The Rasmussen Family Blog

We are so fortunate

2012-02-01T11:52:00.000-06:00

We have two wonderful amazing kids...at times they stress us out, but in the end of the day, we are so very blessed by them. Meghan and I can pretty much have a baby at will...or it feels that way. Sometimes we feel like its a curse, but really its a blessing. Today, I think of my friends who haven't been so fortunate. We have a few friends who try and try to have a baby and can't. Some of them finally did after a year of trying and others, well I guess it wasn't in God's plan for them right now. We've also had some friends who have gotten pregnant only to have soul crushing news delivered to them.

We are SO fortunate to not have had to go through these things. I never want to forget that or take it for granted.

Everyone has their trials and tribulations that they go through, they are necessary for growth and refinement of our character. Most recently a college friend of mine, Kris Heller, blogged about their latest trip to the OB, they were so excited to find out the sex of their new (first) baby. Here is an excerpt...

We told the ultrasound tech that we wanted to have the baby's health & measurements done first before finding out what the sex of the baby was. We wanted to save the best for last...

Within two minutes, our whole world crashed.

The ultrasound tech paused, saying that there was a problem. All I remember was my heart beating so fast & loud that I thought it was on the overhead sound system. I thought I was going to pass out as she focused on the baby's head. She measured the baby's head... there was more fluid than usual in her head. That wasn't the only thing. There was a small fluid cyst on the back of her head, too.

My husband was on the verge of passing out. He was seeing black spots, feeling dizzy.

I've gotten some bad news in my life (the call from Beth and Karl about our rental house being filled with sewer water would be right up there) but this would be at a whole new level. I imagine my life if either of our two amazing kids hadn't made it through to be with us. My life would be so different. My outlook on life might be so different. The doctor sent them to a specialist...40 minutes away. What an awful car ride that must have been.

We had to drive 40 mins to the specialist... so many tears. I think our hearts cracked right in half that day.

At the specialist, I don't remember walking up the stairs or if we took the elevator. We waited while the ultrasound tech there took a million ultrasound pictures and they were too hard to look at. I could see exactly what was wrong...

The tech there asked if we wanted to know if it was a girl or boy.. I looked at my husband not knowing if I even wanted to know at this point. He said yes, and she said it was a little girl..

My little girl. The one I'd been hoping for... the one I dreamed about.. and she has unbelievable problems.

The Specialist came in and was very matter-of-fact. He spoke as he went over the pics and did an ultrasound at the same time, yet again, pointing out the horrific problems... the problems didn't stop there. He highlighted her kidneys saying they were enlarged, not really functioning... barely any amniotic fluid being produced. The prognosis: lethal. "Not viable to sustain life."

Imagine hearing that..

I want to ask everyone that reads this...which might not be many since I don't blog anymore (I really enjoy it though and need to just remember to do it)...to say a prayer for Mike and Kris. Say a prayer for all your friends that are pregnant or who want to be pregnant. Lord willing I will never have to see another one of my friends have their dreams come crashing down on them like this again!

Hope for a new month

2011-04-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

March was a horrible month in the Rasmussen home. It started out innocently enough. We celebrated Meghan's birthday...a few times. I had a trip to California for work which went smoothly.

But then mid-month came the news that my Grandma was in the hospital. Initially we weren't sure what was wrong but hospitals and my Grandma have been together for a while so nothing new. As the weekend approached it started to seem a little more serious though and we were concerned. We actually got to the point of packing to leave not knowing if it would be a quick two day trip or an extended trip so we packed for about 5+ days just in case. Then it seemed like things were going to be okay (it was Saturday we were going to head out on) so we stayed home.

On Tuesday night, we were out getting pizza while our Saturn was getting fixed and I got a troubling call from my older sister. Grandma wasn't doing well. The finally figured out what she had: Herpes Encephalitis. Basically its herpes inflammation in her brain...not a good thing to contract by any mean and very very rare (about 1 in 500,000 will contract it). Its caused by the same Herpes Simplex 1 that causes cold sores and fever blisters. I later found out that Grandma had herpes that had affected her eyes which gave her much grief.

So hearing that news changed our entire week. The outlook was grim and there was little they could do for her in her condition. Her time was going to be limited. We got home and planned to leave the next day after work, which we did. We got in late on Wednesday night and went to bed at my parents only to be awoken at 5 am with the awful news of her passing. I was so sad that we didn't make it over there to see her and say goodbye. The family spent the rest of the week and weekend grieving and remembering a great woman. I learned a lot about Grandma looking through old pictures and asking about stories. Stuff I wish I had done more with her...though she often didn't remember these details now because of the stroke she had suffered.

The funeral (on Monday) was very nice, sad but nice. I put together a video slide show that we had on display showing her happy times in life. She was a wonderful woman. The girls put together picture collages that were put up around the funeral home. My Aunt Debbie did an amazing tribute to her mom during the funeral that didn't leave a dry eye in the house...God must have been with her to allow her to get through it without breaking down. We miss a wonderful mom, grandma and great-gran, but she's living without pain now.

Here is her obituary:
http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20110320/APC010301/103200670/Rasmussen-Norma

The next week was sad but we were trying to move on when suddenly I had multiple missed calls from one of my closest friends Jason...odd I thought. Then Meghan called and told me to call Jason right away...something had happened. I called a crying Jason who informed me that his 12 year old nephew was killed in a car accident that morning on the way to school. Jason and I have been friends for 14+ years and were roommates for 7 of those years...to say we are close is an understatement. I know his family very well and this news hit me like a ton of bricks. I was there to rejoice with Jason when Micah was born...I never thought I'd have to see him mourn his death and especially not so soon.

Here is the story about the even from WCCO:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/03/24/12-year-old-dies-in-rollover-crash/

A sad event took a turn when his family chose to not just mourn in his death during the funeral but turn the focus to a God whom Micah loved dearly. It was a truly memorable service that was filled with sadness but also joy in knowing that they would see him once again in heaven. See Micah had a DEEP passion for God. He knew more scripture than most of us ever will and he's 12. He was a caring and compassionate young boy who reached out to those in need and always had a smile on his face. I think, honestly, that God missed him up there and wanted him back. He'll be missed here but he's in a better place now and there is peace in that.

After that funeral (the following Monday) came and went I was out of tears. Then while on another business trip I saw a very sad sounding post from a friend and former small group member from my church. I went to their blog to learn that one of their almost 8 month old twins had just lost her battle for life. These two girls were born at 26 weeks and had struggled through every month of their life just to breath and live.

Reagan and Eden and their parents Scott and Amanda have been an inspiration to Meghan and I. They have been through more in those 8 months than I hope to ever have to endure. We had been praying for them since we met them shortly after the girls were born. We rejoiced when Reagan came home to be with them and now we mourn that one of the girls has lost her battle. It makes me so sad to think that Reagan will never really know the girl that was her twin...but as her parents said in their blog, "Jesus welcomed her into heaven today where there are no ventilators, trachs or medications. Instead she is perfectly healthy with pink blankets, green rings and soft socks". I don't have many tears left in me, but my heart is filled with sorrow for so many people that I know and love.

Here is a link to their blog where you can learn about their journey:
http://hedingrowingfamily.blogspot.com/

They say that death comes in threes, I can only pray that this is the end of it for me for a long time. Please pray for my friends, The Roelofs' (Micah's family) and the Hedin's (Eden's family). Pray that April allows them a fresh start and God is there to comfort them in their sadness.

Remember to be thankful

2010-11-29T10:27:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving is always a great time to keep me focused on the important things. Its so easy to take things for granted. We are SO blessed. We've got an amazing family, two healthy kids (although one that doesn't know how to sleep at night), wonderful family and friends around us, two good jobs, cars that work, a nice house (alright three...but one we live in), etc. Its amazing how good we have it and how easily I forget that!

I am reminded when reading the blog of my friends, the Hedin's, about some of the trials you can go through. I can't imagine my little girl and boy stuck in the hospital 24 hours like that. Yet even the Hedin's have tons to be thankful for and I am sure they realize it. No matter how bleak things seem we still have an amazing amount of things to be thankful for. One of the lowest points of the past 5 years for me was when our Rochester house was destroyed by a sewer backup. It was devastating, not only for us, but for our friends who were renting the house from us. Yet even during all of that, God blessed us so much. He used that low point to show us that he always provides. He used it to show our friends that his community is amazing and that complete strangers will go out of their way to help people in need.

Don't waste this opportunity to remember all the things you can be thankful for!

Things are starting to slow down a little

2010-11-12T09:31:00.001-06:00

Well with how infrequently we put stuff up here, I can't imagine we have a ton of people checking our blog...if you are still checking, leave us a comment so we know that its worth continuing to do these!

We've had a LOT going on lately.
The addition of AARON to the family has made us much busier than we ever thought we would be. You quickly forget how much work a newborn can be, but when you add a toddler into the equation, yikes...its tiring. Aaron has been teething lately (kinda early for that) so sleep has been at a premium in our house. Earlier in the week, Meg and I were basically sharing one person's night of sleep. Not going to complain though, he's an amazing gift. Some highlights of what Aaron is up to include being able to sit in a bumbo and play in his bouncy toy, he can smile and giggle, he rolls over from tummy to back and rolls onto his side. He's pretty cute and if I had some pictures on this computer I would post them!

ADDISON just turned two! I can't believe she's two already. We kept it low key this year though and just had family over and took them out for pizza to celebrate. Addison loves her new toys. The new kitchen is the one that stands out the most in basement but she loves her baby stroller and recycling truck, and everything else too! It was a good birthday for her, she needed some fresh new toys in her life! She never ceases to amaze me with how intelligent she is. She even knows that when we spell out b a t h that it means bath! haha She really thrives on playing with friends and has become quite the social girl. Her new sitter, Nicole, has a 2 year old (almost) daughter that she brings along and they play together all day.

We started leading a SMALL GROUP recently. Its gone really well, we really like everyone that joined the group and everyone is quickly becoming good friends. Everyone has such interesting and unique backgrounds and we love learning about what makes them all tick. Next week is our first social/volunteer activity. We are doing OCC boxes together and doing a potluck style dinner...using our friend Becky Cochran's potato soup recipe (YUM). Should be a memorable night. Every couple has kids and they really seem to get along well. There is one 3 year old, 2 two year olds, and one that is about 20 some months old. Great ages for playing together in the basement while their parents build friendships and learn about God! One of the couples has been struggling with having their two little newborn girls in the NICU at Children's. Its been a real trial for them, check out their situation in my last blog before this one. Feel free to check their blog to learn more about what they've been through and keep them in your prayers!

So that is what we've been up to lately. I'll try to get better with blogging now that Aaron is getting a little older. We are finally able to start having some free time at night again!

Please pray for our friends...

2010-10-22T09:39:00.000-05:00

We just got an email from our friends, the Hedins, they have twin girls born at (I believe) 28 weeks. They were both VERY tiny and way behind in development. They've been at the NICU at Childrens since they were born and are now ALMOST full term (39 weeks). Amanda emailed me this morning with some sad news, the littlest one, Eden, was put back on a ventilator this morning. This is apparently a huge setback in her development.

Here is an exerpt from their blog:

"Today was the toughest day thus far, our hearts are aching with how difficult it has been. Eden was having trouble breathing all day, she was almost exclusively needing 100% oxygen when her MD decided that she needed to be reintubated (put back on the ventilator). He said she was so close to falling off the cliff, and he hated to have her struggling for every breath. Her reintubation was not easy because she has an anterior airway and her energy reserves were low to begin. She spent 4 weeks off the ventilator doing so well with her nasal cannula and her O2 needs were low, so we just don't know why this is happening. She is doing better now that she is on the ventilator. We however have been pushed to the breaking point. I seriously don't know how much more we can handle. I personally feel like my heart is crumbling into a thousand pieces, this setback is so huge we just don't know when she will be coming home"

I know I haven't updated in a while but I felt like this was very important and I wanted to make sure our new friends were doused in prayer during this tough time. I'll be posting on here more often again though...just stay tuned!

The birth of our son

2010-06-30T10:31:00.000-05:00

We decided to schedule an induction with our child this time. There were a few reasons for it, but Meghan wasn't going to argue...she wanted to meet our son and be done with pregnancy! We originally planned for a July 1 induction date but when it came time to schedule a room, we found out the entire week was booked solid...except Tuesday, June 29. It was a combination of busy time of year and the impending nurses strike which starts next week. Tough news cause we were really hoping for the July 1 date (for insurance reasons) but not much you can do when there are no rooms at the inn!

The morning came, we stayed at Doug and Jeannie's cause they were watching Addison for us. We got to the hospital at about 7:15 am and they started their checks and getting Meghan checked in. About an hour later, the pitocin started and so did the contractions. By about 10 the contractions were really getting strong. Meg was a total trooper through it all. About 12:30 she finally gave in and succumbed to an epidural! Relief! At this point she was still only a 5/6 so we figured we had a long way to go. About 2:15 the nurse came back to help Meghan switch to the other side and she was still a 5/6...it was starting to seem like this was going to be a long labor like it was with Addison.

