Happy St. Patrick's Day

Pretty low key St. Paddy's Day for us. Bob enjoyed a Guinness and I enjoyed some green water-no lie. Here are pictures of our St. Patrick's Day celebration. Hope you all were able to enjoy something more fun.

Wedding Reception Shopping.

Wedding Planning so stressful. I have been kind of anti-wedding planning b/c I feel like I could care less about the wedding and more about the marriage. But some things needed to get done. So because we have the church all set we needed to get a reception location set. Bob and myself were joined by my parents and Bob’s sister and mom to go reception site shopping this past Monday and Tuesday. I think by 2nd location I wanted to be done and after the first Bob definitely did. What stress? Well we saw three locations on Monday and two on Tuesday. Four of the places we saw had great aspects to them. We needed to make a tough decision between The Science Museum, The History Center, The Hilton Garden Inn, and The Crown Plaza. Bob and I ended up with the decision on our lap, which was really nice that we were able to make the decision based on what we as a couple wanted, not just our families. It was so tough because I loved each place for a different reason. There was not one thing that I didn’t like that I could not get around. We ended up making a decision and I think that not just Bob and myself, but everyone attending the wedding will be happy with. However one of the great perks is the awesome bridal suite that we get-leather couches and a whirlpool! Here are some pictures of the reception site location-The Crown Plaza. Hip Hip Hooray-that is all I have to do with planning now isn’t it?

Here is the view from the outside, you can see all the windows in the Great River Ballroom.

Ignore the creepy guy in the photo, but this is a view of the dance floor where we will be partying it up all night long.

3G, yeah I have it.

While Bob and I were up in the Twin Cities we did something really exciting, well at least to us, we got new phones. Bob needed to get some sort of Blackberry, Palm type thing for the hospital rotations next year. He was great at doing research and decided that the Apple Iphone 3G was the thing for him. We decided to get a family plan for us to share and my phone had seen better days as it was not working 100% anymore. When we got to the store I looked around but just couldn’t find anything I was super thrilled with. I didn’t want to be a tool and get an Iphone 3G when I didn’t think I would use all the applications. As I continued to look every phone seemed so much more difficult to navigate than the Apple. So yes we both bought them. You can call me a tool, but I love my new phone, I love all the access I have and this will definitely help get me through the next year of wedding stress!

Bob's Spring Break

I usually get in at least one blog a week on what my weekly update is. I guess I have been busy. Well at least busy with other things.
Last week at work I cranked out some mad technical writing and finished writing all of my departments Standard Operating Procedures. Well at least I thought I finished writing them. I was rudely awoken when I returned to work this week to a CEO who thought I needed help on a definition of a policy and a procedure, yet she had not even read my work. Sighh at least it is Friday right?

Bob and I finished our FOCUS with Marcia on Friday of last week. We just need to do the re-focus and all of the other marriage prep, but we are slowly but surely making headway and things seem to be a little more real.

Saturday we headed up to our favorite spot the Twin Cities. We were able to spend some quality time with Bob’s family. Addy, Bob’s niece, is so adorable and incredibly smart. I can say that and people have to believe it b/c I’m not her aunt officially yet. She answers questions and her little voice is so cute. I asked her about my tattoo on my neck and she said “A”. Then later we were talking about it and she asked and pointed to the back of her neck to see if she had an A back there. Oh little girl, you are going to be a heart breaker!

It was so nice to see Bob’s family. They are great hosts and even let me use the treadmill early in the morning so I could still get my work outs in, and boy did I need it after eating so much delicious food. Thanks for being such great in-laws.

We did make some time to see our good friends Mesa and Tony-can't say how much I love them and Ali Gray and her new boyfriend Robin who was great to meet.
We made it back south on Wednesday evening. It was -2 degrees when we left Roseville, what a temp change in the 6 hour drive.

Hopefully Bob was able to enjoy a bit of his Spring break as this last little bit has been spent studying for that great test in June!

My spill

So this was a few weeks ago but I wanted to share my funny fall. I was at the gym one morning running on a treadmill. There were only about 3 other people at the gym at this time. I was getting a good stride but needed to adjust my ipod on my arm. I was paying attention to my ipod when I accidentally stepped off to the side of the treadmill. Not really thinking I stepped back on, only to completely lose my balance, fall and slide off the back of treadmill on my hands and knees. I got up, looked around and the people in the gym asked if I was okay. I was super embarrassed and a little concerned that I had ripped my pants. I made sure I was okay, stopped the treadmill and got back on to finish the work out. My knee really hurt and by the time I got home that night I had a heck of bruise on my knee along with a little rug burn. I am all healed up now. Bob and I were watching Mythbusters one night when we saw this. This looks exactly like my fall. He did the same thing, granite he was drunk and I totally was not. Enjoy some humor on me.

Ashes to Ashes on Ash Wednesday

Well as my sister knows this is probably one of my least favorite days. Bob can just laugh at me but today is one of two days of Catholic Fasting. The Muslims are rolling around laughing at me right now because they fast so much better. Catholics are allowed to eat small meals, but not allowed to snack, we can drink fluids throughout the day, and on a normal day, I can totally do that. But it just seems like Ash Wednesday and Good Friday my body says no, we will see what today brings as it was an early morning, I'm working 10 hours and then on to church. Here comes irritable Ashley!

Ash Wednesday is also the beginning of Lent, and for 40 days we are asked to do something for God. For some that is pray more and for others it is giving something up. My dad gives up Jell-o every year, b/c he hates it so much. I think for Easter I will make him some Jell-o eggs and tell him he has to eat them b/c Lent is over. This year I am declaring my sacrifice on my blog, so I stick with it. I'm giving up games on my computer, yes that means Spider Solitaire as well as Web Sudoku both at home and at work. Wish me luck and hopefully JC appreciates my sacrifice as much as I appreciated his, granite his was a little bigger.

Passing the test

Bob finished up one course that he is very happy to be done with, Endo/Repro! He passed the test on Friday so that meant he had a practically free weekend. We were both very excited for that to come. Although Bob did not have a class to study for he was able to get in a few hours or studying for that wonderful test in June. As you can see, a little over 3 months and we are under the 100 day mark as well. Don't worry baby, I know you can do it.

On Friday afternoon Bob and I also found out we "passed" another "test". We met with Marcia, the Med School Chaplain, who is working with us on Catholic Marriage Prep. We both are very excited we are doing this with her, instead of a priest or someone who has no idea what the medical profession is like. We sat down with her and talked a little about wedding planning, but more about marriage planning-what I am really into. One thing that stood out to me is that the national average of divorce rate is 50%, the physician divorce rate is 60%. Bob and I are going into this saying we are going to be in that 40%, and I think talking about it is the first step, huh? We then started going over our FOCUS inventory test that we took the day after Christmas in St. Paul. The results were sent to Marcia where we will meet with her a few times and go over some of the issues that we did not agree on, or that we did not pick the preferred answer of the church. Marcia said we did pretty well. In the different categories we ranged from 100%, 91% and some 80%. We did receive a 50% in the religion category-like no duh we knew that was going to happen. We went through this category in depth with Marcia. Like I said we were both so glad she wasn't a priest, because it was easier to talk about Bob and my differences in views and be able to say what we wanted without feeling like we were going against the churches teachings. We both know this is going to be a learning experience for both of us as it already has, but we will continue to grow together. I look forward to our next time we meet with Marcia.