~trick or tree~

I have spent more time at Target this week than in the last couple months combined! Halloween has come and gone and thanks to clearance I was able to get some great deals for my darling dark loving husband.

Last year around Christmas I made a deal with Lance that I would find him a Halloween tree if he would help carry my huge artificial Christmas tree box up and down 2 flights of stairs. He hates Christmas decorations as much as I hate Halloween decorations. Yet, I am in love with Christmas and unfortunately he loves Halloween.

I saw a few Halloween trees this year. I really liked the style of one I saw at Pier 1 but there was absolutely no way I was going to spend $100 on it. Be serious. I went back later to find it sold prior to going 50% off but I wouldn’t have even spent $50 anyway. I only saw small trees elsewhere. Except at Target. They had a large tree for $60. Again, if you know me you know I would never spend that. It wasn’t the exact style I wanted but it would do. I told myself if I could find it after the holiday for cheap I’d get it.

On Monday (the day after Halloween), I went to the Plymouth Target. It was 50% off. Not bad but $30 wasn’t going to happen. On Tuesday, I went to the Coon Rapids Target. They didn’t even have trees but they had bags of our favorite Heath Candy Bars on sale for $1.34. I got 2. On Wednesday, I went to the Champlin Target. No trees but they had an adorable little skeleton piggy bank (that I had my eye on for Lance but again wasn’t paying full price) for 75% off and bags of Kraft Caramels for $0.49. I also couldn’t help myself and bought a cute shirt with a pink skull on it in case we ever have a girl. On Thursday, I went back to the Plymouth Target and the tree was 75% off! $15, not too bad. I also stopped at the Coon Rapids Target again to see if they had and candy left but all I got was a bag of Skittles for $1.24.

I think I’m done shopping at Target for a while now. I’m looking forward to after Christmas clearance!

~there is no where i can really say what i'm thinking~

I am going to be very vague. I was just talking with a friend on how we hate vagueness and here I am doing what I hate. I’d apologize but this is my space and I have to vent. I can't truly express myself on any blog, besides in a personal journal maybe.

I am just so sick of drama surrounding my life. I am content. I get along with everyone. I’m a positive person. I see the glass half full. I hate drama so I try not to cause any yet somehow it's always there caused by others. Most of the time I'm not even involved but I still get dragged down. I spent a good portion of my evening crying for a very important person in my life. I'm crying now.

I feel as though I am caught in the middle of a situation and I don't know the right thing to do. I want to get along with each side but there is no middle ground. I know who I agree with but it doesn’t make it any easier.

~perfect fall day for yard work~

I spent the majority of the day yesterday cleaning out a huge overgrown area by our shed in the backyard.

Last fall our neighbors cut out bushes and offered us the kindling. Without seeing the pile Lance said we would take it all. Who knew it was going to be so much??!!! Oh my goodness, it was a massive pile of 4 foot long branches they stacked next to the fence. Well we didn’t end up using it due to the cold weather. (It snowed the beginning of October. Way too early.) So the pile sat there all winter long and this spring Lance moved it to revive the huge circle of dead grass it had sat on for half of the year. He threw it all by the shed where there was already weeds growing waist high or higher. (I had weeded that area the spring before so I was bummed it all was for nothing. Boo weeds!)

I had tried to take care of the branches by having a few bonfires this summer but larger wood logs were used instead without my knowledge. I have never done a fire myself and wasn’t in charge of it but assumed it was being used up. Not so.

I have plans for the overgrown area and all those dang branches were in my way so I had Lance start a fire and I carried over all of the branches and broke them into small pieces. He manned the fire for a while but then went inside so I took over. I think I did a good job keeping it going considering I’ve never done it before. I think I’ve always been scared. Not anymore! I got about half of the pile burned but I ran out of room in our bonfire pit! It was just way too full of ashes to continue. I had to put my burning party on hold.

Here is the remaining half, yeah that’s only half. I carried twice this across the backyard. My arms are pretty scratched up.