About 20 minutes later, Meghan was starting to feel the contractions again...odd. She said they felt like the kind when she had to start pushing with Addison so I flipped the nurse switch. She came running in (I guess the one I hit is more of an emergency button haha). After we told her how Meghan was doing she did a check and in 20 minutes she went from a 5/6 to fully dialated with the baby at a +2 which means it was GO time. She immediately paged Meghan's doctor and we prepared the room. By the time her Dr was here, the baby was at a +3 without any pushing. Everything was going according to plan.

Once her doctor got ready to go, it was about 3 good pushes before

our son was finally here! Amazing delivery...nothing like our first. Praise God for that!! Our little son was here...he was perfect. Beautiful skin. Totally healthy. We were elated! He measured in at 20 inches and 7 lbs 9 ounces. Very healthy size...but not too big. He is a great latcher and eater and is still very healthy and beautiful this morning. Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on the pictures and in the guest book. I am sure we'll be talking to all of you plenty in the future!

Its Baby Time

2010-06-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

Well our time has finally come. We are sitting in the hospital getting ready to have our second child. No pictures or anything but an update will be coming soon. We can't wait to introduce the world to our new son later today. We appreciate prayers for a quick and painless delivery and a healthy little boy (and mommy). Thanks everyone!!

Benihana for $12??

2010-06-18T09:37:00.006-05:00

Last night, we decided to have our "last" nice dinner out for a while. The baby could be here any day and we KNOW that is going to change things drastically for us. Money is pretty tight so our options were limited, but Meghan knew EXACTLY what she wanted. Earlier this year, I cashed in some of my points from my company credit card for some gift cards to a few of our favorite restaurants (Chilis, etc) but I surprised Meghan by getting a $50 gift card to Benihana. We both LOVE teppanyaki and the Japanese style cuisine but its a little pricey so its a rare occasion that we can go.

We decided to bring Addison along...for one, babysitters are expensive and for two, we thought she'd really like it. We were right! She loved the chef and he totally tried to make her smile while doing his thing. I wish I had pictures! They had a Filet Mignon and Hibachi Chicken for two deal for $39 so we went for that and got Addison an order of the fried rice (she LOVES rice). Not only do you get the entertainment but great food already cut up into bite size pieces! What service!!

Addison had a blast and was continually asking for "more". More rice, more chicken, more birthday singing, more smoke, you name it she wanted more of it! haha In the end, after dinner for two, a cherry coke, and two orders of fried rice, the bill came to $51.89...so our total cost was $1.89 plus tip!! Not bad for a top notch dinner. I guess my job and traveling has its perks.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
Those of you with a Benihana nearby may want to sign up for their Birthday Club. They apparently send you a "$30 birthday certificate" which the couple next to us was using. You can use it during the month of your birthday! I can't think of a restaurant with a better deal than that!!
http://assets.fbmta.com/clt/bnhn/lp/join/join.asp?q=thechefstable

Another first for our little girl

2010-06-16T07:51:00.006-05:00

Last Saturday, Meghan decided she couldn't take our daughter having a "mullet" any longer so it was time for Addison to get her first haircut. A half a year ago she barely had hair, now it was about down to her shoulders!

Obviously, she didn't know what to expect and I think she is too young to really try to explain it so instead we found a place that is geared toward kids. We found a few places, but ended up choosing Kids Kuts Family Hair Care which is conveniently about 3 minutes from our house. They have some coupons on the website too so at least it felt like we were saving some money too! :-)

The appointment was scheduled for 1 pm and when we got there we found a cute little hair salon with playground toys for the kids to sit on while they are getting their hair cut. This was a nice distraction for Addison. She picked out the horsey and held on tight the entire time. Our stylist was great with her, though Addison had her usual stone face on when a new person is talking to her or touching her. Even with some coaching from mom, she wouldn't even crack a smile though she didn't cry or protest at all.

Mommy is really happy with the result as Addison's hair is now nice and even and can start growing in consistently into some long pretty blonde hair! I think we found our stylist at least for a while...anyone up in the north suburbs should consider looking up Kids Kuts...plus they do adults too!

Funny story of the week: Meghan, Addison, and I were at Target getting a few odds and ends. We were at the checkout and Addison was in the shopping cart. There was a young girl taking care of us and Addison looked up at her, looked down about midway and then pointed and said "booboos" which you might be able to guess what that means. I looked at Meghan and started laughing...I couldn't contain it as this was a word her mom taught her recently. Thankfully, I don't think the girl caught on but I laughed almost the entire way home.

Preparing to grow our family!

2010-06-09T13:10:00.004-05:00

Well summer is here. We've been keeping busy getting ready for the newest addition to our family. Our little boy should be here sometime in June or at the latest, July 1 (our set induction date). Meg has been having lots of contractions and was put on bedrest (kind of). The baby is doing well, the doctors just want to keep the baby in there as long as possible so that its full term. Meghan is very much ready for our little boy to come out, yet we need to hang on to July 1 if possible (for insurance reasons). In the end, I think he'll be out sooner and we'll just make due with the expensive delivery.

We are very much excited to meet our little boy though!! We still don't have his name picked out...we are close but just can't get past the final two, maybe we'll just wait until he comes out and see which one he looks like! :-) Addison is transitioning to being a "big girl" very well. She has her new big girl bed which she loves. We had it in her room for a week or two to let her get used to it but now she's been sleeping in it for about a week and is doing SO well. There have been a few occasions where we've moved her to her crib but each day is better and better!

I've been busy working on our basement. I have a goal of finishing it before our little boy gets here. Last weekend I had a few friends over to put up drywall on our walls. It was a long day but its done and I even have the bedroom taped and mudded (with the first coat). I think I'll finish the rest tonight and then start sanding Thursday or Friday night to get ready for coat #2. I think I am still on track with the project unless the little guy comes early! I can't wait to have the basement finished though. I feel like I can never find anything down there cause its all crammed in two little storage rooms. I am also really excited to have a 4th bedroom in the house. I'll get some pictures to post soon!

With all of this going on, its keeping us pretty busy. We've found time to see a couple Twins games at the new stadium though...it was a real treat! What a great place...baseball should ALWAYS be outdoors!! Two of our friends, the Roelofs and Normans, have had their second kids...both boys. That means all four couples (Roelofs, Normans, Hidlebaughs and Rasmussens) will have their first child in the same year, their second child in the same year and each will have 1 boy and 1 girl...you couldn't plan it any better! haha Our kids should be really close I think.

I wish I was better about blogging consistently but I'll try to do better. I love the comments though, it helps to know that people are actually reading the blogs!

Vacations lead to busyness

2010-04-04T07:59:00.013-05:00

March was a BUSY month. It was FILLED with travel, some for fun, some for work. Early in the month, Meghan took Addison on a trip to see her best friend Beth down in Missouri. They had their first Southwest Airlines experience which wasn't too bad I hear. Before they could get back, I had to leave for a conference in California. All in all it was an entire week before I saw my wife and daughter again. It was lonely...but I kept busy at home by building some MUCH needed storage shelves in the storage room. Its amazing how productive I can be when I have no other responsibilities around the house! :-)

The conference was very interesting, I go to it every year to catch up on what is happening in the aerospace industry. Most years its at the Beverly Wilshire (on Rodeo Drive and via Rodeo...shopping mecca for my high end readers), where Pretty Woman took place. I actually usually stay elsewhere though to save the company a little money...its a Four Seasons hotel, its NOT cheap. I had yet to see any celebrities there in all three years I had been there. I came close this year, Sarah Palin came through the lobby of the hotel about 2 minutes after me. The guys at my table for Lunch saw her and said hi. I guess she was very nice and friendly...she does have a new book and TV show to sell though so being friendly is in her best interests!

Shortly after we both got back, we had a vacation to Puerto Vallarta planned. It was a VERY unique vacation in many ways. It was our first vacation with a toddler which made it quite unique and extremely tiring. The first half the trip was rough, the 24 hour flu swept through the family. I got it the night before we left so I was basically worthless on the trip there. A couple nights later it was Addison's turn, which is something I wouldn't wish on ANY parent. Last was Meghan who got it the night after Addison after sacrificing herself all night with Addison. Luckily, Doug and Jeannie (Meghan's parents) were with us or I don't know how we would have managed!

We did manage to spend some time on the beach though. Addison loves playing in the water...she HATES the sand though. She hates it so much she won't even let us set her down in it, we have a great video but its not on this computer. It worked out to our advantage though cause she wouldn't leave the beach mats we put down.

Addison's top 5 favorite things about Puerto Vallarta were:

The tigers and birdies which we visited many times a day to ROAR at.
The waterslide that she would go down with her dad...over and over and over
The slide at the mall nearby (see video below)
Playing in the ocean and pool
The water fountain in the hotel lobby (see video below)

While the vacation was tiring and not nearly long enough, it was SO memorable. I can't help but to think how fortunate we've been with vacations during Addison's life. It won't always be like this but we are taking advantage of the opportunities that God blesses us with. I am sure we'll be back in Puerto Vallarta again one day though, its a wonderful place and Paradise Village is a great resort.

The worst part of vacations, beside them ending, is coming home to a pile of work. At my job, I am a one man team so when I go on vacation, everything just waits for me...it makes vacation into both a blessing and a curse at times. I am just now, weeks later, finally getting caught back up again. I would take this vacation again in a heartbeat though...seeing the joy on Addison's face as she experienced the ocean was priceless!!

Changes...to our home

2010-02-28T22:16:00.005-06:00

God's been so generous with us. While we aren't quite to the point where Meghan can stay home (hopefully once we sell our rentals we should be able to do it though) God's blessed us so much. Recently we found out that not only are we getting a nice tax rebate but I also got a bonus which I TOTALLY didn't expect. Honestly, with layoffs and stuff, I just didn't think they'd be giving out bonuses this year. I was besides myself with joy when I my boss called me with the news though. One nice thing with both of those is that we always tithe off of each of them and we usually do something different and find some new charities (besides church) to donate. This is kind of fun cause I like the idea of helping people out and using that money we've been blessed with. Now its time for us to figure out where we want to give the money too...there are so many good organizations out there that need money!

The other fun thing is that we decided to take a big chunk of that money to finish our basement. We aren't going to put in the bathroom (yet) but we are going to have a finished bedroom and an additional den area down there. Luckily, the old owners did a LOT of the dirty work leaving us with a few smaller things to do to finish. Basically, we need to put down some carpet (the expensive part) and then paint, install a closet, and do some finishing touches. It will be nice to have the extra den so we can move the Wii and the other game systems we have down there so that if someone wants to play, they can at any time! :-) We rarely play though so we'll see if that changes very much.

A big step for us in this process (and probably the most fun step) was getting new furniture. We decided to move our current stuff downstairs and get some new stuff for the main room. This is really the first furniture that we've bought together. Almost everything else in the house was either one of ours from before our wedding or a gift at our wedding. I picked up the furniture on Saturday night and got it all set up, it looks SO nice. We decided to go with leather so our furniture is more "kid-friendly". It was tough to make a decision but we ended up settling on a couch and two recliners. The recliners are amazingly comfy, I think the couch is going to be jealous cause I don't see us using it too often! haha

I also started working on some new shelves in our storage room in the basement so we'll have a place for all our stuff in there! The first one turned out nice...now I just need to move it into the room, and secure it to the wall. Not something you can do alone! Since Meghan is visiting Beth in Missouri this weekend I had a lot of extra time so I spent most of the weekend organizing, cleaning, and building. It was quite productive but I sure do miss my girls. I am off to California in the morning for three days so I won't see them again until Thursday morning. Its going to be a rough 6-day stretch.

Changes...to our hearts (The Micah Project)

2010-02-22T23:05:00.006-06:00

Eagle Brook has a pretty amazing series, The Micah Project, going on that I think might have the power to really change the hearts and minds of the people of this church...and hopefully throughout the community. The staff has done an amazing job of giving us opportunities to open our hearts to those that are less fortunate than we are. Tonight our small group girls had the opportunity to volunteer with Feed My Starving Children, a group that puts together meals for starving children in poor countries around the world. Tomorrow (Tuesday), the guys get their turn (everyone in our group has kids so this allowed us to avoid babysitters)...I am really excited. The girls (along with the others that were at the Spring Lake Park campus put together enough meals to keep something 94 children fed for an entire year. What an amazing thought...one night of work can make such an impact! This really excites me for my chance to help.

We are quite fortunate. I think we often forget about this. God takes such good care of us...we do so little for others. I am a little ashamed of that. My heart yearns for this at times and I ignore it. Hopefully God will continue to stir my heart. I do now understand what the Bible was talking about in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34. Being married can be a real challenge to being able to freely give of yourself to God. Your priorities change...they have to as you have people depending on you which is something that is rarely the case when you are single. I wish now that I had realized how much more I could have done when I was single. I have to be careful though to not use family as a crutch to not do the things I feel God is calling me to...its a fine line!

Did I mention that I am really excited for tomorrow? We haven't been able to participate in everything the church has set up to work on our hearts. Last week they challenged us all to live for a week on a typical diet of the majority of the world (which entailed rice, beans, lentils, water, etc). Unfortunately, I was traveling most of the week and Meghan, being pregnant, really needs to watch her diet some. We, at least I, do hope to give it a try for at least a day though. I've heard it was quite challenging! Another thing that was set up for last week was the Step Into Africa experience from World Vision where you walk through a simulated AIDS ridden village in Africa. While we weren't able to participate in many of the activities this time around, it wasn't in vain as I think we can still make changes to how we do life. I hope we can raise our daughter to have a good world view and compassion toward those less fortunate. Its our job as parents to instill these kinds of values in our children...Lord willing I won't let my daughter down in this area!

