Love it and it's FREE!

So, maybe some of you have heard of this website, but if not I'm going to share it with you!!

My favorite website to go to while editing pictures is called Picnik. http://www.picnik.com/

You can upload your photos and do all sorts of things to them. Here are a few of my photos that I have enhanced, added to, and added quotes to. If you haven't been to this website before, please check it out! I strongly recommend it!!!

This is my niece Lily =)

My brother Nick and his boys...

Chad and I =) I used the retro setting on the web site, thought it looked neato

This is a picture I took while at the swim meet in July in Glendive and I found this quote and thought it would go nicely. I put it into a frame that has two daisy pictures on the other sides, so it's FINALLY complete, two years later...wooops...now to mat the two daisy pictures....

Anyways! I really like this website and am recommending that you all check it out!

http://www.picnik.com/

Goodbye Summer!!

So summer is officially over. We tried to go back to Glendive at least once a month, sometimes we made it home a few more weekends then 1 though! The whole summer I was doing an online Earth Science course, which mind you wasn't fun at all=) So besides seeing family and doing lots of homework, here is a little recap of our summer:

May:

• I spent a week in a graduate class for Early childhood.
• Poor Sadie got spayed
• Softball started for Chad
• I did the Walk for Wishes walk with Heidi

June:

• LOTS OF SOFTBALL for Chad
• I started working full time at the ND Game and Fish Department, and Wednesdays and every other weekend at the YMCA
• Chad's dad had a heart attack, but is now doing much better
  
• My brother Nick's gang came up to visit
  
• Attended Jere and Erins beautiful wedding
• Chads softball team was in the McQuade tournament and took 5th!

July:

• Celebrated the 4th of July with the Nelson family and a few other families from the softball team
• Watched Linken swim in his first swim meet (I'm still so proud of that kid!)
• Waited patiently from far away to hear news that Michelle's surgery was a Success!!!!

August:

• State softball in Minot
• Finished up at the Game and Fish Dept
• I attended Julies bridal parties
• Got to go to the Dawson County Fair for the first time in 3 years!
• Pretty much started and finished my online class in 2 weeks =)
• My brother Nick's gang came up for a weekend to go school shopping
  

Today marked my first day of school for the fall semester as well. I went up to the university with a friend I haven't seen all summer and we got verified and picked up our GRADUATION APPLICATIONS!!!! That's right folks, I'm almost done with school! I bought my books today for my last semester of classes in my Bachelor degree career! I have to apply to student teach (September 12), pass my portfolio presentation and get accepted into the student teaching program, and I will officially be student teaching in January 2010!!! The end is in sight!

Also on todays agenda for me was to take Sadie to the groomer; she now looks beautiful:


And lastly today I got to go to the dentist. I finally found one that was nice and affordable (I use that term loosly as dental work is never affordable haha). So I went in today and had a tooth filled. I went in knowing that I would either have it refilled, as part of the old filling chipped out, or I would have to have a root canal done because it was such a huge filling. Thankfully for right now it's just a filling. If its still sore in about a week, I get to go back in and have the root canal done because it is very close to the root, so wish me luck that it gets better!!!!!

Classes start for me tomorrow (Tuesday) and I'm excited to get back into the swing of things. Chad's still plugging away at work full time, and I love him very much for supporting me as much as possible through school; I'm back to part time work now at the Y still (although I did just get a hefty raise!), so my full time job of household duties begins today =) I think he would much rather have me full time household duties all year round lol, as he hates doing the dishes in the summer, but I'm sure he will get over it =)

August's Adventures

Time has really flown by this summer! The month of August was crazy busy for us as we were either traveling or working like crazy or a little of both! So, that's why it's taken me soooo long to update this go around. A little recap of August so far:

the 7-9 we were in Minot for state softball, had some good games, but didn't place well. Here are some highlights from hanging out with the team and the games:

Garmin helped us find the Comfort Inn =)

Nate and Shay brought wigs for us all to show our team spirit in =)

We had a rain delay Saturday Morning for the game, when we got back to the hotel a few of us hit up the hot tub right away because we were drenched and FREEZING!

Here he is batting!

He also has quite a unique way of taking off after hitting....

Chad made it to third quite a bit off of his hits during the tournament =) good job Chaddy!

The weekend after state softball we headed to Glendive for Julie's Bridal parties. I spent part of Saturday at the fair with my sister Kris, her daughter Lillian, and my sister-in-law Sarah. Chad went to Sidney with his dad and little Cannon to spend some time with the Hoff grandparents. Later that day I went to Julies bridal parties and had a great time. Here are a few pictures from that time:

Lily really wanted to pet the chicken but was a little hesitant once she got up close.

This is what my dad makes...well oversees the production of I guess.

Julie didn't get very many questions right about Josh, but I give her props for getting the close answers to the aunts, uncles, and cousin questions!

We all had to bring a pair of underwear for her to guess who brought, well she figured out who brought a scandalous pair and wasn't too ready for the answer!

Ready to go out for the night on the town!

Michelle

My step-mom had her surgery today and is doing so good! Thank god! It went smoothly and hopefully she is on the road to recovery! You can check for updates done by my dad on her Caring Bridge page.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MICHELLE'S PAGE


Thanks and mucho love!

Linken's first swim meet!

I know! I'm slacking again! I've been soo busy so before we head to Minot in a week I'd better get this thing caught up! Here goes!

On July 11 Linken swam in his first swim meet! He did so good! I was a very proud aunt! I'm not super familiar with all the swimming lingo but he swam in two different races: backstroke and free. Unfortunately swimming has some tough rules and he dq'd both times, BUT he did so good in both the heats he swam in! While he was doing the free he grabbed the rope and apparently pulled himself and when he was doing the backstroke he flipped over about 4 inches to early. He would have taken first in the one and I think 5th in the other (but I might be wrong because its been that long! SORRY!) But of course he's still a winner in my eyes! Enjoy the pictures from the meet!

Enjoying some Lunch


Killing time between races

These were the biggest popsicles I have ever seen! I swear it was almost as tall as Lukas!

Charles took a small nap between races...

Caught him off guard...woops =)
and my awesome photography skills....just kidding!

4th of July night

We got invited to a BBQ out at the Nelson's house for the 4th of July so that's where we ended up around 5:30. The night was entertaining to say the least =)

Matt and Danny (Matt plays softball with Chad and is also his old manager from Truck and Farm) invited us out along with the rest of the softball team to enjoy the 4th with them. A lot of the team showed up so it was a good time =) We spent the majority of the night eating, laughing, drinking (okay so not me but most everyone else), and playing games. We played dingle berries (aka horse balls or ladder golf, but Shay kept calling it dingle berries) and washers and some of the guys played in the pool and all the kids played in the pool and ran around the yard. For the record, Shay and I partnered up all night, and only won one game, so we may have to try our luck next time to win more games!

Sadly though, Matt's dog Davidson (not sure of the spelling) jumped up to catch the ball while playing and fell and broke his hip! So Matt and Chad took him to the emergency vet and spent about an hour there, he goes in Monday for surgery, poor dog.

Here are some pictures from the bbq

Playing washers....

and dingle berries (horse balls/ladder golf)

Many attempts were made to jump onto this walrus off the railing. Matt had the longest time, of 4 and some odd seconds, and then it popped, so that ended that fun.

We watched some fireworks.....

And then the night was over =) I had to work early today so we unfortunately didn't stay much longer after the fireworks. There were some other things that took place during the course of the evening but other than that, this was our 4th! =) Hope you all had a happy and safe 4th!!!!

Happy 4th of July parade in Mandan!

Yesterday was July 4th and boy was it an entertaining, kinda sad, day!

The day started off at the parade in Mandan. Chad and I drove over and met Heidi at Jena and Jason's house (Jarod had to work so he missed out). We walked the block and a half to main street and set up our chairs. We got there around 9:30 and finally left about 12:45! This was the longest parade that I have ever been to!!! There were about 140 floats, lots of candy thrown, and a decision that the only way I'll go back next year is if I'm in it for some reason haha. I think Glendive's parades were more interesting than this one was...yikes! Here are some photos from the morning!

Alexie (sorry if I spelled that wrong, it's Jarod and Heidi's niece) didn't want her picture taken.

Chad wanted to bring Sadie, so he was in charge of her. This was her spot of choice (Chad was using Heidi's chair with a footrest and it reclines) until the sirens started from the firetrucks, then she parked it on my lap for most of the duration.

This little girl was leading the group she was with! She had to be maybe 3 or 4 and she was riding this horse all by herself. No one was walking beside her the girl on the other side was on her own horse. She was pulling on the reins and kicking the horse, it was so neat to see!!!

I totally want to own one of these someday, pretty much because it's pink =)

Nice float huh?

Neat huh?Heidi, Sadie and Me

Sadie enjoyed the car ride on the interstate to Mandan =)