Where did ya come from? Where did ya go?...

I created this cute little map a couple weeks ago for my facebook profile and have now been inspired by cousin Katy to add it to my blog. I think I need to travel more. Who wants to take a trip???

Graduate Assistant

That will be my new title as of July 30. That's right....I got the offer! For working in the Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota 20 hours per week, I will get all of my tuition waived. You really can't beat that. I turned in my resignation at Fairview on Monday afternoon and finally have all the "employee termination" details worked out. I'll be working full time at Fairview through July 27. Then, from July 30 - August 17, I will be working part time at the U and also part time at Fairview. And then, from August 20 - Sept. 3, I will just have one part time job at the U. And then finally on Sept. 4, I will be a full time grad student with one part time job. Whew! Can you keep that straight? Oh yeah, and I'll probably have a little freelance work to do on the side. The best news of all is that I am pretty darn sure that I won't have to take out any student loans. That makes me happiest of all. :)

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!


I'm working this morning and then heading over to the Ritchies' house for a BBQ, wiffle ball and fun on/in the lake. Hope everyone has a great holiday!


In other news: I had an interview for a graduate assistantship on Monday, and I think it went pretty well. The position is with the Center for Spirituality & Healing at the U of M, and it involves copyediting, posting content on the Web and researching topics related to different therapies (music therapy, massage therapy, etc.). Sounds really interesting! And.....if I get the job, then my tuition for grad school would be completely waived. Can't ask for much more than that, can I? I'm supposed to find out if I get it early next week, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers -- send positive vibes to Louise (my interviewer/potential boss). This would just be absolutely GRAND if this all works out. THANKS for your support!

Power Tower, part 2

Note: Please read the post "Oh my word!" below to understand this.

After e-mailing some of the Butler girls (who frequented Cedar Point, a great amusement park that also has the Power Tower), this was the conversation that ensued between me and Megan...

Heidi: Please check out my blog at http://thelifeofheidi.blogspot.com/ and see my latest post about the Power Tower. Em, it's a sad day for that ride...

Megan: I haven't had breakfast and that made my stomach turn. Eww. Poor girl. Can they reattach feet?

Heidi: They didn't mention that, but I definitely wonder if they were able to find her feet. That's just crazy...

Megan: What if you were in the crowd and you got hit by a foot? Freaky!

Heidi: I was thinking the same thing.... Yikes! The next news story we'll hear will be: "Boy gets more than he bargained for when ordering a snow cone..." This is so wrong, but that puts a whole new meaning to "foot in mouth."

Megan: Aww, good thing I am smacking on some cheerios right now. I want a sno-cone. If I had to pick my three flavors right now, it would be lime, cherry and pina colada.

Heidi: I like how the foot in the sno-cone didn't deter you from wanting one.

Megan: What can I say, sno-cones are a tasty treat. And I don't plan on eating it anywhere near a Power Tower.

Oh my word!

I will probably never ride the Power Tower again. Here's why.

Monday, Monday....da da...da da da da

Since Alyse was in town this weekend, Stacy, Taylor and I took the day off to go play on the lake at his parents' house. At first, the sky looked pretty foreboding, especially after the big downpour.

Then, the clouds drifted away and the sun came out. Alyse, Stacy and Heidi were happy. :)

After Taylor peed in the lake (not really...but doesn't it LOOK like that's what he's doing?) and threw the ball a lot for Indy to fetch.....

Taylor put on his captain's hat and took us around the lake on the pontoon.

Indy liked it so much, she gave Stacy LOTS of kisses.

Here's Indy's summer pose.

I wish I could take long weekends every weekend. It was so nice not to have to get up for work this morning. If anyone else wants to visit, just let me know -- I love taking days off work!

Grand Old Day

Last Sunday was Grand Old Day in St. Paul, and Karin and I ran into some old high school friends. So then we all hung out together at Plum's to listen to The Careys (my cousins) play. I love it when a big group of people who might not know each other very well, but who know maybe one person in a group, can all hang out and have a good time. I love my family and friends!
Here are all the pictures from our night.

Up North

This weekend, my mom, Indy and I took a trip up north to stay at my aunt Katie's cabin before she sells it in a couple weeks. It was a lovely weekend away, and I was excited to be out of cell phone range. HOWEVER, I was surprised to find that Verizon (the best network ever) does get very nice coverage up in the northwoods. Who knew? So that was good solely for the purpose of getting in touch with my other relatives who have homes or cabins up in the Longville/Hackensack area of northern Minnesota.



We arrived Friday around dinner time and spent the evening watching Indy play in the lake. She actually got some action this weekend (Indy...not my mom). :) A black lab named Bear swam all the way across the lake (a smaller portion of the lake) to play with Indy. It was hilarious! He came over and chased her around and then actually jumped on top of her from the dock while she was swimming. He then proceeded to try to hump her while she was swimming. Being the modest lady she is, she batted him away with her paws (while swimming) and discouraged the sexual advances. Luckily, she's spayed or we'd probably have some new puppies on our hands soon. I yelled over to Bear's owner that Indy must be a hot commodity if he swam all the way over just for her. He didn't really laugh, but my mom did.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend, we read, played Scrabble, laid out in the sun, drank some girly drinks, visited with some relatives (Jan, Jim, Bill, Sue), took a boat ride around Lake Wabedo, played tennis in town and had some ice cream at Frosty's (you really can't leave Longville without visiting Frosty's at least once). Oh yeah, and we had high hopes of going hiking and even started hiking for about 5 minutes, but then we decided that the grass was too high, and it is tick season, so we turned back to the car. And in that 5-minute window, here was the tick count: 5 found on me, 4 on Indy and 3 on my mom. Sick! I hate those things. They freak me out. So then for the rest of the weekend, we kept checking Indy for ticks every 5 minutes, and every time one of us had an itch, we'd freak out and do a little dance to shake off whatever it was that made us itch (lots of times, it was just a cool breeze or a piece of grass -- but you can never be too careful!). I actually found one more on Indy when we got home. Let's hope there are no more to be found.

See all the photos from the weekend.

Grateful Red

I thought it was about time I post some pictures of the infamous Grateful Red kickball team. Without further ado....there's a sneak preview below. Otherwise, view all the photos.


Ang, John and Karin









Last week's game was sponsored by PBR. Yes, we're THAT classy.










More of the Grateful teammates








Stacy and me cheering on the team

Alyse + Jeff

My youngest sister, Alyse, got engaged this weekend! I couldn't think of a better person for her to be with -- so welcome to the fam, Jeff!

Read about the engagement on her blog: http://alyseinaustin.blogspot.com. It's quite a cute story.