Thank you EBC staff for creating an avenue for God to change our hearts!

What's going on with the Rasmussen's

2010-02-11T23:28:00.007-06:00

Well we are a little overdue on an update with what we are up to these days. Addison is now 15 months old. I remember a short time ago bringing her home from the hospital wondering what in the world we are going to do with this little tiny pooping machine. Its amazing how much changes in just 1 year and 3 months. She's walking, talking, winking, roaring, laughing, running, playing, and smiling now. She's burrowed into our hearts in a way I can't even put into words. Honestly, its hard sometimes for me to even enjoy being away from home because I might miss something funny or amusing. I remember the first time she "winked" at us. I put it in quotes because we call it winking but really its blinking. We were at the mall in Coon Rapids and we let her down from the table we were eating at. She wandered over to a table with a couple kids and one of the girls was smiling at her and winked. Addison laughed and blinked at her. It was such a precious little moment that I cherish so much. You can see some videos of our little girl here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/trevorrasmussen

She's getting ready to visit her FOURTH country (not counting the one she lives in) in less than a month and it makes me think what a charmed life she's been able to have so far. I never left the country until I was old enough to vote and she's seen France, Grand Cayman, Britain, and now soon Mexico before she can even go to the bathroom on her own!! I can't help but be thankful for how fortunate we've been with all the traveling we've done in the past year...it won't always be like this so we are enjoying it while it lasts (and while Addison can fly for basically free). God has blessed us amazingly...I can't lie there...we live a charmed life. Sure others have more, do more, its easy to focus on what we DON'T have...but what we DO have is pretty amazing.

Valentines Day is coming up, this year we are keeping it low-key again...following our past traditions. While its a fun day to remember how much we love each other, we try to not get too caught up in the whole thing. I usually buy Meghan a little something and we'll have dinner and then maybe relax by watching a movie together or something. This year, the Roelofs are coming by and we're having pizza (heart shaped of course) and renting a movie. Honestly I look forward to that as much as I do some extravagant dinner. I've learned to really enjoy the little things like that.

Our eBay business has expanded. We are no longer just a place to buy covers for your Wii Remotes. Our focus has moved more into selling clothes, books, movies, collectibles, etc. Anything around the house that we no longer use. Amazon and Craigslist have also been great places for us to unload stuff we no longer need! It started with our garage sale last summer. Our friend Rachel had a TON of nice stuff that just wasn't selling so we made an arrangement to sell it for them for a fee. Its worked out so well and we've both made a lot of money in the process. Then we moved onto our own stuff and even stuff from both of our parents. I actually enjoy it more than the our Wii Remote covers because every item that sells means a little more room in our basement and garage! We are finally getting close to fitting both cars in the garage which has truly been my goal. Once this is done, we hope to use some of this money to finish our basement and add some more value to our house. While eBay takes some time, its proven to be a great venture for us and we are thankful to our God for providing the extra revenue stream!

Marketing gone wrong?

2010-01-22T12:38:00.003-06:00

Most of you know that I am in marketing. I am always looking to hear about new creative ways people are marketing their products and services to try to reach their customers. I've come up with a few unique ones myself with my company. I was reading some news articles when this headline popped out: "Holiday Inn Offers 'Human Bed-Warming Service' to Combat Icy Sheets". After reading the headline I thought to myself, this CANT be what its implying, can it? Little old Holiday Inn wouldn't try anything crazy like that now would they?

Sure enough the article goes on to state,

"If requested, a willing member of hotel staff will jump in your bed, dressed head to foot in an all-in-one sleeper suit, until your nightly chamber warms up. Holiday Inn spokeswoman Jane Bednall described the plan as something like having a "giant hot water bottle in your bed."

Now I am sure on paper this sounded like a GREAT idea to some marketer who just KNEW this would get some press time. But what about the people who are hired to do this? What happens the first time they get some pervy guy (or Tiger Woods maybe) who wants them to stick around just a little longer. What happens when the wife finds out some young gal was in your bed "just to warm it up"? This sounds like a future PR nightmare to me. On top of that, how do you hire someone for this job? What are the qualifications to be a bed warmer. This was just too absurd of a story to not share. Anyone else hear and crazy marketing ideas lately that you just couldn't believe were real?

2010 is here...whats going to change?

2010-01-04T22:54:00.005-06:00

2009 was a great year for the Rasmussen family. Addison got to experience a year full of firsts, 2010 will likely have much of the same as she still have so many firsts to achieve. I can't wait to be there for every one of them. Her biggest first will be that she gets to be a big sister for the first time. I realized that that we hadn't announced that to our readers on here so let it be known that Meghan and I are expecting the arrival of our next child sometime in early July. While we are really excited for our new addition, it brings a little apprehension too. Adding Addison to the mix was a big change but having two children in the house under 2 could prove to be really crazy. Luckily we'll get to go through a similar experience with three of our closest friends, the Roelofs, the Hidlebaughs, and the Normans. We are all expecting our second children within about 3-4 months of each other! Clearly Addison is too young to know how this will impact her life but we hope she'll take it all in stride!

2010 will bring stability to our lives. There was a lot of change in 2009...new home, new church home, etc. It seems like every year since we've met has brought a lot of change, but I think 2010 will be a stabilizing year for us and I am really excited for that. We have a great home that is affordable along with good stable jobs (and hopefully a recovering economy). We feel like we have really solid renters at both of our rental homes which provides a HUGE amount of relief for us after the craziness of last year. While the new baby will bring some craziness and sleepless nights, the rest of our lives have finally stabilized which is something I thank God for!!

With stable lives, its time to start focusing on ourselves a little bit too. For me, that means its time to really start to make sure that both Meghan and I are taking care of the important things in our lives. At Eagle Brook, I've heard Bob talk a few times now about defining your values. Its something I've never officially done, but its time for me to really do that.

God (while its always important to me, I don't always make it a priority...its time to really change that. I need to make God ACTUALLY first, instead of on paper).
Family (Meghan and Addison are vitally important to me...this has never been a question...same with my extended family. I also need to find more time to push my relationship with Meghan as husband and wife...rather than Addison's parents)
Work (I like to think of myself as a hard worker, but I've developed some bad work habits that I need to clean up to be a harder, more efficient worker. With the football season winding down, its a good time to develop NEW better habits!)
Friends/Self (I need to find more time to cultivate my friendships away from my family. While I LOVE my time with my family, Meghan and I both need to find time to spend with others to cultivate our individual sides of ourselves as well)
Hobbies/Sports (I have no problem spending time watching sports, but playing them has always been something I enjoyed. I've put that on the side burner to be there for my daughter for her first year. I miss being in good shape...this might mean going out running or joining some kind of rec league.)

I haven't figured out how this is going to look yet. My life feels busy but I think there is way too much time spend watching TV and on the computer. This can clearly be reduced to free up some time for my other values. TV and computer are NOT core values of my life. They serve an entertainment purpose but I feel like they are causing me to become lazy at times...I hate feeling lazy. I figure a new year is a great time to work on this...

Getting back into the groove!

2009-12-26T22:59:00.008-06:00

Wow...so sorry for the past couple months. Life got a little crazy on us and the blog suffered as a result. I guess to get us back in the groove again, I (Trevor) thought I would just update you on what we've been up to lately for those who haven't been keeping up via other methods!

Addison celebrated her first birthday.The party was a blast, though I think we crammed about 4 hours worth of party into about 2 hours. We had a costume party for the kids, it was adorable as the ages ranged from under 6 months to about 9 years all in costume! Addison LOVED her first bite of cake. She got TONS of new toys which she really needed as she was really bored with what she had. After the party, Addison went trick or treating with some of her cousins which was a lot of fun, the kids costumes were a hit with the neighbors.

Addison has a great new babysitter, Bethany, who watches her on Wednesdays and Fridays (her Grandma Jeannie still does Mondays). She loves all the extra attention.

We learned that last December was no fluke for our eBay business as it spiked again in mid-November. The increase in business means a boost in income for us which is SO helpful. We plan to pay off the 0% interest loans we used to get our new house up and going in 2010 with that money. We are so thankful for God providing for us.

Things are going very well with our rentals. We are thrilled with both of the couples we selected which is a HUGE blessing. It was a rocky year as landlords, but we've learned a lot in the process and hopefully we'll make some good money back when we sell the homes.

Now that we are settled in our house and at our church (Eagle Brook Church, SLP campus), we realized it was time to get back involved again. We joined a small group in the fall. Our friends Matt and Rachel wanted to find a group as well so we went to GroupLink at EBC on a mission to find a group that we could join together. We found a great group that meets less than 10 minutes from our house and all the couples have kids so we are all in the same boat. Its really nice. Initially Addison did NOT like that we were leaving her in a strange basement with some strange kids watching her. We think it was a combination of separation anxiety and being in a strange place. She's adjusted now though and is playing downstairs with the kids really well! We are enjoying having some adult time and making some new friends and deepening our faith!

The holidays were a flurry as always for us. We spent Thanksgiving with my family. It was filled with lots of fun times as always! Then we went back to Appleton again in mid-December to celebrate Christmas with my family. Its rare we get to see that much of my family so its always a treat when the holidays come around. Addison loved all the new, unique foods she got to try for the first time! We just returned from a long weekend of Christmas celebrations with Meghan's family. We were thankful we didn't have to drive four hours in this crazy storm so it was a good thing that it was time for Meghan's family to have Christmas this year! Addison LOVES presents. Not so much what is in them though...she loves playing with them and ripping them open. Once they are open, she's less interested! haha After we show her what it does though, she loves all the new gifts.

The final push...

2009-09-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

There isn't much time left in the Twins season. With the football season kicking in Meg and I thought we should take a final opportunity (only our second time of the year) to catch our favorite baseball team live in action.

Keep an eye open for us if you watch the game tonight...we'll be cheering loudly for our favorite team that is just barely hanging in there for the division. We are excited for the game, this will be Addison's second game and she's MUCH older this time so hopefully she'll enjoy it! Its going to be late night though...

Quick update

2009-08-21T08:59:00.002-05:00

Man...its been tough to get out here to update lately. I was just in California for work...my first trip there in months. Though I don't mind traveling for work, its certainly less enjoyable when you have a baby back home that you miss! This weekend is Addison's dedication at church. My family is in town starting tonight so they can be there for it. Coincidentally, Patrick and Susan are here from the UK too so almost everyone on both sides will be here for it, how fun! Tonight we are going to Buca di Beppo or as my dad calls it, "The Italian place where you can walk through the kitchen". Tomorrow night Meg and I have to make a steak dinner for the family which was part of an arrangement we made after entering a baseball pool with the family. My dad paid our admission fees with the stipulation that if we won, we have to do dinner for the family. Well we won ($500+) so now its time to make good on the arrangement. We have some really tasty looking Filet Mignons in the fridge from Costco...can't wait for tomorrow night! Good thing I got a new BIGGER grill!

Issuing a Challenge...

2009-08-02T08:04:00.006-05:00

to myself (Trevor). At Eagle Brook last night it was Bob's first weekend back after taking some time off to get refreshed, work on his book, and come up with some new ideas/material. For those of you that have not attended EBC in the past, Bob is a tremendously gifted speaker, and once you leave the church you realize just how inspiring his speaking and topics is. They are wrapping up the John's Best Friend series that has been going on all summer. We've missed a lot of it due to being out of town or just being busy...something I am sad about. How is it that summers get SO busy anyway.

This weekends sermon was about the Holy Spirit and how vital it is to our faith and how we can get it to move more in our own lives. I came to realize sitting there that I don't allow time for God to speak to me. I have filled my life with activity and noise and it drowned the voice of God out. Having an infant in your life makes you change your priorities but sadly I think in changing mine I've cut out a few areas that I shouldn't have and allowed other areas to stay that aren't needed. I rarely found the time to get into God's word in 2009 (it was good at times and embarrassingly poor at others). Its sad to admit that, but its the honest truth. I love God, I know he's working in my life but I don't give him the kind of time needed to have a real relationship with him.

I am going to challenge myself to get back in the word again though...no more excuses. I am sick of being ill-equipped to handle Satan's attacks. I've found a change in my attitude and clearly a change in my priorities and I am working to change that starting today. It probably means sacrificing some sleep in the mornings but change requires some sacrifice. I am taking a few days away from facebook as well to help me figure out my priorities better. Honestly I just need to use my time better and put the big rocks in the jar before the little pebbles. My big rocks are my faith/relationship with God, my wife, my daughter, my extended family and friendships, and my job. I wanted to put this out there so that its not just in my head...if others know about it I am more prone to follow through! Thanks for listening!!

Oh and for those that like pictures...here is the cutest one of Addison to date. At the park on the swing:

Back on our own...

