Turkey Day, Minnesota Style!

Lee and just returned from our Thanksgiving in Minnesota. How did we end up there? Let's see. Lee lived in Minnesota for the first several years of his life before moving to Massachusetts and eventually North Carolina. Lee's Grandparents have a farm and a Lake House in Northern Minnesota while his Aunt Janna and Uncle Ken and his wife Aunt Linda, live in Minneapolis (well, a suburb, Eden Prairie) Minnesota. Lee's cousins, Nick and Austin still live in Minnesota, Austin in Eden Prairie and Nick with his wife Jessica in Stillwater. Anyways.....the rest of us live here and there, Ohio, San Diego, North Carolina, and of course, Virginia Beach. It's very hard to have EVERYONE together at one time. Lee and I are on a rotation. We will had Thanksgiving with his family this year, and we will have Christmas with my family. Next year, it will switch. This year is very special. Lee's grandmother has been very sick. A couple of weeks ago we were pretty much preparing her funeral and were told she probably wasn't going to make it. By a miracle, she is alive and doing much better and even managed to make it to our Thanksgiving celebration, which she wouldn't have wanted to miss for the world. Not to mention it was Lee's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary! Wow!

So...Our Journey begins..
Lee and I woke up a 330 in the morning on Thanksgiving day. YES. You read that correctly. Our flight was leaving Raleigh for Minneapolis a 1140 and we had to arrive 2 hours early. We had to get up super early to drive down and we wanted to leave by 5am. Of course we had all the last minute things we had to get ready before we left. The worst part was I almost didn't go with Lee. I was SO sick when I woke up on Thanksgiving. I was recovering from Bronchitis (still recovering) and was VERY sick to my stomach. The ride to Raleigh was horrible, we had to stop several times and I even threw up in the airport...primarily due to a coughing fit that I had. I was SO close to not getting on the plane and driving home but I thought..hmmm three hours home or two hours on a plane to Minnesota? But who wants to be sick on a plane right? Of course, I knew I'd regret it if I missed out on Thanksgiving with Lee's family so I put myself on the plane and made it there safe and sound. On a side note, that was the worst flight EVER!

We arrived in Minneapolis around 200pm and Lee's cousin, Austin picked us up at the airport. BY THE WAY there was LOTS of SNOW on the ground in Minnesota!! So beautiful! Not to mention, the high was about 20 degrees..and most of the weekend it was about 10 degrees! We headed straight over to Lee's Uncle Ken and Aunt Linda's house for Thanksgiving where we were met with LOTS of hugs and cousins and family! We all hung out and had a few drinks (despite how I was feeling) and then sat down to dinner. There was "Kids" table and an adult table. The funny thing was, the kids table was made up of adults over 24...so our kids table had wine and beer :) Lee's cousin Loren came up with the idea that we all go around and say what we are thankful for. My family does this every year and everyone always ends up crying. Well...I ended up crying..of course. As cousins, Lee's family is very close. I love being an official cousin and I couldn't have asked for a better family to be married into!! We had YUMMY YUMMY DINNER! Two Turkeys....one was redneck style deep fried and the other was traditional. Asian green beans and green bean casserole. Mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes. AMAZING stuffing (the best I've had to date), ham with homemade warm honey mustard drizzle, corn souffle, cranberry sauce, and decadent desserts! Pecan pie, apple pie, cheesecake..etc. The food was amazing. I didn't eat any dessert but I managed to get a bite or two of everything else. (my stomach still wasn't very cooperative) Of course on Thanksgiving..my favorite food day ever! UGH!
After dinner, we all contemplated naps/movie/cards. We watched some football, lounged around and caught up, and looked at old pictures.
Next was the Miller family Thanksgiving/holiday tradtion. The whole family gathered in the music room to sing Christmas Carols. I LOVE this tradition! Someone will be playing the piano and everyone will sing, (Grandma and Grandpa Miller LOVE this) others will sing solos and play instruments and of course, we all sing the 12 days of Christmas and we each have our own part! At one point, there was an oboe, piano, cello, trombone and violin playing. Beautiful. At the end we sang the 12 days of Christmas and Lee and I were Seven Swans a Swimming! Such a talented and musical family!
After singing we got ready to go and headed to where we would be staying. Aunt Janna had a friend who was out of town for the holiday and she let us use her home! Lee and I stayed there with his mom and step-dad. We pretty much fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow!
The next morning, we had a gorgeous view of the snow and lake outside our window. My mother-in-law made us breakfast using leftover ham from the night before and eggs and toast...we also had a strawberry butter braid. YUMMO...if you've never had one its a MUST! We headed back over to Ken and Linda's for some more family/grandparent time. I headed out for lunch with Nick, Alex, Lee, and John at a fun BBQ joint...yummy! Lee and John went to spend some brotherly time together and I came back to the house with Alex and Nick to have more family time. JP, Betsy, and I spent most of the afternoon talking about life in San Diego...and pretty much EVERYTHING else under the sun! LOVE them...AND planning our trip to Cali! Later that night my MIL and stepdad in law and new aunt Janna headed off to downtown Minneapolis to meet up with Lee and John at a microbrew. I got a text from my friend Kelly on my way down saying that she was in Minnesota. She just happened to be a few blocks from the restaurant we were going to! She is the personal trainer for the Penn State volleyball team and they were playing U of M the next day! WHAT A COINCIDENCE! Small world. We picked her up and she joined us for a night out! SO much fun! This is my second time in Minneapolis and I LOVE IT. I told Lee a couple of years ago that I wanted to move there. The ONE and ONLY downside would be that I couldn't drive home for the weekend to see my family. If it wasn't for that, I'm pretty sure we'd already be living there. I LOVE it!

