Drive-by entertainment

This past weekend, Nick and I drove down to surprise my parents with a visit. My mom is recovering from surgery and we wanted to spend some time with the family.

When we arrived, my dad said, "Want to help move some pianos?" Sure!

On Saturday, we spent a big chunk of the daylight moving things out of Grandma's house, which will be put up for sale in the near future. One of the projects was to move her piano to my parents' house. In order to that, we first needed to move our piano out of the house into the garage (for someone to hopefully come and take for free). After that, we went back to Grandma's and moved the piano from outside into the back of a pick-up.

My mom had always said that it would be fun to play the piano as it was being moved, but she was at home working on surgery recovery, so I took her place instead. My dad slowly drove the short 2-block trip from Grandma's to their house as I played on the way (Amazing Grace, the only song that would come to me at the moment!).

Luckily, it was garage sale weekend in Sioux Center, so we had lots of spectators as we drove along!

One year and counting!

Well, friends, it's a year ago to this date that Nick and I first laid our eyes upon each other. Both of us were nervous, wondering what would happen, how things would go, if we would like this person we were about to meet.

Little details I remember from the day we met...

- I had an all staff meeting that morning for work, and got relentlessly teased about going on a first date (I think I was even offered a pair of donated boxers with red lips all over them)

- I went to the chiropractor, finished early, and sat in my car because I didn't want to show up early

- I walked in the door of the restaurant to see a very laid back guy wearing khaki shorts and a orange polo (yes, it was warm last April, too!)

- After the date ended, I remember thinking that it had gone well, he seemed nice, conversation was great, and I would definitely go on another date with him!

Countless dates later, here we are!

Still crazy....

And happy....

Happy

Happy!

improvisation

What happens when you have a Rubbermaid storage bin and a laundry basket?

Dinner table!

I'm currently without a table, waiting for one to come up our way from my Grandma. But I've been wanting to have a sit-down dinner, share a meal, look at each other, take a little time out from everything that's going on.

So, I turned the laundry basket upside down, put a Rubbermaid storage bin on time, and then threw a tablecloth. It's not big enough to serve an army, but it will be enough for the two of us to simply have a meal together - until the real thing comes!

Hello, world of insurance!

Friends, I have some exciting news to share with you. I've been sitting on it for about a week and finally have the go ahead to go "public" with my news :)

Effective May 10th, I will be starting a new position at the agency that I work for, working as a Billing Specialist/Verification Specialist/Credentialing Specialist. I'm going to call myself an Insurance Specialist instead :)

Anyway, I interviewed just over a week ago for this position and am really excited to make the change - I'll be working in our downtown Minneapolis office, which means that I can take the light rail to work, and have super fun coworks, like KV. (Okay, let's be honest, she's the one who sold me on working DT with the multiple e-mails!)

The end.

New Apartment Pictures

Well, the apartment is clean "enough" for pictures to be posted. There's still some unpacking to do, but it's at least cleaned up enough that you can get a general view of the place. Click here for more pictures.

Opening Day, 2010, in the sun!

With a 50% chance of rain looming today, we're all crossing our fingers that the Twins get to play their home opener this afternoon at 3pm. Here are the long ago promised pictures from our trip to the Twins Exhibition game just over a week ago.

Nick's face was pretty much like this the whole game. So was mine. Ecstatically happy just for the fact of baseball. Outside!
4th largest display screen in MLB. It's big! And it's HD!
The two men (Minnie and Paul), shake hands and light up when a home run is hit. Thanks, Denard Span, for hitting the first one in the park and giving us the pleasure of seeing the sign in action!
The beauty of real, green grass. It's not astroturf, folks!

Go home early and watch the game (they don't need you at work!)

Moving catastrophe?

Well, I've moved. The process was actually more seamless than I expected, thanks to help from a few church friends and Nick's dad, in addition to multiple cars and wide hallways.

Pictures will be forthcoming... I just haven't cleared up the clutter enough to take good pictures. Maybe later this week, if I'm really productive.

But we did have a minor catastrophe. Well, after the move. Nick was over... makes sense, since it's technically his place too, although he sleeps at his other place and keeps his clothes elsewhere. Anyway, he was over. And I notice how badly he needs a shave. We find him a disposable razor and my can of shaving cream that I save for guests, because I don't use shaving cream.

He's trying to get some out, says it's all gone. I find this hard to believe, so I mess around, shake, push the button, and then push that little black button on the bottom of pressurized aerosol cans.. Here's what happened...

Shaving cream. All over Nikki.

Great weekend behind, busy week ahead!

We had a great weekend, filled with all kinds of events. On Friday, we started out by going to the very first Twins exhibition game at Target Field. We can't wait to go back - the field is great, open, and beautiful in the outside! (Pictures soon - my camera won't cooperate this morning!)

From there we drove out to Nick's parents to spend some time with them. Saturday morning breakfast, hang out time, Crazy Golf on the Wii, and then a fun birthday party of a cousin's daughter.

Saturday capped itself off with some massive packing, thanks to some help from a friend. I now have stacks and stacks of boxes and I'm still not done!

Sunday we had brunch with some friends - they served amazing french toast and crepes - we felt entirely spoiled! Then, we enjoyed the outdoors before heading into church to celebrate a risen Christ and a wonderful Eastertime.

This week will be hectic, to say the least, but I'm excited for all that it holds.

Most of my week will be spent packing boxes, cleaning, organizing, and hopefully donating a large majority of my belongings. On Friday, the moving extravaganza begins, as I hope to be completely moved out, with my keys turned in, by the end of the weekend.

Also, on Friday, I'll be interviewing for a new position at work. Same agency/place that I work at now, but something different. Currently I fluctuate between nervous and excited. Interviews always freak me out a little bit, but I plan to hone my interviewing skills before then, look my best, and present myself as the best candidate.

That's my week, in a nutshell!

Grandpa would have loved it.

My Grandpa Maatman passed away last week on March 22nd, 2010.

We were comforted with the assurance that he is with his Lord, who he served faithfully all of his 86 years of life.

He would have been proud to see all of his family joined together for a picture - young and old, from all different parts of the states. Some of us hadn't seen each other for at least 10 years. But for this moment, for this event, we joined together and remembered our grandpa, father, husband, and everything else that he was to us. (Sorry it's not better quality.. that's all I got..)