I have this Tuesday through next Tuesday off of work so I am determined to get that pile gone this week! Please don’t rain! I need dry wood!

I weeded once I moved all the branches and does it ever look different. I really should have taken a before picture.

Here’s after weeding. Just imagine this area full of waist high weeds and all those branches! (I didn’t get all the low weeds yet.)



I removed two trees that were about 8 feet tall that had started growing on their own this year. I would have loved to have kept them but their roots were growing under the fence and there is no way that would be a good thing down the road. I also trimmed all the trees in our backyard so there are no longer any low branches to smack into. I was weedwacking along the fence line and under the playset in the dark. Haha. I had to go inside cause I couldn’t see anymore.

And I also managed to do 4 loads of laundry! I took a bath to try to eliminate the aches that were starting. That’s a lot of physical work for someone as lazy as I am. Haha.

I hope to start landscaping the area this week. Obviously I can’t purchase many plants anymore but I’ll get some of it done and finish come spring. I can’t wait!

~day 8~

Day 8: Sunday, August 8th

I was up at 3am (2am MN time) in order for all of us to get ready, finish packing, and be on our way to the bus by 5. We had to walk a little further than normal before a shuttle came by. I’m assuming because it was so early and a Sunday. It beat walking the whole way to the bus stop and it was cheaper.

We had to buy tickets since our 7 day passes were expired. We got to the subway that we needed and discovered it wasn’t running. Ugghh. It gave an alternate route but didn’t give a direction so we got on the one going the wrong way. We quickly figured out our mistake and got off then on in the right direction. I was in a seat next to where someone had just vomited. Delicious way to start the day.

Some guys on the subway were very helpful and told us to ignore the alternate route and told us how we could get to the airport. It worked perfectly! We only took one more subway to a bus which took us directly to our destination.

Our flight was at 9:15am. Originally we were going to leave our hotel at 6 am but rethought it just in case we had a problem. Thank God we did! That ordeal put us behind schedule but we still had plenty of time to check in and make our flight. If we would have left at 6 we might not have made it.





I have never had so much pain on a plane before. My ears popped and I couldn’t remedy the situation. Luckily Lance is a pro with the valsalva maneuver and helped me out. We made it to Chicago and had lunch at Burrito Beach. Similar to Chipotle but not nearly as good.

Another flight to MN with more ear popping fun. We arrived at 1:40. Lance’s parents picked us up and we went to Lance’s grandmas. We hung out there a little bit filling in his family on our trip. After we drove to my parents to pick up my fish they were taking care of. We ended up talking with them for a while too. My voice was horse and I was I was exhausted. Finally we made it home!

I was so glad to use real 2-ply toilet paper again. That’s what I missed the most on the trip. Haha. It was a fun time. We saw so much. At times I felt as if I was in a different country with all the languages we heard but that was neat. Not sure when we’ll return but at some point I’m sure we will.

I don’t have a favorite part of the trip. I’ve been asked quite a few times and can’t come up with anything. I liked nearly everything we did! It was just a fun experience altogether.

~day 7~

Day 7: Saturday, August 7th

I got up about 8:30 and woke up Lance for breakfast. The others had already left. Our key card stopped working. The front desk said sometimes if it’s next to a credit card it does that. The whole week it had been in the same place so that didn’t make sense. When we got a new key card I made sure not to store it by another card. That didn’t help. It again didn’t work after one try. Oh well, #2 had another card that worked fine.

Lance and I left first and caught a shuttle. The others were going to get a city bus to use as many of their prepaid tickets as possible. While on the shuttle I saw #1 waiting at the bus stop way past where we had been picked up! We still don’t know how he made it there without us seeing him considering he left after us. Lance texted him and we saw him looking all around confused. He spotted us waving as we passed. It was pretty funny.

We met up with #1 at Port Authority and headed to Chinatown. It was crazier than Times Square if that’s even possible! So many people are bombarding you with buying their stuff. It was very difficult to understand them. At one point I kind of guessed what a guy told me and Lance and #1 joked that I could understand Chinese. Nothing was priced, probably because they will bargain with you, but I didn’t end up getting anything.