After a night out on the town we headed home for a good nights sleep! We had to travel home the next day. What a short trip! SO much fun and SO worth it. I'm so glad I didn't head home at the last minute and miss out on such Thanksgiving perfection. I have so many things to be thankful for, but here's a tiny list.

My new husband.
Grandparents.
Family
Health
Home
Love
Happiness.
Toilet paper.

We are very blessed.

Beebs has left the building

I know some of you may think I'm crazy, but I got really excited that Justin Bieber came to the Children's hospital on Saturday! I might add...that I didn't even know who Justin Bieber was until recently. I also didn't realize the hysteria surrounding him. I don't know any of his songs and I don't know his favorite sandwich, but by golly I love that he came to my place of employment to visit the children. I also know that there were some very happy boys and girls at the hospital. It was a surprise and no one told the kids he was coming! I guess it really touches a special place in my heart when I see those cancer kids everyday and watching them go through all the stuff they have to go through. I get really emotional about it. They deserve a treat like this and it makes me happy to know that their day was probably made because of it! :) The picture above is one of the patients at CHKD with Justin. :)

Friendly weekend visit

Several weeks ago, I had a dream. I dreamed of one of my old former friends who I had not spoken with in over three years. We had a major falling out and after a few attempts of mending the friendship I gave up. That was June of 2007. She was in the dream that I had, and it made me feel so strongly about seeing her, it made me miss her. In all honesty, if I hadn't had the dream, I probably would've never text her the very next morning. I wasn't expecting a response...but I got one. A happy one. We started texting and within a few days talking on the phone and making plans for her to come visit! Julie arrived on Friday afternoon and I don't think we stopped talking until Sunday afternoon! We had a lot to catch up on from the last three years!
I got off work early on Friday and Julie and her new puppy, Cami, drove down for a visit. For the first couple of hours, we literally just sat on my couch and talked. I don't think Lee knew what to do with himself. He'd never met Julie. He just grabbed a beer and sat down next to us and listened. He wouldn't have gotten a word in edge wise anyways. At first I was afraid...MAYBE this would be awkward, but it was really quite natural. We picked up right where we left off! Well....before things went awry.. :)
I had asked Julie before she came down to bring her scrapbook stuff with her. A co-worker of mine told me about a scrapbooking group she was in, and I decided I'd like to join because I've been wanting to scrapbook now for quite some time. It just happened to fall on that weekend and I asked Julie if she wouldn't mind doing it with me! I should've known she'd accept. She was just as excited as I was! We drove to this church in Portsmouth and had a yummy lasagna dinner! Needless to say, Julie only got one page done and I got two done. I think the other people were probably annoyed with us because all we did was talk the ENTIRE time!While we were there, we got a couple of texts from Lee..he was having a lot of fun babysitting Cami!