2009-07-16T22:09:00.003-05:00

Well the craziness has started to settle down. In the past 3 months we've had a HUGE rollercoaster of craziness that has kept us SO busy we didn't know what free time was. In that time we:
- Lost our renters in IL (spent thousands redoing inside due to their damage)
- Bought a new house in MN
- Found new renters in IL (signed the up to a 2 year contract...thank you Jesus)
- Moved into new MN house
- Spent weeks getting new house livable (it was a foreclosure)
- Work/vacation trip to Paris and London
- Lost renters in Rochester (We'll miss you Bristol's)
- Found new renters in Rochester (1 year contract, hopefully there for 2)
- Plus tried to maintain somewhat of a social life

Now with all that behind us we finally feel like we can take a breath and enjoy life again. We have a weekend camping trip (in a cabin...not trying camping with a 9 month old) at the end of the month that should provide some much needed relaxation time. While we just had a long vacation in Paris and London, we spent so much time sightseeing that we didn't get to really relax much. We are really looking forward to meeting Addison's newest cousin who should be born in the next month (to Krista and Bill, my sister and brother in law). And then after that its the start of the football season which should bring a lot of excitement for us like it always does. The rest of the summer and fall promise to be lots of fun and relaxation. We are so thankful to be where we are and even though its been a crazy summer, our God has taken great care of us and we know he'll continue it.

London Blitz

2009-06-28T06:37:00.017-05:00

This is a blog Meghan wrote for Patrick and Susan's blog, but it really summed up the second half of our trip nicely so I am going to put it on our site as well. I added additional details about our day trip to Brighton:

Seeing London in five days means that you see many sites in a little amount of time. Our family planned a ten-day European getaway, first to Paris for five days and then to London for another five days. We left Paris and arrived in London on Thursday night via the Eurostar train. Patrick was kind enough to meet us at the train station to help us navigate our way to their place and to help haul our two big suitcases, two backpacks, a small duffel bag, a stroller, and a car seat. Addison was excited to finally get to meet her Uncle Patrick and Auntie Susan.

On Friday, our first blitz of London included the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben/House of Parliament. We made it home in time for dinner—our first experience with Indian food. We could not come to London where the best, most authentic Indian food is made (besides India) without trying it for the first time. It was some good stuff.

Saturday we decided to take the bus to Harrod’s where I was wowed by the monstrosity of a single store. We then took a stroll in Hyde Park and stopped at Blockbuster on our way home to get some movies for the evenings.

On Sunday we took a day trip to Brighton where we had a picnic on the beach and spent a few hours on the pier where we indulged in guiltless pleasures. (Written by Trevor) A couple very interesting things about Brighton: 1) The entire beach was made of stones, not a morsel of sand to be seen, 2) Brighton has a great pier kind of like Santa Monica, and 3) I can ride a bull for 35 seconds! We had a blast though. The coolest part we found was that one of the arcades had lots of 2 and 10 pence games...and they were the kinds of games where you could actually win money back. In the US those games would give out tickets for some lame prizes but out in England, they actually let you have the coins. It really makes the money last a lot longer which was a lot of fun!! To read more about our time in Brighton, you can see Patrick and Susan's blog where they did an entire blog about our day in Brighton. (End Trevor)

On Monday, Trevor, Addison, and I blitzed through Buckingham Palace, took a stroll by St. James’s Park, visited the Horse Guards, journeyed into Trafalgar Square, saw the National Gallery, walked through Leister Square, headed on up to the Piccadilly Circus, and from there also went into the British Museum until finally ending our day there and catching the tube back to Patrick and Susan’s flat for some dinner and a movie.

On our last full day, Patrick lead us through our final blitz of London. We visited the Somerset House, St. Clement Danes (the Royal Air Force church), and walked up Fleet Street to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese where Susan met us for some lunch where I had my first meal of fish and chips. After lunch Patrick brought us by St. Paul’s Cathedral where we then continued on our way across the Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. We finished up our day by taking the tube to the Imperial War Museum.

We spent Wednesday morning packing and had to leave the flat at 11:30 for our long flight home. I think in order to fully take in London (at least all the major attractions), you need at the very least a week there. We loved every day we were able to spend there. We saw a good majority of the major attractions, though we went for quantity, not quality.

Keeping Up With The Joneses

2009-06-18T07:08:00.004-05:00

Trevor has a great job; he makes great money. I am so thankful for his secure job and his wonderful boss who is so wonderful and generous. Going to Paris has been a fabulous experience, and I am so glad that Addison and I got to join him. This Paris part of our vacation is not actually a vacation for Trevor for the most part. During work hours he has been working at his company’s booth at the Paris Air Show. At night we have been able to be together as a family and be by ourselves with the exception of a wonderful cruise down the Seine on Tuesday night that his company put on.

So during the day all the wives of the men did some sightseeing and touristy stuff. This vacation for us was supposed to be a cheap one. You ask how we are supposed to take an 11-day vacation to Europe for cheap? Well I’ll tell you. Our flights were paid for by frequent flier miles. Our $612 per night room at the hotel in Paris was paid for by Trevor’s company. All Trevor’s food was paid for, and mine was too when I was with Trevor. Our transportation was paid for when I was with Trevor. Thank you Anixter for such a wonderful vacation! The second part of our trip is/was also supposed to be cheap. We have not gotten to that point yet, so hopefully we can keep it cheap. We are staying with my brother and sister-in-law in London, so lodging is free. We are going to try and eat in at their place as much as possible, so cost of food should be kept to a minimum.

The Paris part of our trip was not so cheap. You see, the coworkers that are here with Trevor are all VPs of Anixter, which means they make considerably more money than Trevor. Why does this matter? Because the wives of these men spent money without hesitation. (They even joked about bowing to the Louis Vuitton store when we passed it!) So dining with them and going to all the places that they went was not so cheap for me. Remember that my food and transportation are not covered by Anixter when I am not with Trevor. So our daily excursions cost quite a bit more than we had hoped to spend but they were very memorable and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I just sat back and watched the other ladies spent hundreds of dollars on art and other things just thinking and being thankful that I am in the place that I am, that my husband has a great job (especially in this economy), and though we don’t have a mansion, we have a beautiful new(er) house that we love, a happy family, and everything that we need to survive. I am one blessed woman. Stay tuned for more details of our actual vacation and more pictures.

Today is the day

2009-06-13T07:12:00.003-05:00

We leave for Paris today. Its crazy because normally we would have been counting down the days, making lists of stuff to bring, etc. We have been SO busy trying to keep up with life that none of that happened. While its a nice 10 day vacation for my wife and daughter...its a week of work for me followed by some vacation. Nonetheless, I am quite excited for it. I am just realizing how excited I am right now though.

We are also a little apprehensive though as we are bringing a little 7 month old cutie on the flight with us. How will she handle 8 hours on a plane? Will she stay sleeping? Is she going to cry the whole time? Will everyone around us like babies? Will the seat between us still be open when the flight leaves (man I hope so)? How will she adjust to the time change? Some of the millions of questions floating though my (our) mind (s) today as we begin packing.

Even knowing all those questions and potential for stress, we know this is going to be a memorable trip. First, we get to spend about 5-6 days in Paris which despite having a vast population that doesn't think much of Americans is a gorgeous city filled with amazing stories. We have a boat cruise down the Seine on Tuesday night that will allow us to see MOST of the sites. Meg gets to hang out with the wives all day and roam the city (lucky ladies) while us guys man the booth at the show and try to convince customers to give us their business. After Paris, we are taking the Eurostar under the sea to London to spend another 5 days with Pat and Susan in London. This is when MY vacation starts and man do I need it. We don't have an itinerary set for the trip yet. I think we are just going to let them tell us what sites are the most worthy of our time. We can't wait for London though too...again so much history...so many sites. Sadly I think Meghan is most excited to see Platform 9 3/4 though...you Harry Potter fans will appreciate that.

Anyway, we'll let you all know about the trip. We plan to take LOTS of pictures.

Busy life = No blogging

2009-06-02T13:33:00.006-05:00

Sorry about the lack of new blogs. Our last blog coincided with the closing on our new house and we have been spending like every waking moment getting the house ready for us to move in. between that and my rebranding at work, there is little time other stuff. That said, the plan is to move into our new place on WEDNESDAY. Not everything is done that needs to be, but its close enough now that we can live there and work on everything else later! We are so excited to have our own place again...its really looking GREAT there, everything we imagined it would be. Its been expensive, but in the end it will be worth it and we'll trust God that He is going to provide for us as he has in the past. I'll put in a few pictures for those of you that haven't seen the place or who only saw pics of the house sans the appliances, doors, lights, etc. You'll have to excuse the mess though...we still havea lot of cleaning and putting away to do!!

Disaster leads to promise

2009-05-13T06:56:00.003-05:00

What we've learned over the years through all our disasters (and there have been quite a few in our 2 years of marriage already) is that God usually takes our hand during those times and leads us to a better place. We signed new tenants yesterday...like the lease is now signed by both parties. We've had tremendous response of interest from people in renting our place since we spent that weekend working on it. How could there not be though, the place is gorgeous now. Our new renters have no kids and no pets (and no desires for either right now). They both work, one is an engineer making over $80K and the other a quality rep making around $60. We couldn't ask for better tenants from an income perspective! Let's just hope they care for the place better than the last people. All that is left now is starting to figure out how we are going to get our money back from the old renters...we are out some STAGGERING amounts of money right now.

On a side note, we close on our new house on Thursday. We are so excited to start making it our own!! The carpets are getting cleaned on Thursday afternoon, appliances will be delivered on Saturday, and then we start moving everything out of storage on Saturday. While we'll miss having Doug and Jeannie around (I know Addison will), having more space to spread out will be a real treat for us. We have a bunch of work to do before we move fully in though: new light fixtures (the people sold most of them), some doors to be hung (yeah sold those too), walls to be painted, vanity to install (yup you guessed it...sold the vanity), and window fixtures to hang. Once we get done though, this place is going to be magnificent!

By the way, if any of our loyal readers want to help with the move on Saturday (or with any projects)...let us know! :-)

Disaster Strikes Again at a Rasmussen Rental

2009-05-05T13:51:00.010-05:00

This time it was our 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in Lakemoor, IL. When we could not sell our house last year, we scrambled to rent it out before we moved to MN. We had thought we found the perfect tenants. Although we never met the husband, she seemed so nice and genuine and like she would care for our house. The fact that they had four children under the age of 6 concerned us a bit, but we just wanted someone to take care of that mortgage.

We requested one month’s rent as a damage deposit ($1400). She had said that they had not gotten their damage deposit back from their previous renters yet but would pay $100/month towards our damage deposit until they got their money back (which was supposedly 45 days or so). So they paid us $750 bimonthly. Then December rolled around and she supposedly sent us a money order, but it never showed up. She supposedly canceled it and was supposed to get a refund in 8-12 weeks. The rest of the payments were prompted until the second payment for March rolled around. Her grandmother supposedly died and they had to go to Texas so they couldn’t make the payment. Then her husband was supposedly laid off from his job and couldn’t make April’s payment either. During this time we kept on asking about the half month’s rent from December and the damage deposit from their old landlords and never got a straight answer about either.

Well they couldn’t live there for free so they asked us for three weeks to get out. We told them that they are bound to their lease (end of September) unless we could find someone else to live there. They said they would leave the house in pristine condition.

Trevor decided to go work from the office in Chicago last week so that he could do a check out process with those tenants and have them sign a new contract saying that they would make payments to us for what they owe (two months’ rent so far). He called them and said he would be there on April 30 at 1 o’clock. To his surprise, they were gone, and this is where the most fun begins!

Trevor called me up when he got in the house at about 2:30 (he had to run to his aunt’s house to get a key because he didn’t have one). He called me to tell me the shape it was in. I bought a plane ticket at 3 o’clock for a 5 o’clock flight. I threw some clothes for me and Addison in a suitcase and rushed out the door.

Back to the house. They left garbage for us to dispose of in half of the two car garage. The house was a complete disaster. There was garbage everywhere. The walls were painted half way up the wall from her trying to cover up the dirt and grime from their children who seemed to be terrors. The carpets were stained beyond belief. There were stains in the master bedroom from where a console TV was on the floor (which they also left for us to dispose of). We think it is mold from rotting wood. The screen door needed to be replaced because there were huge holes in it and scratches from dogs on it. (They were not supposed to have dogs in the first place, but we have eye witnesses who told us otherwise.)

Needless to say, the carpets need to be replaced, every wall in the house needed to be painted, and the whole place needed heavy cleaning. Uncle Gary took two truck loads full of trash to the dumpster plus one truck load full to Goodwill. Trevor and I would have been there for a week or more working 12-hour days if we had to do it ourselves. Thank God for family. Dick, Debby, Krista, Eliya, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Gary, and our friend Rachel from IL all pitched in and helped. We got the place looking pristine. We worked out butts off from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Then we had the long six-hour drive home. We got home at about 11 on Sunday night just exhausted.

Some interesting things that we found in the house while cleaning and going through crap:
1. All four of their children’s social security cards and birth certificates.
2. Their marriage license.
3. Their old lease agreement from their previous landlord, of which we looked at and found that they did not leave a damage deposit at that house, so it was a lie when she told us that they would get it back since there never was one in the first place.
4. A credit card.

These people lived like pigs. They are despicable people who were deceitful and sleazy. Shame on them. They have no integrity. I am glad they have to answer to God for what they did. We will, however, do our best to make sure we ruin their lives until we get what they owe us (sue them for what they owe us in rent plus all the damage and travel expenses, etc.). I am glad they moved back to Texas because I would have been tempted to find them when we were in IL and give them a piece of my own mind.

Sorry this was so long. Trev feel free to add anything to the comment section that I missed.

Time to get back on our own...