We ate at an authentic Chinese restaurant. That was quite the experience. This place was massive! I’d say 1000 people were eating there. We were seated with another family. Luckily the daughter spoke English and Chinese and helped us figure out how to order and pay. Servers pushing carts kept pointing at dim sum they wanted us to buy and explaining what it was, in Chinese of course. I had to turn away at least 10 people! We tried to order 2 chicken dishes and the waiter said, “No. One is enough.” Then #1 ordered the same. The waiter rolled his eyes. We were quite surprised to see how large it was. 1 would have been enough for the 3 of us! No wonder the waiter thought we were stupid. Haha. This was the first time I had used chopsticks to eat an entire meal! #1 was able to give his leftovers away again.





After lunch we went to Little Italy and ate key lime cannoli’s. Yum.





Dacey and #2 arrived in NYC so #1 went to meet up with them and go shopping.

Lance and I took a subway to Brooklyn to meet up with my cousin Adam, his wife Amy, and their adorable daughter Harper. They treated us to dinner which was so nice of them and totally unexpected. Then we enjoyed a walk through Prospect Park. We stopped at their apartment for a tiny bit before heading back. Being in Brooklyn with mostly locals as opposed to the insanity of tourists in Manhattan was lovely. Lance said this was his favorite part of our entire trip and I agree it ranked pretty high up there for me as well.





We wanted to make the 9pm bus so we didn’t have much time to shop. I really wanted a purse but didn’t find one. Oh well, I have 20+ already! We ran into Kate and Jeff again and they were having difficulties but we offered our help. We ran into quite a few of the same people throughout the week. What are the odds? Lance and I bought 2 tickets from Dacey for our ride back so she wouldn’t have as many tickets left over.

I packed and was in bed after 11. I wasn’t going to get much sleep.

~day 6~

Day 6: Friday, August 6th

I got up just before 8 today. After breakfast Lance, Dacey, and I went to the Cathedral of Saint John the Devine. It was soooooo hot in there! Lance asked a maintenance guy if it was always that hot and he said in the summer it’s hot and in the winter it’s cold. There isn’t central air or a heat! It didn’t help that the week prior it had been the hottest weather they’ve had. Wow. I couldn’t attend a service there unless the weather was nice. Haha. Actually I’d never attend a service there. I am not in agreement with their doctrine one single bit.



It was built by Masons. I’m not going to get into it all but that’s the Occult. Not just a cult. Not all Masons are aware of what’s going on higher up. First degrees think it’s a fraternity of charitable contributions and such. The majority of our founding fathers were Mason’s and it’s pretty crazy when you research all the mystical garbage they truly founded America on. I don’t believe America was built on God or Christianity. That was used as a cover up to make it more appealing to the actual Christians who came here for religious freedom. Just look at our money and at our government buildings. It’s all New Age and Greek Mythology. There is so much hidden right in front of our eyes. “Apollyon Rising 2012: The Lost Symbol Found and the Final Mystery of the Great Seal Revealed” by Thomas Horn is very informative when it comes to the history of our nation.

The Cathedral had some very cool architecture but some odd symbols at the same time. The Freemasonry logo was prominent. There was a Buddhist prayer chest. Why? And a statue of Gandhi. Huh?



I find it odd the church added pillars in 1997 near the entrance depicting the destruction of New York. Yes, the Cathedral was named for John who penned Revelation and some believe NY to be Babylon the Great, but why include art that depicts the demise of the state it is on display in? Weird.



They have a pagan sculpture in the garden. Sun worship and mythical creatures are its focus. And odd it has John Lennon’s saying “One day the world will live as one” written on it. New World Order perhaps?



I wasn’t privy to the interesting rituals they perform there but they have a “blessing of the animals”, “blessing of the bikes”, “winter solstice celebration”, “the grand procession of the ghouls” at Halloween… Check out http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=241 for detailed info on the activities that are going on under the cloud of a “Christian Church”.

