I wore it around the mall for the whole shopping trip. Occasionally, I would forget I was wearing it and would get a little confused as to why people kept looking at me, but all in all, I got some great responses on it. I’ve been wearing it all week… even to work. 

Then, I witness something I never thought I’d see… Rachel Douvikas let someone put on her make up for her. I never thought I’d see the day when this happened. It all started when Joy decided she wanted to get some quality make up so of we went to one of my favorite stores.. Sephora. It’s very difficult for me to go there without spending at least $100 and this trip was no excuse. We asked someone to do some color testing on Joy and he ended up giving her a total make-over. OW OW OW. Joy looked so good that Lauren decided she wanted in and then finally…. Rachel decided she did, too. Again, I never thought I’d see the day! Our make up artist for the day was Timm. Yes, Timm with two m’s. Timm was quite the character.. the definition of a male make-up artist. I believe we spent about an hour with him. Learned a few tips and tricks and finally got Joy into a new make up routine.

The shopping trip ended and then began the female ritual we call “getting ready.” This is where part one ends as our “girls weekend” quickly turned into Wartburg Choir reunion… to be continued! :)

Due to my lack of Facebook.. I can’t share pictures with friends. I guess my blog has turned into my Facebook photo album of sorts.

Anyway, reunited with a few Cedar Falls friends last weekend and we had an amazing night in Uptown! :) I met up with Brittany and Ellen and we even ran into Leah… so many people from the Cedar Valley have moved up here, I can’t believe it!

What type of party did you go to for the super bowl?

Well… I went to a pajama mustache party. Which is just was weird as it sounds. I should have taken a video instead of pictures-the number of crazy mustaches was awesome.

This will be an awfully short blog as…  I wasn’t feel all the best and ended up sleeping through most the game. Lame. 

But the pictures are forever. Great blackmail for later in life, I’m sure.

Beer Dabbler 2012

Wanted to share a few pictures of this last weekend.. it’s been a crazy few weeks, to say the least. I needed a chance to cut loose.

Friday was Deanne (my boss) and Chelsie’s birthday.. a very busy day indeed. And out of nowhere.. Mr. Jeremiah Cook called to say he was in town with Cassy and Isabelle (their one month old daughter). The Javellana (Lybbert side) and Cooks are long running family friends and I had not met the newest Cook. So when I heard he was in the area.. I left work right away to go meet this little booger! Unfortunately, we had a little difficulty locating each other, but sure enough, two hours later.. I had the chance to hold little Isabelle. How precious.

I wasn’t able to make it to Chelsie’s birthday party.. but I did end up sober cabbing so I ended up going to the bar anyway… in my PJs. A few odd looks at me, but you really can’t shame me. Then it was back to bed, woke up for lunch with Abby from CF and out for the 2012 Beer Dabbler.

For those who don’t know.. the Beer Dabbler is a big festival in downtown St. Paul where beer distributors come out and you can sample their beer for five hours. 60+ breweries, random drinking games, a bonfire, live music and food.. and this makes out for a great Saturday! I celebrated with PCL, Cunard x2, Carlson, Murray, and Urlaub.. all great friends from Wartburg. The afternoon was perfect: Great weather, great beer, great friends and many many memories made.

Lee (PCL’s mom) was kind enough to host and drive us for the evening, so when the event was over.. all 7 of us managed to make some spaghetti, sober up and then go out to the bar. Hmmmmm… how do I describe the bar we ended up at? I cannot describe it without being completely offensive so you have been warned. Oh god.. I just typed out my description of the bar and had to delete it. I re-read it and realized how offensive I can be sometimes. I am sorry, but if you’re not aware that I have an honest and brutal sense of humor… you don’t know me. 

So anyway, this bar (the Hoggsbreath) was all in the name. It was as classy as…. well, a hog’s breath. It was evident we didn’t fit in with clientele there. It was a diverse place: Everything from barely legal hoochie mamas, to blinged out wannabe gangsters to 40+ year old woman dying for another day of their youth. All the same, this place had a pretty solid dance floor so we made the most of it. I had the chance to play wing woman for all the single men in our group and needless to say.. it didn’t go well for either party. This it was happens when you begin drinking at 1pm and don’t stop until 1:30am. 

We went back home to end the night with some pizzas (although, I wasn’t awake long enough to enjoy one) and woke up to some homecooked breakfast by Lee. An epic weekend that will become an annual event. I’m really looking forward to this continuing in the future. I loved being with everyone-it was if I picked up a piece of Wartburg, put it in St. Paul and nothing between any of us had changed. As much as I love my new friends up here, there is just such a history with everyone that it felt like family. A weird, extremely dysfunctional, but fun-loving, caring family of sorts. 