2009-04-20T07:28:00.010-05:00

Most of you know that Meghan and I have been living in the basement of her parents house for a while, since moving back to Minnesota. The purpose for this was to save up some money for a downpayment on a new place up here since we decided to rent our house in IL rather than sell it. It worked out fairly well for us and we recently decided it was time to move on even though it was very comfortable here at the Corcoran's.

We started searching for places about two months ago. The first step was getting pre-approved. We had our eyes on this one house (looked great, perfect location) so we pushed to get it done quickly only to see that house get pulled off the market the DAY we were pre-approved! CRAP...not the kind of start we were hoping for!

After spending some time evaluating where to live and what kinds of homes we wanted (luckily we have similar desires with homes) we started choosing places to look at. Meg found a place that she labelled her "dreamhome"...not only was it more than we talked about but it was out of price range and needed a lot of finishing, but there is NO denying that it was a STEAL and a place we probably could have lived in forever...and it was in the TPC neighborhood which is a sweet place . We arranged a time to see it so we could see if it was feasible or not but upon arranging our visit, we found out they had an offer come in. We still saw the place but realized we would have to move quickly. After looking the place over though, we quickly realized we were in over our heads, this place was totally too much work for us novices!! We moved on, a little sad because it was amazing!

About a week later an even better "dreamhome #2" showed up. It was perfect and a foreclosure so it was a STEAL. The house had an ALMOST finished lower level that would have been perfect for us. We could have lived there the rest of our lives though. After seeing it, we went home calculated how much we needed to spend to get the place finished up (needed appliances and stuff) and then on Monday (the next morning) we got ready to place an offer only to find out they had an accepted offer on Friday that they never told us about. Our realtor was LIVID with the other Realtor...we were crushed. We literally were moving in there in our heads already. We started to figure out that even though it seems like a buyers market, when the homes were priced right, you need to MOVE on them fast!!! It took us almost a week to even look at homes again, our spirits were crushed after missing out on this one! Tiffany, our realtor was great though and encouraged us that the right place is out there and to just be patient and move quickly when you find it!

We were quickly realizing that even though we were in a down market for homes, we weren't able to find the kind of place we'd be happy in for a long time in our price range since we didn't have much of a down payment. There wasn't much out there on the market that we were interested in now though so our second strategy was looking for townhouse or cheap home that we could be happy in for like 5 years and then after selling our place in IL, we'd find our new dreamhome. We set out to find a townhouse, something we both swore we wouldn't do again after the process of selling my last one. There were a few disappointments and a few with potential. We were quickly learning what we liked and didn't like in the townhouse market. At the end of the weekend we still didn't find a place we were excited about though. We came up with one more list of four places to look at the following Tuesday. There were two in particular that we were really anxious about.

We walked into the first house and didn't even make it upstairs...ew! No way we could make that one work. The next house had a great location that we loved but the arrangement would have been less than ideal so we moved on. Then we found our dream townhouse...we walked in and it was like alarms were going off in my head that this was the place! What? Oh Meg just told me that alarms were ACTUALLY going off...I guess the power was shut off and the alarms were going off. We couldn't bring Addison into the house so we took turns touring the house and our smiles grew bigger each time we switched off. Could this be THE one for us? Could we seriously end up living in Coon Rapids AGAIN!?!?

We conferred outside and came to the conclusion that this was THE house...we had to act quick. The house had been on the market for 4 days but was a STEAL. We also had an obstacle with having FHA financing which was not listed among the approved options by the bank that was selling the house and there were a few things that needed to be fixed up before we left. We rushed to our realtors office and wrote a very creative offer...then the waiting began.

Amazingly we got a call the next day...they took it! We were shocked...it was a long shot because banks are notorious for being completely inflexible. We've spent the last week figuring out what we need to buy for the place and hiring people to fix up a few things before the FHA assessment but we feel fairly confident that everything should work out and this is going to be our NEW home:

3 BR / 2.5 BA
It has a lower level that is about 75% finished that will add an additional BR and BA...anyone wanna come help with that project?? :-) When we are done it will be a 4 BR, 3.5 BA townhouse...you don't see many of those on the market!
All three bedrooms are upstairs and all have walk in closets
Master suite with a walk-thru closet and a full master bath with whirlpool tub
Nice detail work throughout the house
All this for our offer of $135,000 (bank pays closing costs)
The people bought it new in 2005 for $210,000!

We are very excited to move in. The closing is set for May 14. We've been out on the prowl for new appliances along with other fun stuff to finish the place off and make it our own!

Going to Paris and London for $300?

2009-03-28T00:07:00.006-05:00

It has been planned that I would join Trevor on his every-other-yearly trip to Paris for the Paris Air Show for two years now. What made this trip even better was that we were going to visit Patrick and Susan in London after Trevor's business part of the trip was done. My brother and sister-in-law moved to London for two years in September 2008. They have not met Addison yet.

A few weeks ago when Trevor was in LA on business, he met with his boss, who told him that the company was cutting costs. No layoffs (thank you God); however, Trevor's name was taken off the list to go to Paris.

I had already purchased my ticket via WorkPerks miles. There was no way in my mind that we weren't going to make this trip that we had been planning for two whole years! Trevor's boss knew we had purchased tickets and knew we were going to vacation after Paris, so he was very apologetic. Trevor's boss (Mike) came up with a compromise. If Trevor could get to and from Europe, then the rest of the trip would be paid for (meals, hotel, transportation) in Paris. What a relief! The cost for round trip coach class ticket on the flight I was already booked on was only $4000! Well, Mike offered Trevor his own WorldPerks miles so that we could make this possible. Talk about having the world's best boss.

So we paid a grand total of about $300 for round trip tickets from MSP to Paris and London to MSP. (We are taking the Chunnel train from Paris to London.) I am so excited for this opportunity to go to Europe again and explore some cities and countries I have not visited yet. Or wait, have I visited London? Here is a picture I found of us at the Somerset House doing some ice skating!

P.S. For a cute pic of my bro and SIL in London, click here: http://pscorcoran.blogspot.com/2008/11/blades-of-glory.html

Growing Like a Weed

2009-03-25T21:56:00.009-05:00

For those of you who are not on Facebook, you probably do not get as many updates on Addison as the rest of the world. (Hint, hint--get on Facebook, it's the cool thing to do.) Anyway, she is getting so big and developing daily. Here are some updated videos and photos of our little munchkin.

Rolling over on February 13th

Our little home girl

In her pretty spring dress

Laughing...watch the whole thing, the end is the best!

Playing in her ExerSaucer

A Birthday of Choices

2009-03-10T18:54:00.005-05:00

Trevor likes to talk big and taunt me with presents and surprises. This birthday was no different. I personally think he wanted to go down in history as Husband of the Year. He gave me vague hints and multiple times told me that I did not choose to listen to his hints, which I came to find later was a hint in itself.

When my birthday finally came, or rather two days before my birthday because Trevor couldn't wait any longer to give it to me, I opened the card only to find a CD enclosed. On the CD was a Powerpoint presentation made by the one and only Trevor. The Powerpoint presentation was where I would make my choices. The first screen informed me that I had a 60-minute massage scheduled at 3 p.m. on Saturday (3/7) with Kate at Aveda in downtown White Bear Lake. The next screen was where I had to pick one of three choices. I had to pick from a facial, mani/pedi, and new hairdo/highlights. I decided to go with the facial (a little taste of Heaven as my SIL Krista so nicely put it). My final decision was to pick between four things. The first choice was to go to two Twins games this year. The second choice was to shop and pick out a new "sexy" outfit (as Trevor put it) and go out to an "average-priced" dinner. The third option was dinner at the Melting Pot. The final option was a "night on the town" which included some activities at Block E in Minneapolis, which included dinner, movie, Shout House (dueling pianos), and of course GameWorks. I choose Melting Pot.

To back track a little bit, I was given a few days to make my choices, until my birthday to be exact. My reasoning for choosing the facial over the mani/pedi and hair was simple: I just got my toes done by Krista a few weeks ago and didn't need that done, and I didn't want to keep paying the maintenance every few months to keep getting my hair highlighted. My reasoning for choosing Melting Pot over the other choices was also somewhat simple after talking through it. We always go to a Twins game or two every year anyway, so why take it as a birthday present (sorry Trev, the truth comes out!). I did not want to buy a new outfit because I am in the process of losing weight, so having an outfit that I would wear maybe once didn't make sense to me. I chose not to do the night on the town because when it came down to my last two choices, Melting Pot blew a night on the town out of the water.

I have yet to set up my appointment for my facial, but we did go to the Melting Pot on Saturday where we were able to easily spend well over a hundred dollars (and that included a free chocolate fondue!) Unfortunately, our camera was left in the car, so we do not have any pictures to post. However, the food was outstanding, the little enclosed table with curtain was very romantic, and I could not have enjoyed myself any more.

THANK YOU HONEY FOR SPOILING ME! I LOVE YOU!

A tough week ahead...

2009-03-09T08:25:00.003-05:00

I knew this day would come but I managed to put it off for FOUR months...

Today is my first business trip (without my baby coming along). Honestly, its going to be hard to not see my little girl (and my wife) for most of the work week! I am accustomed to spending so much time around her lately that I think I am going to go into withdrawals by Tuesday night! Luckily my wife has family here now to support her while I am gone which gives me some peace of mind! She'll do well though, Meg really has this parenting thing down!

On a positive note, Addison is doing great! Addison is healthy and growing nicely...at her four month checkup we found out she is 11 pounds 13 ounces now and 24 inches long. She's long and skinny, does that like anyone you know?? haha I am sure she will love to be blessed with my skinny genes if that is the case! There isn't much that is harder to endure though than watching your helpless little 4 month old baby get shots though. I have NEVER heard her cry like that though! We are expecting a new cousin for Addison in the coming weeks which will be so fun for her...Meghan and I each had a cousin about the same age as us and we have fond memories of us hanging out together!! We can't wait to meet little baby Vik!

Super Bowl Ads

2009-02-05T09:23:00.003-06:00

I am a HUGE football fan, but I'll confess the reasons I watch the Super Bowl in seasons where the Packers are not it are:
1) Funny commercials
2) Last chance to watch football for like 6 months

I was a little disappointed in #1 this year (though the game was GREAT) but there were some real good ones...just fewer to choose from. With this economy though I expected things to not be what they usually are! To make my list, you need 2 things, make me laugh and be creative. If you lack either I will likely forget your commercial...movie previews and tv show ads do not count. Some companies (like GoDaddy) continue to push the lines with their sexually charged commercials and honestly, that is so like 5 years ago. Most people are past that and honestly if I need to register a domain name, GoDaddy is NOT getting my business.

So without further ado, here is Trevor's Top 5 Favorite Commercials from the 2009 Super Bowl:
#5 - Cheetos - Power of Crunch: Not a uber creative commercial, but it made me laugh and I liked the end how his luck ran out IMMEDIATELY after the bag was empty. This wouldn't have made my list most years though...weak competition in 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DZao4kN73M

#4 - Bud Light Meeting: Being a marketer...I can relate to the person mention cutting back marketing cause that seems to be one of the first cuts in times like this...its usually people like them that don't have a clue that come up with it too. How proposterous to come up with the idea of cutting the Bud Light from the budget!! I laughed hard when I saw the guy fly out of the building...not too unrealistic though (well at least their reaction wasn't).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQvqkadg9JI

#3 - Teleflora'sTalking Flowers: This commercial is a juggernaut but not a good enough one to crack my top 3. This makes it here for two reasons...one is that its INGENIOUS from a marketing perspective with V-day about 2 weeks away...captive audience of mostly men...Teleflora will BLOW up cause of this. I thought this commercial was really funny though too, especially when the flowers say "no one wants to see you naked" at the end!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7IvUEssa4A

#2 - Doritos - Free Doritos: Every man is up for a good hit to the junk commercial. These are almost relics these days but that makes them funny again. There was a time when these were the norm in the Super Bowl but they are more rare these days which makes them funny again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UukD_cIw08E

#1 - E-Trade Singing Babies: I am a sucker for these E-Trade commercials...I admit that. When the baby started singing I lost it! I love these commercials and this one was GREAT. Slam dunk...I knew this was the winner right after seeing it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhfl4mFH1No

I give a special honorable mention to two commercials:
HM #1 - Miller Lite's 1 second commercial...to mock your biggest rival like this (Bud spent about $35 mil just in advertising time...not including what they spend in creation) was stinkin AWESOME!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYiGpVGTU2U

HM #2 - Career Builder: The core of the idea was wonderful and I think it could have been a really funny commercial but it was too repetative that made me actually get sick of it before it was even over the first time. They could rebuild this one into a really funny one though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79tMMFja-Fw

What are your thoughts? Did I miss one that you loved?

The First Few Days

2009-02-02T20:44:00.010-06:00

Greetings from sunny, warm, not-humid, gorgeous Grand Cayman. We enjoyed our first two full days on the Caribbean island. On Sunday hopped in the car and drove up to Rum Point where we ate lunch on the beach. The view was fantastic. Rum Point has some of the most amazing stretch of ocean and beach on Grand Cayman. It was a real treat to get to spend some time there. We plan on going back for a day at the beach, and I cannot wait. Addison got her first touch of the ocean at Rum Point.

