My weekend as a vagabond.

I had such grand plans for this weekend.

I was going to relax, get a bunch of wedding things accomplished, and overall just enjoy a whole weekend of nothingness. 

I was doing just that Friday night. 

Watching some I Found the Gown and designing our invitations, enjoying a Strawberita, the usual. 

We were told there were going to be "severe storms" passing through the area on Friday. Either I wasn't paying attention, or they weren't being emphatic enough, but I had no idea just how severe they meant. 

Around 8:00 it started to rain.  Typical rain. It started to come down a little harder, and our satellite was cutting out- nothing new, stupid Dish does that all the time in rain. Then it really started coming down. SO hard, in such heavy sheets that I couldn't see the cars or trees on the street. I remember putting the computer on the coffee table and saying to M, "holy crap it's coming down." 

The trees were whipping around pretty severely.

Then we heard it. 

The unmistakeable creak of a tree bending to its breaking point, and suddenly a CRACK followed by a loud heavy BANG on our roof. I was 100% convinced in that moment that the huge tree in our backyard had just fallen on the house and our roof was partially gone. TJ BOLTS from the living room, which of course sends me into a panic- I'm honestly more scared in a disaster (fire, tornado, whatever) that TJ would run away and I'd have to leave him and get out of the house. I start getting hysterical to get downstairs, thinking the windows were about to get blown out (this is how hard it's raining and how intense the wind is), when we hear more creaking/snapping and the power goes out. I peek out the side window between our house and our neighbor's and see foliage..where there is not supposed to be any, and start to lose it.

We wrangle the cat into the basement, grab a lighter, and start lighting some candles. M is checking the utility room to see if we're getting water in, and there was a bit in the corners but nothing too bad at this point. Within 30-40 minutes, it was over. Rain and all, done. Super eerie, super fast, and knowing how quick it was makes it that much more incredible when you see the damage that was done in such a short amount of time.

I swear I'm not trying to hype this up more than it was, I just want to relay what it was like in the moment. I can't fathom people who experience a tornado.. my heart goes out to them that much more, because what we experienced pales in comparison. We don't have power (still, as I type this on Sunday, and they're saying it could be THURSDAY now. ugh), but our home is still standing. That doesn't mean this wasn't the most terrifying weather-related experience I've ever had.

So us, along with our entire neighborhood, went outside to survey the damage...and this is what we found...

out the front door:

Between our houses.. you can sort of see it- at the very top center of the photo, is where this 40-50 foot limb came from. It's positioned perfectly between our houses. Any more in either direction and it very well could've put a hole in our roofs. It was embedded about 6-7 inches into the ground, that's how big it was and how hard it hit: 

Tree snapped off at the base across the street: 

 

Another, this is about 7 houses down on our side of the street still: 

 

Across the street, on the corner of our block: 

 

 

This pine tree was behind the tree in the above 2 photos, they fell parallel to one another:

 

And the main culprit, and the reason we're not expected to get power back until Wednesday or Thursday now: 

 That's our alley, looking down towards our house (our house is on the other side of the tree, farther down). When M and I left to come to my parents tonight for dinner, it still looked the exact same. Nobody has even started to cut the dang thing down yet. Blah.

Including this, we had 5 trees down on our block alone. It's estimated that there were 100 down in our city. 

More from our deck, looking at the neighbor's house:

(you can see the neighbor's slate tile patio table table got destroyed) 

 

M and I stayed at his best friend's place near downtown Minneapolis Friday night to charge our devices and plan for the weekend, since we were initially told it could be Monday at noon until power was restored. More rain came through after midnight, but thankfully it wasn't much.

Bitty checks out our new tree..

I had promised Leah earlier in the week that I'd come help her set up for a bridal shower/bachelorette party she was throwing for a friend of hers. I LOVE decorating, so when she said "crafting" I was all over it. I checked to make sure she still had power, and headed out early in the morning.

Her kitty, Jack the cat model: 

I monkeyed myself up on the buffet and hung these, and made the tissue poms you see: 

Hung these photos of the couple on twine with clothespins: 

and I made the pearl belt for this cupcake-cake that Leah made herself and totally dominated: 

 

Jack rested up before the ladies arrived

 

Since I was in St. Paul, and near my parents, I decided to swing over there and chat with my dad. We had severe weather Thursday night- early Friday morning, too (although it wasn't bad where we live). St. Paul got hit harder Thursday because when I pulled up I saw the tree that crushed a car on my dad's street.

Visited with my 2nd favorite kitty, squish. 

