{weekend lens}

Some highlights from our weekend included: a day at the Uptown Art Fair. It has been many years since we have gone and it was a lot of fun walking around just taking in all of the sights.

We enjoyed a dinner and drinks on the riverfront patio at Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge.

I finished two books this weekend. Still Alice was an amazing book that I could not put down and read in just one day. It is a powerful book about a woman with Alzheimer's written from her point of view that touched me as I remembered by Grandpa battling this disease. It's a book I highly recommend. 

Jake and a friend of his from college went to the Paul McCartney concert!!! I may have been just a bit jealous. :)

Summer weekends are the best!

{lately}

The month of February is always a fun month for us and with a birthday, an anniversary & Valentine's Day we have much to celebrate.

Lately we have enjoyed-

:: The Winter Olympics started and we have been enjoying watching everything from the Opening Ceremonies, figure skating, snowboarding, bobsledding... This always brings back such good memories of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City that we were able to attend! So much fun then and we just love to watch on TV now!

:: I finished this book; "The Fault in Our Stars" in one day. It is technically a teen book but I had heard such great things about and I couldn't put the book down.

:: I kidnapped Pete and took him to see the movie 'Frozen' that I have been wanting to see. :) Yes, this is an animated, children's movie-- and we both loved it!

:: We celebrated Pete's birthday. He wanted to try a restaurant that he had seen on Guy Fieri's 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives' Food Network TV show called 'Smalley's Caribbean BBQ' in Stillwater, MN. It was a little drive for us, but very worth it.

It was a great new find for us and we absolutely loved all the food and drinks we ordered.  All of the food that we tried was great and highly recommended: conch fritters, the jerk pork tacos, mac 'n cheddar with chili's and bacon, braised brisket and the Dark and Stormy Ginger beer.... so good!

:: February 10th was our 24th anniversary! We were going to go out and celebrate on Saturday, so we kept this day simple but special- flowers, drinks at our local wine bar & fondue dinner at home.

:: Drew had his last JV hockey game of the season. I can't believe it is over already!!

:: Valentine's Day brought us to the Gopher Hockey game. Some friends offered us tickets for this game and I jumped at the chance because I haven't been to a Gopher Hockey game forever and it is always a fun time at Mariucci!

We took the shuttle bus to and from the game from Blarney Pub and Grill and enjoyed some great country music after the game.

:: Saturday Pete and I headed to St. Paul for a little getaway for our anniversary. We stayed at the gorgeous St. Paul Hotel.

:: And enjoyed an amazing dinner at Kincaid's-- which has always been a favorite of mine!

:: Sunday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast in our room before checking out from our little getaway.

It has been an awesome February so far!

a homework assignment

About 3 weeks ago Drew came home from school with a homework assignment that he was to work on with a parent. We were to choose a book to read and then discuss~ a two person, mom and son, book club.

It took as a little while to decide on the book that we were going to read. But we finally chose the book: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell.

This is a book that Drew had never read before and one that I had read once previously, when I was about his age. In fact, I still had the very book that I had read as a kid with a little name plate inside the cover and everything. :) So this is the version that I read.

(And check out the great price on this book, $1.25!)

While Drew read it on his Kindle.

It struck me how much times have changed with the different versions that we each were reading; but yet we were both still reading the same book, a book that was written back in 1960.

We ‘met’ three times to discuss the book, answer questions and share our thoughts. We both really enjoyed this book and working on the assignment together made it that much better.

a book kind of weekend

It has been a cold and rainy weekend~ the perfect kind of weekend to curl up in front of the fireplace with a good book~ and that is just what I did (in between hockey tryouts, baseball games and homecoming events.) =0)

I just finished "Same Kind of Different As Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. This book was so good, I literally could not put it down and it is now on my list of all time favorite books! I loved it!

This book is a true story about "a modern day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together." It was a book that brought tears and deep thought on themes such as prejudice, homelessness, sickness and suffering, forgiveness, friendship and faith.



This story is a beautiful example of how we all can make a difference in the lives of others! This book is definitely a must read!