Then we went to Georgetown where 90% of the shops were closed (most of the island closes down on Sunday). We had some ice cream at DQ and took a short ride up 7 Mile Beach where we reminisced about our honeymoon and saw the Marriott (where we stayed) and some of the restaurants we ate at. Then it was back to our condo for pizza and snacks during the Super Bowl.

Monday was a day of relaxing. We stayed out in the sun most of the day; Addison in her Bounce 'n Play.

For dinner we went to the Lighthouse where Addison slept the whole time, and we were able to enjoy a dinner in peace and quiet for once!

Addison...11 weeks and growing!

2009-01-23T21:15:00.011-06:00

It's come to my attention that we haven't posted pictures of Addison on here since shortly after she was born. My apologies to our loyal readers...I guess I forget that not all of our readers are on sites like facebook. Without further ado, I introduce our 11 week old little doll, Addison:

Here she is spending some quality time with Grandma Jeannie. She gets lots of quality time with her grandparents these days!

Addison's favorite place in the house is the bathroom. She LOOOOVES baths and loves to look at herself in the mirror...with a face like that though who can blame her!

While her first love is mommy...she's started to develop eyes for her dad. I can't wait until she old enough to get excited when I come home from work!

Lastly this was our picture for our Christmas newsletter. I thought I would end with a cute picture of our little family.

Its so amazing to watch this little girl grow. The changes that have already happened have happened so quickly...she's grown from being a little newborn baby to having a personality already in such a short time. We've been able, most nights, to get her to be in bed between 9 and 10 which when compared to midnight is an amazing treat for her parents (who were getting a little worn out from the late nights). She sleeps through the night, usually 6-8 hours which is wonderful as well. We've found she shares her mom's love of sleeping in too which has been nice for her mommy.

Just 2 days ago we enjoyed Addison's first laugh which was one of the most gratifying moments of my life I think. You can't describe the joy you feel when you experience some of your own childs firsts in life. I am so thankful I was there to witness it! Tomorrow night is another first for Addison, her first night alone with dad. Meghan is going to my sister Melissa's wedding shower and leaving our little daughter in my capable hands for the night. It should be a nice night of bonding for the two of us...hopefully its one of her GOOD nights so I don't get overwhelmed!

I hope everyone stays warm this weekend and has a memorable weekend!

Finally a night on the town

2009-01-18T09:01:00.009-06:00

We had a big achievement last night...our first night away from Addison for a nice date! I want to thank my little sis for the inspiration. After finding out she and Bill were heading our on a date night, Meghan was jealous but torn with the idea of leaving our baby girl alone for a whole night. I assured her if anyone can do a good job watching our little girl at night during her "cranky" time, its her parents who see her every night!

We decided to go for it and I called Saji Ya on Grand and set up our reservation for 2!

We fed Addison and got ready for our date. I grabbed the camera on our way out just in case there was anything fun to take a picture of...we always seemed to think there was back when we were dating! Luckily I did as it provided for some good memories...plus I know Beth hates it when we blog without pictures. ;-)

We arrived at the restaurant and were sat at an almost full table with a family of 5 and a couple on a date. Meg ordered a glass of wine which when you are breast-feeding, is a really nice treat! One of the cool thing about Teppanyaki tables is its more of a social atmosphere...we started talking to the couple next to us right away and really hit it off! David and Trish were a fun couple in their late 30's that had only been dating for about 2-3 months. They were high school friends that reconnected recently on facebook after each going through a divorce. It was fun to see the "young love" that they had building already! Trish and Meg really hit it off so they kept the conversation interesting!

The dinner was fabulous, and so was the preparation. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the cook making the food, I think was too busy eating it! We shared the Saji Ya which i s steak, chicken, and lobster. Luckily my wife doesn't like lobster so I got it all to myself! After dinner the family on the other side of the table started to pull our presents and we realized it was someone's birthday! How exciting! The camera came back out...who doesn't want their picture taken when opening presents, right!?! :-) The first present for Liz (who's name we learned AFTER taking her picture) was a DeWalt power drill...you heard that right. The second gift was a HUGE set of drill bits...later we find out that Liz, who looks maybe 20 but is 25, is a welder! After taking their pictures, the family opened up a lot more and we had some fun times chatting with them too.

The night was still young so we headed over to Dixie's (next door) for a nightcap with David and Trish. After some more fun times, it was time to head home and "rescue" Doug and Jeannie and put our little angel to sleep for the night. We got home at about 9:30 to find her sleeping in Jeannie's arms and she was DONE for the night. I put her in her sleep sack and she was out until early this morning. It was a nice end to our night to have our daughter already sleeping and staying asleep (which is NOT something she always does). We hope to have more nights like this, it was nice to have a night to ourselves to just enjoy one another like it was before Addison came into our lives. Thanks Doug and Jeannie for allowing us to have this night!

Our first party BACK in Minnesota

2009-01-07T19:53:00.004-06:00

Living at your parents (or in laws in my case) has some restrictions (though Doug and Jeannie are GREAT about giving us our own space)...one of which is that its kind of hard to have big groups of people over when you are sharing someone's house. When we found out they were going to the UK to visit Patrick & Susan, we jumped at the opportunity to have friends over for a little shindig. What better time is there than celebrating the New Year!?!

We both love entertaining so throwing a party was something we were both super excited to do! We told everyone we'd take care of the food ourselves and we decided to do one of our favorite things...FONDUE! If you go out for Fondue, its like $50 a person, but really its MUCH cheaper to do yourself though there is some prep work involved. We had a cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue with lots of dipping options. It worked out great with the grazing atmosphere we were going with at the party.

Our new WiiFit even got a little use as people tried it out to see what the rage was about. Since many of our friends now have young children, they came and left whenever they needed to but we managed to still have 8 people (including us) still there as the ball dropped! It was a really fun night, so thanks to everyone that came by and spent their New Years Eve with us! I don't have any pictures but if anyone who came does, feel free to send them and I'll post them!!

Merry Christmas to all...

2008-12-25T09:58:00.001-06:00

We wanted to take a moment to wish all our friends and family who read our blog a wonderful and very merry Christmas. In the new year we plan to be more active in our blogging as life starts to slow down some more...we hope to have you all as avid readers! Thanks for the memories this year, we love you all!

Trevor, Meghan, and Addison

The Best Buy Story

2008-12-11T08:39:00.002-06:00

Apparently not everyone knows about our Best Buy experience two years ago. It was Thanksgiving 2006, my first MAJOR holiday away from my family since Easter back in college when I celebrated Easter with the Rossetti family (that was an experience). Since my family is in WI and Meg's is here we decided long ago that trying to do both families is an impossible task so we split Thanksgiving and Christmas and we visit one family for each...that family gets our full attention if possible for the holiday then!

Anyway, Thanksgiving in 2006 was our first year together and this was the first holiday to try this out. I was missing my family and adjusting to how another family does Thanksgiving (actually Patrick and Susan were hosting which was kind of fun). After the meal finished, we were perusing the Black Friday ads, laughing about people who wait outside in the cold when I notice MY television on the Best Buy ad. I had just accepted my new position earlier in the year and had some "bonus" money stewing in an account waiting for the right opportunity to buy myself a nice flat screen after years of suffering with a 27" for so long.

All of a sudden Patrick, Meg's brother, says hey a couple of friends and I were going to camp out at Best Buy tonight to get that TV along with some other deals.

I turned to Meghan and said "is this your families Thanksgiving tradition?" realizing that I just proposed the day before and I was wondering what kind of a family I was getting joining!

Luckily this was a first and not a tradition. The more I thought about it, getting an $1800 TV for $1000 was too good an offer to turn down and Meg and I decided to join Pat and his friends.

For our readers in distant lands (like California) this is a MUCH bigger commitment here than it is by you...temps that night were in the teens I think and Meg and I were both there from out of town and didn't pack for camping in the snow. We grabbed blankets from the Corcorans though and bundled as many layers on as we could and got to Best Buy at 6 pm...the day before! Doors opened at 6 am the next morning...yes 12 hours later.

I didn't know what to expect, I always laughed at people that did stuff like this! We got to Best Buy in Maplewood to be among the first 10 people in line...which means there were actually people that were there BEFORE 6 pm!! We brought our stuff out and staked our territory. The night was filled with cards, throwing around a football, and sneaking off for late night Perkins meals in small groups (while others stayed behind guarding our spot).

Around 4:30 am things started to get interesting. The line was now around the back of the building...it felt GREAT to be at the front.

People started gathering out front of the store, we assume to attempt to dash in front of us...which would have been a painful mistake for them I think.

The crowd grew restless at these people and eventually the cops showed up and one unlucky guy ended up with a football embedded in the side of his face! haha

Best Buy employees came out and went through the line one by one handing out certificates for the big ticket items we wanted in order of when we got there. Patrick and I each got our 42" Panasonic plasmas and we were both really happy. So that is what Black Friday is like for those of you who think we are crazy! It was a MUCH more fun experience than I expected but I think it comes down to whom you are with!

Update on whats going on in our life

2008-12-06T09:04:00.003-06:00

My friend Kristy did a post like this and I thought it was a nice way to get everyone in the loop on whats going on since I don't have any BIG topics to write about. Here's what we've been up to lately:

Spend Thanksgiving here in MN with Meghan's side of the family. Its always fun to experience Thanksgiving with different people and see what their traditions are. Last time I spent Thanksgiving with Meghan's family we ended up spending the night at Best Buy and buying a new plasma TV. No major expenditures this year.
We braved the craziness this year and did our Christmas shopping on the afternoon of Black Friday. I was amazed how many of the super special deals were still at Best Buy...certainly a sign of the tough times our fellow Americans are going through! I praise God for our good fortune and for providing me with a great job that meets our needs!
Meghan took Addison up to Cloquet to meet her grandparents up there for the first time. I wasn't able to come because of work so it was my first night away from my girls since Addison came into our life. It was a little sad after I got home and no one was here.
Our eBay business is ROCKING right now...its hard to even keep up with at times (with a newborn in the house). Christmastime on eBay is WONDERFUL!!
I am working on our second annual Christmas newpaper newsletter. If you were on the list last year I am sure you'll get another...if you didn't get one in the past I probably missed ya. Let me know!!
We are spending Christmas in Appleton this year with my side of the family...most of my relatives haven't met Addison yet so it should be a LOT of fun!! We can't wait.
Everyone should get Skype on their computers if you have family or friends far away...nothing like getting to see your loved ones on video!

Well that's all I have for now...keep your eyes open for the Rasmussen Times in the next week or so.

Its been a while...guess why?!?

2008-11-09T10:41:00.003-06:00

We are now proud parents of a little baby girl!!

Little Addison Marie was born on Monday, November 3rd at 5:56 am after being at the hospital for almost 20 hours. She was a little stubborn coming out as you might imagine but after 3 tough hours of pushing for Meghan our little one is finally here. She is gorgeous too I might add! :-)

About this time, one week ago we got off the phone with a nurse at the hospital who told us we needed to get there sometime in the next hour. Meg's water was leaking so we knew our time had come. Unfortunately our baby still didn't want to join us so Pitosin was administered after a few hours to move the process along. Since it was a Sunday, we had football games on all day to distract Meg from what was happening...luckily the Vikings came through as did her fantasy football team so she was in high spirits (don't confuse that with me cheering for them or something though).

After hours of painful contractions, Meg finally gave in and asked for an epidural to ease some of the pains as she still had a lot of labor to go. We got a little rest and at about 2 am, I was woken up from a deep sleep (about 2 hours of sleep that night for me and none for Meg) and informed that it was time to push.

Addison has been a wonderful little girl for us! She struggling with getting night and day a little confused at this point so we've had a few LONG nights. I think we are starting to learn things we can do to help her have longer sleeping at night though...we'll see if it works or not. Last night was a tough one but so far tonight we had to wake her for her first feeding which was a great thing...I hope its like that all night! I am working on a website for Addison which will have lots of fun pictures and a fun little blog from her perspective (as well as one from mom and dad) though we'll keep this one going as well...as time permits of course! haha If you want that web address, let me know!

Oh Great, Company Policy Changes

2008-10-27T17:30:00.001-05:00

This was sent to all employees at my company.

Notice to All Employees
As of November 5, 2008, when President Obama is officially elected into office, our company will instill a few new policies which are in keeping with his new, inspiring issues of change and fairness:
1. All salespeople will be pooling their sales and bonuses into a common pool that will be divided equally between all of you. This will serve to give those of you who are underachieving a "fair shake."
2. All low level workers will be pooling their wages, including overtime, into a common pool, dividing it equally amongst yourselves. This will help those who are "too busy for overtime" to reap the rewards from those who have more spare time and can work extra hours.
3. All top management will now be referred to as "the government." We will not participate in this "pooling" experience because the law doesn't apply to us.
4. The "government" will give eloquent speeches to all employees every week, encouraging it's workers to continue to work hard "for the good of all."
5. The employees will be thrilled with these new policies because it's "good to spread the wealth." Those of you who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity; those of you who have worked hard and had success will feel more "patriotic."
6. The last few people who were hired should clean out their desks. Don 't feel bad, though, because President Obama will give you free healthcare, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free foodstamps, and he'll let you stay in your home for as long as you want even if you can't pay your mortgage. If you appeal directly to our democratic congress, you might even get a free flatscreen TV and a coupon for free haircuts (shouldn't all Americans be entitled to nice looking hair?) !!!
If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th.