We dipped out a couple of hours early..although we had a really great time! (I'll be going back!) Of course, we got totally lost in Portsmouth! Not somewhere you want to be lost at 11:00 at night! We were laughing soooo hard...it wouldn't have happened had it been anyone else. We did finally make it home and of course stayed up till about two in the morning talking!
Saturday morning we Lee and Julie and I, headed off to brunch at the Baker's Crust! Yummmmmmmo! Julie and I dropped Lee off to stay with the puppy (he had so much fun babysitting the night before!) and we headed to MacArthur Center in Norfolk to do some much needed retail therapy! We literally spent five hours in three different stores! Shopping with Julie is a marathon..we had so much fun, but I was exhausted. After shopping almost all day, we headed back to the apartment to get ready. My other friend Julie met us at the Melting Pot for dinner.



It was nice being out with both of my Julies! Melting Pot was amazing as usual..especially the bananas foster. I think I liked that more than the chocolate! Thanks Greg! After dinner, we headed over to Julie P's where we found our husbands being all manly. They had been drinking a little so Julie and I went over there to pick up Lee. Just in case! ;) Of course when we arrived home, we nearly stayed up until three talking...thank goodness for that time change...we got an extra hour..haha!





The next morning we had breakfast at Pocohontas Pancake house and went to take some pictures on the beach, before Julie had to say her goodbyes :( I actually got in the car after she left and started bawling. I really missed her, and I missed having a friend like that around all the time. Julie is really good about keeping in touch and coming to visit and I know she'll be back soon! I'm going to go stay with her sometime before Christmas. We are going to tackle baking...and I mean..BAKEFEST! What a wonderful weekend...hope everyone else's was just as wonderful :)

Halloweekend!

I started off my Halloween weekend on Friday at work. Everyone dresses up at CHKD to do a parade for all the inpatient children. Our office, pediatric surgery loves to dress up every year. Every single person, with the exception of our male doctors participated. My co-worker Nikki and I, went as ketchup and mustard. We are pretty much a pair in the office considering we work together in the same little tiny office. Also, Nikki was going to let me re-use her ketchup costume so that Lee could wear it on Halloween Night :) Aren't we some spicy condiments?



Friday night, my BFF Julie and I headed out with the girls to play some Bunco! The nurse practitioner in Plastic Surgery was hosting at her gorgeous abode along with some of the nurse practitioner's from Peds Surgery. We had a ball playing bunco together...Julie and I want to start our own bunco group! No, I didn't get to take any pictures...everything happens so fast in bunco..and I forgot about my camera in my purse!

Saturday night, Lee and I headed over to The Parson's home to witness this:




Yo Gabba Gabba in the hizzouse! Seth of course wearing from his DJ Lance Rock costume from L's party and Julie made her own fictional costume to match. hat would be DJ Lance Rock's wife! I think she did an amazing job putting it together! She also made the boom box...lol! I love it! Leira went as Foofa!! Foofa is her favorite! She was the cutest Foofa I've ever seen! While they headed off to a party, Lee and I stayed and babysat Daxy....LOVE him :) We had a great night with little man!!

Sunday night...Halloween, what did we do? Stayed home and watched scary movies. I wasn't feeling well all day....and I don't think Lee felt so hot either! We were supposed to go back to the Parson's for some trick or treating, but they weren't really up for it either. Maybe next year we will be a little more Halloweenie. Although I do wish I'd gotten a picture of Lee in his ketchup costume! We already have a GREAT idea for next year...we're hoping to host our very own Halloween Bash!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. Lastly, I will leave you with some fabulous Halloween cuteness: