Expedition to Meet The Pioneer Woman

If you're not familiar with who she is check out the website, you won't regret it.
Well, maybe your love handles will... ;)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Melissa and I got to the Mall of America at about 11:40am or so. I only live about 10 minutes away so we ended up getting there a little earlier than we had planned as we were meeting Rachel and Tina there at about noon.

Tina got there about ten minutes or so after us and we got to meet her little baby boy Micah for the first time (He told us he loves The Pioneer Woman too, see?!)

Hi Tina!

THERE SHE IS! It's Ree Drummond in the flesh! She had snazzy boots on that made me wish I wore heels. Or boots. My boots usually consist of fake Uggs from Target. Or actual snow boots. It's how I roll.

Here's one of the first people through the line. I think I now understand why it's nice to get there bright and early, but I don't think I'd change a thing now. We got to hang out all day long and if you're in the front of the line you just don't get that excitement and anticipation as much!

Then Marlboro Man and two of their kids showed up!

And had some spontaneous brotherly love...

And a lot of people took their picture (myself included, obviously)

There's Rachel! HI RACHEL!

Here's a picture of sweet baby Micah's hands. He was such a sweet, content little guy all day!

Marlboro Man and the two boys did a little book signing of their own...

The nice guys behind us took a photo of all of us for us. Thanks guys!

Auntie Rachel making cutesy faces at Micah! (I think he likes it! ;)

Abandoned (Forgotten) diaper bag that was deemed a "security risk"

And they even brought out the bomb sniffing dog. Who probably got a whiff of something that was likely at one point explosive, but not in a dangerous sense of the word...Well, unless you're the mom changing the diaper. :)

We're almost there! Nic brought little Remy down to Rachel so he could meet Ree too!

And FINALLY...almost 5 hours later. I meet The Pioneer Woman...and had to change my camera lens last second, froze up and couldn't remember what I was going to talk to her about! And it was such a fun anecdote! (pies, smoke, butter, fire alarm you know where I'm going with this...) Oh well! I still got to meet her and I'd adopt her in a heartbeat, she's a sweetheart!

We had fun meeting you Ree! Someday you can have us come visit you and we make and eat lots of food with you at the Lodge. We'll even do the dishes. Promise!

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!

Since it seems to be all the rage to have pictures of Rachel posted for her birthday, I decided to put one up too. I don't have my "embarrassing" photo collection with me right now, so I'm going with some more sophiiiiiiisticated photos from Remy's birthday this past Summer.

The next photo I think embodies a lot of Rachel's personality. Let me know if you agree...




And this next one is just for good measure...because he wouldn't be around without her.



I miss you and love you and hope your hubby gives you a great foot rub! :) I love me another year of Rachel. Lets get together and eat fattening food and then do 10 min. of pilates because that would obviously be enough to work it off. Right?...Right?...

And then we'd have cookies, because when you work out, you deserve a treat.

I can't stand the Yankees.

Quoted from a friend of a friend (who was quoting a friend) on facebook:

"How can anyone really be a Yankees fan?! If you can't beat the other teams, just simply out-spend them right?

The Yankee's are like an ugly, fat rich man. He can't get a hot lady so he pays for one, goes around town bragging about his trophy wife, and expects people to believe that he pulled it off on his own!"

ZING!

___________________________________

Also, I'm planning on TRYING to get on the blogging train. I feel like there are other things in the real world that will have to take priority. One of which is finish- I mean STARTING- the set/backdrop for "Detective Para's Mystery Theatre" put on by Redeemer's Song at our Church in Bloomington. Whoops. Did I mention it was supposed to be done by Saturday for dress rehearsal? Oh, and we probably won't get working on it UNTIL Saturday probably? hahahaha, yeah. I have issues with over-committing to things right now. It's been a busy fall.

OH, they're also serving pie. I offered to bake a couple.

August!

And August has come and gone! WOW. Time flies! Here is an update on the past month for the Blauer household!

We were in Fergus WAY back at the beginning of August so Ryan could start painting Nic's ice house. Here is a cute picture of Remy playing with a spray paint can (one without a tip on it, so he couldn't spray it) and he was apparently crawling in and out of the topper...Rachel and I missed that part, but we got the basic idea. :) It was a fun weekend!

The second weekend in August, Peter & Dani got married. We attended their reception and it was beautiful and simple and exciting. Tornado warning and we heard later an actual tornado was about a mile away. A night full of memories to say the least!

We also went to Duluth during the middle of August with my sister's family. We camped and tried out our tent for the first time! It rained and rained all night and hardly any leaks! I was super psyched about that!

And then there was Summer Splash at our church! This is the third year we've done the wacky hair (Ryan) and face painting (me). What's most amazing to me is how much all the little kids have grown up since we started helping in 2006. The years go by too too quick!!!!

We also FINALLY made it to the farmers market in St. Paul in August! I've been wanting to go all summer long, but we've either been out of town, busy or desperate for sleep! We came back with corn, potatoes, apples, raspberries and jalapenos. YUM! :D

And also we went to the STATE FAIR! (we're going again in a few days!)

we happened to be there at the same time as elise and alfredo. woo hoo!

And we got to hang out with Phil and his lady friend Amber!

This is my favorite picture of the two of us from that night! I have a couple ferris wheel ones too, but I look so lumpy in Ryan's zip up that I'm wearing and my extremely wind blown hair. hahahaha, you'd never know I put work into looking nice before hand haahaahhahaa oh well!

The guys eating hamburgers (from Hansen's Amusement Foods!) in front of the cows.

Elise & Alfredo eating some roasted corn!

And last but not least...on August 26th Ryan and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary of when we started dating. (Which was the day we went to the State Fair together in 2006) It's gone so fast. It's amazing that it's already been that long! We went to Old Chicago and came home and watched Anchorman. It was a fun and relaxing evening. The perfect celebration. :D

spoke too soon about car repairs...

I should've known better.

Less than a week after I titled my last post about something related to car repairs, what happens?

We have a major car [unexpected] repair..DOH!

But luckily the repairs should be done today. AND they're doing it $200 cheaper than the dealership quoted us. And yes, sometimes we go to the dealership, mainly just for oil changes. Sometimes other stuff, depending on how quickly we need it done. Mainly because they're open late and it's a nice waiting area with "free" (haha, well I realize we are paying for them in other ways probably) cookies and bottled water and caribou coffee (for those who partake) and TV! So we don't really mind going there when we HAVE to...

We had a cracked radiator. And even though we were told by a few people it was highly unlikely this was indeed the case. When we got our second opinion it was confirmed. Eh, at least it was caught before anything bad happened & wrecked the car further. And at least we have some money saved. Hopefully we can just replenish our savings somewhat quickly.

Oh, and my car needs the timing belt changed soon. And my headlights are goofy. Double DOH?! Hopefully that's all it needs. Wait, should I have said that?

sometimes you don't realize how bad off the car was until you get a tune-up...

Okay so this has nothing to do with cars. Elise did my hair yesterday & for once I remembered to take before/after pictures. Of course I had to make myself look as dumpy as possible in the before, but for real...my hair NEEDED some love (I hadn't been in since the end of march...). DONE AND DONE. I love it. And once again I am thinking to myself, I need to keep it maintained, I need to keep it maintained. Hopefully this time I will.

Can't Wait to Celebrate!

Our friends Nic & Rachel's little boy Remy turns 1 YEAR OLD tomorrow!
And we are blessed to get to celebrate with them!

We can't wait to see you guys! :)