Addison is going to be a naughty girl I think...

2008-10-16T09:59:00.006-05:00

Addison has been quite the active baby in utero. So yesterday afternoon around 2 when she had not made much movement all day (even after eating lunch and lying on my left side for a while), I got a bit concerned and called my OB to see if I should be seen. I got an appointment to be seen 40 minutes later.

The heartbeat was normal using the fetal stethoscope. (I am certain there is a medical term for this, but surprisingly it is one that I do not know, so I'm calling it a fetal stethoscope.) I was then hooked up to a monitor for a fetal nonstress test (or NST). In order to pass that test, Addison was to have two spikes in her heartbeat along with uterine movement concomitantly in a 20 minute time period. She only had one of those such spikes.

So I was sent to St. Johns to labor and delivery to be hooked up to the NST monitor again until I could be seen for a biophysical profile (or BPP, which is an ultrasound to detect certain movements and measure amnoitic fluid). My OB told me that if I scored an 8/8 I was good to go home, a 6/8 would most likely mean daily monitoring, and anything less than that "we'd have to have a talk," meaning possible induction STAT. Well thankfully when I was hooked up for the NST in the hospital, Addison decided to wake up and move about like nothing had ever happened. Why she couldn't do that a few hours previous is beyond me! My OB still wanted me to have the BPP anyway just to ensure Addison wasn't being asphyxiated in anyway. I, or rather Addison, scored an 8/8, and we were good to go home.

After the incident, Trevor and I decided we needed to get our butts in gear and pack those overnight hospital bags that were supposed to be packed a few weeks ago. So we went to Target, spent over $160, and came home and crashed. We can now say that, except for the car seat not being in the car yet, we are now as ready as we can get for whenever Addison does join us. We are hoping sooner rather than later at this point.

Lessons learned:
1. Addison is a very sleepy girl. She takes after her mommy.
2. Addison is a very naughty girl for scaring us like that. She takes after her daddy.
3. If you need confirmation of the gender, just tell your OB you haven't felt the baby to get another ultrasound. Addison is indeed a girl.

Extra information:
On a side note, I was dilated to 1 cm at my regularly scheduled appointment on Monday.

ADDENDUM--POLL:
Since the two people closest to me (my husband and Beth) seem to disagree with which parent is the naughtiest, we are going to have a poll. Please see the upper right hand corner of our blog and vote accordingly. Thank you.

She's a comin...

2008-10-08T16:41:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note to update on Addison's journey. She has dropped significantly. Though I am not dilated yet, her head is sitting right on my cervix. Makes for an abundance of trips to the bathroom each night! I'm down to weekly appointments now, so the time is getting near. It sounds as though I am right on schedule with my due date (but we all know how that goes--plus I have a feeling I'm going to be late--it's just the luck I have). I've had three wonderful baby showers so far (one more to go), and we have been blessed with such wonderful gifts from our friends and family. Addison is very spoiled already. I feel ready about as ready as I can...well I guess I will after our birthing class this weekend. The nursery/office/my mom's library/Trevor's closet (yes, it's a multipurpose room) is ready for her, and we can't wait to meet her.

We're finally back!

2008-09-27T08:42:00.002-05:00

Well its been a while since our last blog. Sorry about that everyone...we'll get better about this now that things have settled down some.

We had a wild couple of weeks. Moving day was CRAZY! Jason and Ryan took the MEGABUS down to help us move, we really appreciated that help, I think we'd STILL be moving if they hadn't come! It was fun to get to spend some time with them again too.

It was hard to say goodbye to all our friends down there in IL, but ultimately we feel very confident this was the right move. Packing up the truck took about twice as long as we had hoped which put us WAY behind. Its amazing how much stuff you have. We got rid of so much and we still had so much stuff. The truck didn't roll into MN until about 11 pm so unpacking was not an option until Sunday (opening day for the NFL). The next morning we managed to get about four people to come and help us unpack the truck and put everything into our storage unit and we were even done by around 10 am so we were home for the games!

We are so glad to be done with the moving phase for now...its such a tiring process...though we realize we have another move in front of us in the next 6 months (we think). Our next one should be much easier though as most of our stuff is still in boxes in storage!

Well for those of you who don't know, we are living at Meghan's parents house in White Bear Lake. It's not a bad set up. We have two bedrooms, our own bathroom, and a living room area that is pretty much our own space in the basement. Obviously living on our own would be ideal, but we are SO thankful for Meghan's parents for helping us during this transition. We do feel very thankful for how God has answered our prayers in providing a home for us to live in, getting us back in MN, and finding someone to rent our house. The process didn't go like I would have scripted it, but ultimately he took care of us and I am sure I will look back on it and see the amazing wisdom in why it happened.

Right now we are back in WI for our FINAL trip out of town until likely Christmas. I think of all the great things about MN, this is my favorite. I am so exhausted from all our travelling while living in IL, so now the only time we have to travel is to visit my family (rather than both of our families). We have a shower for Meghan today and then Eliya's birthday party later in the day so today will be busy but Sunday should be relaxing...well as long as the Twins can get some wins!

T minus TWO days in Illinois

2008-09-04T23:55:00.002-05:00

I can't believe we are actually moving back to Minnesota. I am filled with many different emotions as I sit here thinking about it. Mostly I am exhausted right now. Work is overwhelmingly busy right now which makes the rest of life SO much crazier. I am struggling to find time to get all my work done. At the same time we are packing, getting everything taken care of for the move, and of course renting out our place. I haven't really had time to think about how much I am going to our great friends here. While I am excited to be around everyone up in MN again, we've made some great friends here that we are going to miss dearly! To all of you from our group, you all have a special place in our hearts, thanks for being a part of our first year of marriage and our lives in IL! Our lives would have been so boring if it wasn't for all of you.

Just tonight I finally rented out our house here!! After trying to sell for over 4 months we just gave up on that mission and we are pulling our house off the market. We found a young family that is REALLY excited about living in our house. They signed a one year lease which means we'll be able to start saving up a down payment right away starting next month and then hopefully in 3-6 months we can be back on our own again!

To everyone back in MN, we hope to have time to spend with all of you in the coming month! We are going to be busy with a lot of things, but we can't wait to get in touch with you all again and pick up our friendships where they left off! Everyone down here in IL, we won't forget you and we'll be back to see you after we have our little girl so you can all meet her!

Sorry no pictures with this one! I'll try to get back to blogging again when things settle back down some in October...until my baby comes...then who knows!! haha

Sexy at EIGHT?

2008-08-09T08:30:00.002-05:00

I ran into this article this morning on MSN while going to check my hotmail (Trevor speaking) and my mind is just racing as a soon to be daddy of a little girl:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26037851/?GT1=43001

I fully expect girls in middle school to be riddled with questions of her body and how she looks and getting pressures from friends and such. Its unfortunate but part of where life is right now. But in this article, it sounds like its starting WAY back in the early grade school years. I can't imagine having a kid come home from 1st grade and asking what a BJ is. I don't even know how I'd react, even thinking about that situation for like 10 minutes now I still don't know how I'd react!!

I know most of our readers have started families now and have young kids...I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on this? Has it come to this even in the midwest where values seem to be taken more serious? What do you think is to blame for this escalation? Have any of you encountered any of this yet with your kids or even others?

Reading this article just made me sad for this new generation of kids. The pressures they are going to feel and at SUCH a young age. I know about the age I was when sex first become something I was aware of...I was MUCH MUCH older, like 6th/7th grade. I don't know if I was even ready for it at that age though. I remember my first girlfriend in 5th grade...we never even kissed. I remember my first kiss, which was before that, it was from a friends neighbor and I basically ran away! haha Now it seems like this is all starting so much earlier...how is that going to affect kids? Will it affect them at all?

I kinda slid this in between what will be a two part series on our vacation, but I wanted to see what people's thoughts were on this AND get you parents ready for what could be a very early start to sex ed with our generation of children!!

Vacation Part 1 - Wausau, Wisconsin

2008-08-08T19:50:00.010-05:00

The Rasmussen Family Reunion - Wausau, Wisconsin - July 18-20

We stayed at a newly built Holiday Inn Express for Friday and Saturday night. On Saturday we met Trevor's, what seemed to be, hundreds relatives at a park for a reunion. We engaged in a cribbage tournament, too much eating, an adult pinata, fun, and games. Unfortunately, the hands dealt to us for the cribbage tournament (Trevor and I were partners) did now allow for us to much of anything as far as winning.

Later on at the hotel, the kiddos had their way with the pool area and played for hours!

The Beginning of the End?

2008-07-15T11:15:00.008-05:00

I just realized today that this weekend is the beginning of the end for us. This weekend marks the weekend that we are gone from home almost every weekend (except two) from now until we move on September 6. It it kind of bittersweet. That only means that our month and a half left here in Illinois is going to fly right by us. That's good and bad. We have made some great friends here in Illinois and just this past summer were starting to finally get a bit comfortable living here. Not that we (I more specifically) like living here itself, but our friends are great and will be missed a lot. So about being gone. We decided that we haven't been spending enough money on gas lately, so we are wanting to travel some more to contribute to the failing economy.

OUR VACATION WEEK:
This weekend (Friday-Sunday): Wausau, Wisconsin.
What: Rasmussen Family Reunion, staying in hotel.

Next week, part 1 (Sunday-Wednesday): White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
What: We celebrate our 1 year anniversary (man that went fast), catch up with some friends, and enjoy a week off of work.

Next week, part 2 (Wednesday-Saturday): Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
What: Langenbrunner family get together at Little Wabana Lake property. Camping, fishing, swimming, visiting, bonfires, wood ticks, and mosquitos.

Next weekend (Saturday-Sunday): White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
What: Hang out with friends. Leave on Sunday back to Illinois.

THE REST OF AUGUST THROUGH MOVING DAY
August 2, 3: Appleton, Wisconsin.
What: Krista's (Trevor's sister) bridal shower on Saturday morning and combined bachelorette/bachelor parties Saturday afternoon and evening.

August 8, 9: Lakemoor, Illinois.
What: Relaxing!

August 15, 16: Lakemoor, Illinois.
What: We will apparently be enjoying our very last weekend ever in Illinois.

August 22, 23: Rochester, Minnesota.
What: Fantasy football draft, our first baby shower, hanging out with friends.

August 28-30 (aka Labor Day weekend): Appleton, Wisconsin.
What: We are both attendants in Krista's wedding on Friday night.

September 6: Lakemoor, Illinois, to White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
What: We are moving! The day will be here sooner than we will be able to believe. Will somebody please tell me when are we going to have time to pack?

So come back to visit our blog often. We hope to write more blogs and post a lot of pictures during the rest of our summer!

Uh oh! Is it really a girl? Or is that little thing between our baby's legs an extra appendage?

2008-07-09T14:24:00.004-05:00

The first picture that you are going to look at is just the plain ultrasound. In the second picture you are going to see "drawings" that Trevor "drew" (via PDF) that indicate what the ultrasound tech pointed out to us. The little circle that Trev drew above our baby's butt is what we think to be that extra little appendage that girls do not possess. So this has turned into a poll. Is it a boy or is it a girl? Keep in mind our ultrasound tech (we were told) has never been wrong. Though I am no expert, I think it's a boy, and I think what the ultrasound tech pointed out to us as the baby's vagina might be his/her feet.

How Could I Forget??

2008-07-06T20:35:00.006-05:00

We are going to Grand Cayman sometime at the beginning of next year. Since winter is not exactly the season to buy summer clothes for newborns, we thought we should get a few outfits for Addison for the trip. I could not help but post them since they are the first ones :) Tell me that our little girl isn't going to be the cutest thing in the world?

Babies and the 4th

2008-07-06T14:38:00.005-05:00

Last Friday at our 22 week baby check-up we had our fetal survey ultrasound. Everything looks good, and our little baby is going to be here before we know it. I knew from day 1 that I would find out the gender as soon as I could. I hate surprises and need to plan. Between those little legs instead of an extra appendange were three little lines, indicating it's a girl! Our little girl's name is Addison Marie. It's a good thing it was a girl because we had no boys names picked out. I know we have a while, but we just wanted our baby to have a name right away.

On Friday since we didn't have to work and we were not traveling, we decided that we would go to Babies R Us to register. What a long and exhausting experience! We have registered before being that we just got married last year, but registering for a baby is a whole nother adventure. What kind of bottles do you register for? Glass or plastic? Without BPA? What about pacifiers? Why do there have to be so many different kinds and shapes and sizes? Then there's the bedroom. I think we are still at square 1 there. We registered for a crib and changing station with some drawers, but we could not believe the prices! $600 for both! We came home and looked online at Craigslist and found a used set in Hugo that includes crib, mattress, changing station, dresser, and glider with ottoman for $400. We decided to be thrifty and take off the way-to-much-to-spend-on-a-baby crib and changing station from our registry and buy a nice-looking used set. Now we just have to decide on room colors and decor. We did not want to register for a bedding set because (1) we're not going to have a bumper around the crib (which is thought to sometimes attribute to increased SIDS deaths) and (2) we are not going to have blankets as the new thing now is a SleepSack (also a safety feature to elimiate loose blankets in cribs, help prevent over heating, and also help prevent SIDS). So as you can imagine, our heads were spinning after our multiple hours at Babies R Us.