We headed to Columbus Circle and had dessert at Bouchon Bakery before getting lunch at a stand in Central Park.









We met up with the Ryan’s at the World Trade Center. They’re in the process of building. Sad to think of the tragedy that took place there nearly 9 years ago.



We were discussing getting dinner and the Ryan’s mentioned a pizza place they previously went to. I heard $1 slices in the conversation. We headed toward the subway and I heard them say it was in Brooklyn. My question was why were we going to Brooklyn at 5 pm when in 2 1/2 hours Lance and I had to be back in Times Square for a musical and #1 a play? The trip there was 30 minutes plus the walk and double that for the ride back. They reassured us they only waited 10 minutes before they got a seat. I felt a check in my spirit but went along anyway. I should have spoken up.

The line was down the block when we arrived at Grimaldi’s. And the sign on the door said “No Slices. Cash Only”. What? I thought it was the $1 a slice place. Nope. You had to buy a whole pizza. I wasn’t that hungry! We were told we’d have a 15 minute wait. Well after 15, 25, 35, 45…minutes passed I was panicking. Lance and I agreed if we weren’t called in 5 minutes we were leaving. Well we were called. And then had another 30 minute wait to get the pizza. Turns out they had gone at 10 pm so of course they got right in. We were there at dinner time.

I am a slow eater. There was no way I could have eaten a half of a pizza in zero minutes so we asked them to box it up and how much we owed. The waiter was confused but we didn’t care. I’m sure Dacey and the guys thought we were being silly but I was stressing out and annoyed that I wasted all the time of going there. They all stayed and enjoyed their meal.



We got on the subway with the pizza (it was in a paper bag, not your standard box). Lance had to stand so I was hovering it above my lap so I wouldn’t get grease stains on me. A spot finally opened up near me and we were able to eat a slice. We got off and continued to eat while walking down the street. It was quite the adventure. We made it to our show just at 7:30 when the doors were opening. We wouldn’t have made it had we stayed and ate. There is no way.

The only mean person we encountered on the trip happened to be in line behind us. There were so many shows around and Times Square is crazy busy so we wanted to double check we were in the right line. Lance asked a guy in a suit. He looked Lance up and down in his shorts and t-shirt holding a pizza and rudely snorted, “Yeah. You even got tickets?” What a punk!

“The Addams Family Musical” was fun. How many times do you have the opportunity to go to a Broadway Show? Lance loves the Addams Family so it was perfect for him. I’m glad he was so happy. #1 was at a different theater seeing “The Screwtape Letters” by himself. Poor guy had to go alone but he didn’t seem to mind.





While waiting for the bus we made friends with Kate and Jeff who were at the hotel next to ours. They were clueless as to how to get back so we helped them out. They thanked us a ton and said they couldn’t have done it without us. I’m glad we could be so helpful throughout the week and get help when we needed it as well.

~day 5~

Thursday, August 5th

We all slept in until 8ish then got breakfast. We ended up taking a day off. It was much needed.

Our day consisted of watching TV, a movie, napping, and going to the pool. Dacey and #2 worked out in the exercise room as well.

I wasn’t feeling the greatest. My nose was quite stuffy. I kept a box of tissues by me the whole day.

We had leftover pizza for lunch and walked to the Coach House for dinner. The sign near the hotel said it was only 3/4th a mile walk. That can’t be true! It was at least 1 ½ miles. Dinner was filling and afterwards Dacey and the Ryan’s got ice cream at Baskin Robbins across the street. Then the long walk back. At least we got some walking in though considering we didn’t do much all day.



All the sidewalks we encountered in NJ were atrocious! Either bushes were so overgrown you couldn’t even walk on them or they were so cracked you had to be careful where you stepped. And it was dirty! Garbage was everywhere. We have it pretty good in MN.



After such a strenuous day (haha) I was the first to fall asleep.