Headed home and helped finish cleaning up.
I will say, a storm like this is an amazing opportunity to meet your neighbors. We met more people Friday night and Saturday than we had the first 2 years living there. The lady across the street even bought coffee for a bunch of the guys cleaning up our house and our neighbors, since she didn't get any trees down.

TJ braced himself for more purported weather, too. 

 

Saturday night M and I used a gift card we got in the mail to check out Rojo's new location in Edina at the mall. My friend Molly and her boyfriend Andrew met up with us for a drink. We then headed to M's dad's place to spend the night, and once again charge our devices. 

Headed home Sunday morning to check on the house, and kitty. We got some more rain (notice a pattern?) but again, nothing like Friday. Then we headed to Brueggers to charge our things, again, and have some breakfast. 

Yay for AC and electricity! 

One bonus of having a bare fridge, usually? (since we buy a LOT of fresh veggies for just the week, our fridge is usually pretty bare).. we had minimal stuff to salvage from our freezer/fridge. It's currently on ice in the garage and holding up pretty well, actually. We went back this morning and still actually had whole ice cubes!

We came over to my dad's tonight for dinner. I'm staying here (since unfortunately my hair is not kind to me when it air dries, and we have clients in the office for depo prep this week) so I can blow dry and get ready in the morning. M went to check on his mom's house and stay at our place. That office redo from a few weeks ago is coming even more in handy now..since I have a nice clean room to stay in!

As for tomorrow... who knows. M's mom said if they're not back on they'd be getting a hotel in downtown (which would be an AWESOME commute for us! haha). I have a bag packed with a few work outfits/casual outfits... so I'm prepared to go wherever if we need to. This will be my 3rd night of sleeping in random beds. Nothing disorients you like waking up and taking a few minutes to remember where you are.

Anyway, hope your weekends were less eventful than ours! :)

A cat and his toy: a short story.

I don't have much for you today, but just wanted to share a short photo-story titled,

"a cat, and his toy"

meow.

I thought of publishing this draft (that is clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of content. woops) after we got rid of our living room couch last night.

Oh yea, we bought a new couch this week. Story and photos to come after we get it this weekend (wee!) but the ugly slip covered monstrosity you see in the background is GONE. yes.

Anyway, some people came over to take it last night and lo and behold, underneath it we found ALL of TJ's toys. 3 mouse toys, 2 fuzzy balls, a wine cork (he freaking LOVES them) and oh yes.. because my cat is disgusting, a tampon applicator he fished out of the trash. Color me mortified. I wasn't home and asked M if the people saw it and he said one of them may have.

I have kind of a more thoughtful post that I had every intention of posting this week... but.. it just didn't feel "right".. sooooo better luck next week.

Adios.

Snowmageddon 2012...and other happenings.

I'm typing this on Sunday afternoon, 

however it's quite possible by the time you read this, I will not have survived Snowmageddon 2012. Seriously, this is ridiculous. 

We'll get to that later. 

First up, Friday was purely a relaxing day. Got home from work, snuggled the cat, and made dinner.

It was taco night. 

TJ supervised. 

Saturday, M and I headed to my parents house to have lunch with my dad. 

We had our first meeting with the Priest who's marrying us that afternoon and decided to make the most out of our jaunt to St. Paul. 

I particularly enjoy visiting my parents to see Lucky. 

If you were wondering what the root of the #crazycatlady was... it's this cat. 

My dad found him in a vacant rental property that his friend managed, tried to get someone to adopt him, and failed. 7 years later, ...and Squish (as I have always called him) is still hangin' out.

 He's a really beautiful cat and has the prettiest blue eyes. 

We heard it was supposed to snow a lot, so we made sure Squish was ready. 

That's his "I am not impressed." face.

Dad at lunch (at Punch pizza. so good.) 

It was at lunch when my dad informed me that I'd better put down my parents' address if the priest asked where I lived. I told him that I wasn't positive, but I was pretty sure lying to the priest is a one way ticket to hell. Dad then looked at M and told him he better put HIS mothers' address. 

Silly dad. 

M and I at lunch. 

We dropped my dad off, and headed to the parish offices to meet Fr. Dan. 

We got there 15 minutes early, so I took it as an opportunity to snap some pics of the church. 

This isn't where we're getting married, but this is my childhood/family church..and I love it.

We did the unthinkable, and told the priest we live at the same address. He didn't say a word about it. So that was the end of that. 

Saturday night I had dinner with my law school friends at Axel's in St. Paul (I really am not sure what to call them anymore..since, we're not in law school anymore.. alas). Dana spent the night, since we're holding all of her furniture for her during her year long clerkship up in Morris, MN. Her, M and I watched Easy A until bed. 