I’ll be writing another blog about this in a year. Watch out for it.

Louie does the cupid shuffle

Here’s to the nights we felt alive..

I have to say. God has blessed me with the most amazing friends that a girl could ever ask for. And most of them I met at the ridiculously named college… Wartburg. 

This weekend I traveled back to Waverly to reunite with Zelle.. Joy.. and Rachel. The evening was reminiscent of a wine night that we had back when I was a senior. 

Nine girls.. ten bottles of wine.. and many memories made. One of my favorite quotes from the evening was actually when Joy asked me if I could blog about her. So the next paragraph is dedicated entirely to that little ginger bundle of joy that we call.. Joy. 

Joy began the evening quite merry as the reunion was long awaited. She danced around to Rihanna as Rachel did her make up and Javi did her hair because she just didn’t feel like doing it herself.  Her wine began to set in and for some reason she thought it completely necessary to try and dress Javi in her clothes. Not understanding why Javi’s boobs looked a little… exposed, she used her smarts and created a racerback bra… with a binder clip. One of her finer creations, I might add. To be honest, the “Joy show” was kind of a blur after this point. She nearly took out a brand new forty-some inch TV, broke out the bernie, and punctured Rachel’s foot with her heel. But no worries, Joy and her two roommates are studying nursing, so we were quick to recover. Zelle’s mom came to pick us up (thanks Cindy.. you are AWESOME!) and off we headed to the goat.

By the time we arrived, I was in my usual “tell everyone how much you love them” drunken phase. By the way.. where in the world did this dance floor come from? All this place is missing is a ledge. Anyway,from there.. it is a mystery what happened. The whole group separated but somehow magically all arrived back at the Zelle residence to end the night. To top it off.. Joy fell asleep, with her head in a trash can. I was quite amazed as I would go down to check on her every once in a while and in her deep slumber, she never let go of that trash receptacle. Winning. 

So there it is, Joy. My blog all about you:) 

It is always so surreal when I am back in cf or Waverly. Someone should suspend my rights to drive while in these towns: I can’t keep my eyes on the road. I continue to look around and take in the changes and even the things that haven’t changed. I would give anything to be back on that campus to do it all again. 

One of the reasons I came home was to sit on the scholarship interview panel for the upcoming freshmen class. I remember having to do these interviews as a senior and how nervous I was. My knees knocked, I said “uhm” and “like” every other word, and wondered what all the other candidates were like—were they better or worse than me? It was very different sitting on the other side of the table. More than anything, it forced me to realize just how fast my four years passed by me. As I listened to each of the candidates, you could see the excitement in their eyes. Their anxious eyes made me chuckle to think I was once that jittery person in the chair before me. They have absolutely no clue what’s ahead of them… and what I wouldn’t give to do it again. 

I left the interviews and headed off for a dinner with a few old friends. Looking around, the thing I miss most about Wartburg was how close my friends were all the time. Most everyone lived on or near campus, which meant every day was an opportunity to hang out. It also meant that support wasn’t far when you were feeling down. Now, I rely on Skype and texting to feel close to these people. It’s good… but it’s just not the same. 

This blog ended in an extremely sappy, nostalgic tone.. But that’s exactly how I felt. I may have shed a tear or two as I drove away. I’m so completely and entirely thankful and honored to have such faithful friends. I JUST LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH.. OKAY!?

A brief summary of the aftermath of NYE 2011

The maple kind..

Welcome 2012!

The #131 welcomed in the new year with some dear friends from Iowa. We began the weekend on a little bit of a down note as we witnessed our Hawkeyes lose a bowl game. Good times were had at the Public house and the loop. The loop is an amazing Iowa bar that I’m a little surprised that I haven’t found out about yet. Will definitely keep it in mind for the 2012 Iowa Hawkeye football season. I will keep my fingers crossed for a better bowl game next year.

The weekend continued as we spent the day preparing for the evening. The evening was a great time. We had people over at number 131 for some food and much drink. Of course… it began snowing but a little flurry could not stop us from heading down to…. McGovs. Who would have thought?

The bar was perfect. A great crowd but not too crowded. We rang in the New Year and then headed back to the palace to continue the celebration. I believe a video on the after party may be in our midst.

It was great to have two Iowa friends up to visit.. Paul and Trent! Many memories made.

Hello, 2012.. I think you have great things in store for us.

Some holiday memories of Christmas 2011..