Sunday morning I decided I wanted to go to Caribou to do some work, despite the impending arrival of Snowmageddon 2012.  

 We headed home at noon (Vikings kickoff) just in time to hunker down as the "4-6 inches" forecast quickly snowballed (pun intended) to a predicted 14 inches. Gotta love, MN. 

 

So I set up my "home office"... cat sold separately.. and finished up my work. 

and then this happened. 

I took these pics at noon.

It's now 4:15 and it hasn't stopped snowing. I'm sorta hoping for an adult snow day tomorrow. It was about the time I had that thought that I realized: the end of law school signified the end of the formal "snow day" as I know them. mer.

The rest of the day has been spent sporting some sweet weather-appropriate footwear.

TJ was a little concerned about the snow at first....  

 

and then there was a quick bout of cabin fever.. where things got weird for a hot minute .

 

But like any good Minnesotan, he bounced back, and adapted. 

And that's it for the weekend. 

I'm off to snuggle up on the couch and find a trashtastic movie on TV. 

Hope to see ya'll safe and sound on the other side of Snowmageddon.

Kelly

I'm in love...

with my camera. 

Some of you may have seen on social media that my camera came...

annndd then I fell off the face of the earth. 

Just kidding, but I have spent some time tinkering with it, reading blogs, and scaring the crap out of my cat. Turns out it scares him when some large alien like contraption is pointed in his face, whirrs, beeps, and clicks. Although as a result of his confusion, I was able to get some great shots. 

I think I'm going to struggle with not trying to make EVERY photo super artsy, and perfect. 

That being said, I'll share some photos I took of TJ. I sent the first one to Walgreens and when I picked it up (along with an Engagement photo I had printed for a project I did) the guy asked if I had a copyright release for both of them.

New camera, FTW! 

First of all, 

thank you all who left fabulous tips on my first camera post. I've been putzing with it, looking at the manual, and looking at blog posts. So far, I can safely say the "vomit" feeling from making such a big purchase has disappeared totally. 

(also, for unknown reasons the money that had been pulled from my account for the camera, magically REAPPEARED in my checking account after I picked it up. I haven't asked any questions, and I hope it stays there. Also, this is probably why Best Buy is tanking).

Second, 

this camera has reaffirmed one thing for me: I have a VERY sexy cat. Seriously. He's so good looking.

Third, 

I'm obsessed with picmonkey.com. I'd heard the name thrown around before but figured it was enough like Picasa, so 'why bother'.. uhh WRONG. It's like Instagram for real life with bitchin' filters, and I'm in love. 

This weekend, M and I took on a few home projects. We got up and headed to IKEA first thing Saturday morning, and got a new light for the kitchen. After a few hours, some "are we going to burn in our sleep" concerns, it seems to have worked! M was super proud, he's gotten to be quite handy at house stuff but always shied away from electrical (for good reason too.. scary stuff if done wrong!) Now that he's confident, I'm taking advantage and will be getting a chandelier for upstairs in the not so near future ;-) 

also, I took zero photos of that. 

I, on the other hand, was busy makin' pretties..as I call them.

I purchased several frames at IKEA, with the idea to finally make our upstairs feel more homey. So I created a gallery wall to go up the stairs:

I used some engagement photos...

and a little "quote book" Leah got me a while ago..

I created some collages with the quotes..

aannnddd laid it all out like so: 

And this is how it looks, except, on the wall. I took these at night and the lighting up the stairs is garbage so, I knew I wouldn't get a good shot of it in action on the wall. 

I freaking love it. 

I also love that I finally have a "nice" photo of my cat. I feel like it's more socially acceptable to hang photos of pets if they look artsy. 

Lastly, M helped me complete a project I've been wanting to for ages. After seeing a Pinterest pin, I knew I had to recreate it. 

Ta da!

The frame was $8 or so at IKEA,... I printed off an 8x10 of us for $3, I had the wine bottle and fake flowers, and all that was left to purchase was this (at Home Depot):

M pre-drilled a hole, and then drilled through that little hole in the base of the hanger and into the wall. The one we have has a hinge on one side, and then the threaded screw to close it on the other side. SO, if we ever want to change out the wine bottle, all we have to do is unscrew it. 

All in all, it cost me about $13....annnnddd I love it. I'm a big advocate of hanging "different" things on the wall.. I like wall installations (like the one from the upstairs remodel) and things you may not expect to find for visual interest. 

That's all! 

Stay tuned for many more very fancy cat photos in the future. 

Just kidding. kind of.