Since there are limited Babies R Us in Wisconsin (i.e. none in or anywhere near Appleton where Trevor's family is from), we decided that we had to register at Target too. We hate Target's return policy, and if gift receipts are not included in purchases, we may end up with multiple of the same items that we are not able to return. So if you ever buy anything for anyone off a registry whether it be for a wedding or for a baby, please remember to include a gift receipt. It just makes for a much more pleasant experience if you get multiple of the same items, which does happen all the time. So we resentfully registered at Target keeping in mind that we may as well register for what we need and want rather than getting a million pink outfits. (Pink isn't bad in itself, we just like a bit of variety too.) That was our Saturday afternoon.

Saturday evening we went over to Trevor's aunt and uncle's house in McHenry for their annual neighborhood cookout and fireworks. They live in a weathly neighborhood where a bunch of the neighbors pitch in $100 for fireworks and they have their own display. We were there until midnight! I coudn't believe how time flies when you're having fun. I haven't stayed up that late in ages! My normal pregnancy bedtime is between 10 and 10:30. I do miss my nightowl days, but those may be long gone now that I'm in the new pre-baby and soon-to-be post-baby era. Hope everyone else had a great 4th and long weekend!

Last Weekend

2008-06-22T11:21:00.017-05:00

I feel like I have been challenged to blog about last weekend by a few certain people, so here I am. I guess we (Trevor more specifically) have/has been into blogging lately. But what a great idea to keep up with it though; summer is here and there are just so many things to keep everyone updated about.

As Trevor eluded to in his last blog, we did have company last weekend. The Sheldon's and Bristol's arrived in an untimely manner (thanks to KCF, traffic, and detours) on Friday night. Begrudgingly I was forced to get up early on Saturday morning to venture to downtown Chicago to face the traffic, crowds of people, and hot weather. (For a pregnant lady, this combination can sometimes cause untoward outbursts, emotions, and attitudes.) Nevertheless, I was excited to spend some quality time with some very close friends.

THE ZOO

I don't think I kept it a secret that I hate zoos, even if it is a free venture. The last thing I wanted to do was walk around in a hot, stinky, smelly, dirty zoo 5 months pregnant watching those poor, caged, obsessive-compulsive animals do nothing but walk back and forth and do the same routine over and over again. I could not believe it, but apparently a pregnant woman's vote does not count as more than one, so I was overwhelmingly vetoed, and I did my time at Lincoln Park Zoo. I think the only good thing that came about it is that I am now able to check that one off my list of famous Chicago attractions to do before I die (or move).

ARCHITECTURAL CRUISE

It was nice to be able to sit my butt down for a full hour on the architectural cruise up the Chicago River--east and west branches. We have a very entertaining tour guide who was full of knowledge about all the buildings. Very interesting experience, and one that I am glad that we did. There is some great history and stories to each structure and skyscraper in downtown Chicago. After the knowledge gained on the cruise, I feel confident saying that I was a Chicagoland resident for a period of time. I recommend an architectural cruise to anyone visiting/living in the Chicagoland area. (Notice the Sears Tower in the reflection of the building.)

DINNER

We had a little bit of time after our cruise to get some dinner before our next event. We ended up at the House of Blues. Not too eventful of an experience. I did have to order Eric a drink since he left his ID in the car, which was an experience being that I am obviously pregnant now. I felt a little rebelish and like I was ordering a drink for a minor, but I think Eric looks well over 21 (not that you look old, Eric, just distinctly over 21) and should be able to have a drink without that hassel.

THE SHOW

Since we were having company in town who wanted to experience Chicago, I felt that there was no better way to experience Chicago than to experience Broadway in Chicago. That was just my excuse to be able to see Wicked again. A bit manipulative? Perhaps. However, I did not get a single arguement when I brought up the idea to see it. The second time around was just as phenomenal. It was geneously written, a great cast (Fiyero perhaps could be finely tuned up a bit I guess), and a gorgeous atmosphere for the play (Oriental Theatre). Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the show (which I am happy about since it was my idea to spend $60/person to go).

THE DOG
Before we left on Saturday morning, we tried going to a few neighbors' houses to see if anyone would let our little doggy out once or even twice while we were gone. To no avail, no one was home. So poor little Obie was by himself for over 14 hours. We fully expected him to pee in the house at the very least and would not have been the slightest bit mad at him (because really, who can hold their bladder for over 14 hours?). Much to our surprise, he did not feel the need to empty his bowels or bladder in the house! Being that he's a bit older these days and tends to not be able to hold his bladder that long, it was a huge surprise to us. So next time you see him, maybe just give him a little scratch behind the ears or a hug or kiss if you're into that type of thing.

SUNDAY
We all slept in on Sunday morning. Trevor until 9ish (which is probably a record for him) and the rest of us until 10 or after. I (with the help of Beth--thank you) made a little (big) brunch for everyone to enjoy: french toast, fruit pizza, bacon, eggs, and juice. Then we just chilled for a while, watched some TV, I dozed off on the floor, and they headed out around 3.

RECAP
The weekend was so fun and memorable. It was great to catch up with friends who we rarely get to see. Thank you so much Sheldon's and Bristol's for coming to see us before we move. We really appreciate that you took the time to come down and spend some time with us.

We had a really nice week

2008-06-21T23:43:00.007-05:00

I can't put my finger on anything one thing in particular but I feel like this was just a good week for us. We had a showing today at the house...with how infrequent they have been, any time we have a showing it makes us pretty happy (even if it does mean FRANTICALLY cleaning for a few hours). We probably won't hear anything about the showing until Monday but keep it in your prayers...it sure would be nice to move on our own terms, not leaving a house behind in IL. While the people were at the house, our friends the Fredrickson's joined us for lunch where we watched an amazing 9 run inning from the to knock down the cross town rival . It was a moment of sheer joy for us fans. We got back and had a nice afternoon at home...those seem to be SO infrequent these days.

We found a solution to Meghan's issues with missing the ...her department opened up for OT this weekend because things are backed up so she took them up on their offer. The money she earned is going toward MLB Extra Innings. I talked them into an AMAZING deal (even better than my Sunday Ticket deal from last fall) and we ended up with DTV paying for our first month AND getting Superfan thrown in for free! I felt great about that. So now she can watch her whenever she wants and it didn't even really come out of our normal budget...thank you God for providing for us!

Our eBay business (store.auctiva.com/wiiskins) took an unexpected leap for us this week too. Our biggest competitor was suspended by eBay for something shady which left us selling a completely unique product with little to no competition. I also changed my pricing strategy which worked AMAZINGLY!! We've been making a pretty steady income this week from our sales and its been really exciting. The nice thing is it allows us to build up some savings for our little baby...did I mention that we get to find out the sex on FRIDAY!?!?!?! I'd be lying if I said we weren't excited.

Last weekend was a blast too...we had our friends the Bristols and Sheldons in town and spent a wonderful day in Chicago. I think I'll save that for another blog from Meghan or me.

Pummelled by Mother Nature

2008-06-13T07:09:00.003-05:00

There's nothing in the world quite like the feeling of being woken up by the tornado sirens out of a deep sleep at 1 am. That was our night last night as we sat in our house struggling to find a station with details wondering in the dark where the tornado touchdown happened. This was the second time in the past week we've had to take shelter because of tornado touchdown and about the 4th day out of six that we've had severe weather come through.

Northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa are getting pummelled right now and there seems to be no relief in sight. Cedar Rapids is getting a lot of press right now as the entire city is experiencing epic flooding. Lake Delton in the Dells was literally drained without notice (we are talking about a HUGE man made lake...and it wasn't even the dam that broke). Milwaukee got 3-4 inches of rain in about 30 minutes last weekend (we were there for it) causing streets and highways to shut down. By us, the Fox River has reached peak levels and has started to flood all of the neighboring communities (McHenry, Antioch, etc). Its only going to get worse too as water from Wisconsin comes down the river to an already maxed out Illinois.

Luckily for us, being in a new neighborhood, the threat of flooding is pretty small...they grade yards really well and the sewer system is great, but there are a lot of people that have lost homes, jobs, loved ones, etc. My heart goes out to the people affected by the situation in Lake Delton and in Cedar Rapids...I know what they are going through and its the worst. It's a helpless feeling as there is nothing you can do to stop it or to save everything you've spent years acquiring. Make sure you keep these people in your prayers and pray for relief as the storms just keep coming through and hitting the same exact areas. Even as I write I look on the radar and more severe storms are on their way through which means Friday will be the 5th day of seven that we've had severe storms...and I mean SEVERE.

Weekends filled with excitement

2008-05-30T08:31:00.003-05:00

Meghan and I live for the weekends. The week is fine and dandy, but the weekends allow us to have the most fun! Last weekend, my family invited us up to spend the long weekend with them and have a cookout...and cookout we did, Rasmussen style! My dad is known among my friends for serving up a mean steak, and he rarely disappoints!! He didn't this weekend either. Saturday night was make your own shish kabobs and they were GOOOOOD! Sunday night was even better though big ole Ribeyes and King Crab. I have never been a crab (or most fish) person, but it was pretty dang good. We really had a blast spending the weekend with my family, it was SO relaxing. We didn't really have any agenda so we just talked, played card games, hung with the kids, etc. One night we played $#!$ on your neighbor and the other night it was Hold'em. I ended up winning money in both rounds of hold'em, so I still got it!! :-) The weekend was capped off with a rocket launching of our own...Krista and Bill got Sheldon a rocket launcher for his birthday so after spending a good part of the weekend assembling it, we walked (well most of "us" hehe) down to the end of the street where there was a field. The rocket launched twice with no problems and the kids were elated with joy!! Now I have to find a way to get Sheldon a present that he will even want to play with! How do you beat a rocket that shoots hundreds of feet into the air?!?!?!

This weekend we are heading up to Minnesota. We are making a stop at our wonderful home in Rochester on Friday night to see the Bristols and to hopefully fix a leaky door. It will be nice to see them again, but they are also coming to see US soon...we sure do love visitors down here!! Then its up to Minnesota to help my wife alleviate her yearning for something I can't fulfill...watching the Twins! haha We have MLBtv now (thanks for all the suggestions from her last desperate post) but there is nothing like GOING to a game. The Roelofs and Hidlebaughs will be joining us for the night so we are really excited! By "we" I mean Meghan and by "excited" I mean overflowing with joy!! ;-)

On a side note, we FINALLY had another showing here on Wednesday. No word yet though but it was nice to actually have someone interested though!! Keep us in your prayers with this, we'd really like to move on OUR terms after selling our place. We find out the sex of our baby in ONE month (for those of you wondering) and we are so pumped for it! I hope you all have a great weekend planned ahead of you!!

Twins

2008-05-09T16:23:00.009-05:00

Let's make this clear, no we're not having twins. This post is, however, about the Minnesota Twins. I miss them. I miss watching them on TV, going to games, etc. The highlight of the last three days of my life has been that I have been able to watch them on TV because they had a series here in Chicago against the White Sox. I could barely tolerate their less-than-bright commentators (I miss you Blyleven and Bremer), though just being in pure awe of actually being able to enjoy watching the Twins made it all worth it. We have this great thing called satellite TV (which actually I am not ecstatic about satellite TV itself) that has MLB Extra Innings where you can watch ANY game you want. It is costly, however, and we are too poor (baby, moving) to afford it. Though I perhaps would give up just about anything to be able to add that package onto our already $84/month DirecTV bill. I'm taking contributions. Meanwhile this Friday and Saturday you can find me depressed as ever just thinking about the Twins playing. Sunday and Monday should be better days when the nationally broadcast game versus the Red Sox on ESPN is on. Then there is a long drought for me. I hope to survive.

We're back on the market!!

2008-04-30T23:04:00.003-05:00

There is now a sign outside of our Lakemoor home that reads For Sale. For those of you that missed our last blog, we are moving back "home" to Minnesota. We could really use prayers from everyone that we have a good, quick sale as we can't come home until we sell the house (I mean who can afford TWO homes...seriously). The last time I sold a house it took about 6 painful months and I really don't want to go through that again but I realize how tough of a market this is!

We have a great Realtor who I know is going to find us a good buyer but we are going to have to be patient. We are still waiting on our first home tour though so just getting that would be a real encouragement at this point. Here is a link to our listing on our realtors' site. You can even see a virtual tour for those of you that never made it down here to see our place! :-)

http://homesbykim.com/MyListings?operation=Details&listing_id=1190803895&ls=MLSNI

Well I just wanted to update you all on what is happening. Thanks for the prayers and support...we'll see you all again soon.

A Line Is A Line

2008-04-21T11:41:00.002-05:00

Back towards the beginning of February, we had an oopsie, and we knew it. Trevor stayed home from work on the morning of February 21st. Twice that morning I peed on a stick with the same result: a very faint little line. We nervously discussed it. Trevor posted a message on Yahoo Answers about a faint line. We got the same type of response from everyone: "Congratulations, a line is a line!" Throughout that entire morning I kept on repeating myself saying, "Oh great, a line is a line."

A few things also ran through my mind:
*Sure the condom breaks ONCE ever and this is what happens!
*I'm not ready to be a mom yet.
*There is no way I am giving birth to a child in Illinois.
*Okay let's tell the whole world right now.
*At least I know we're both as fertile as can be.

I am now a bit over 12 weeks along, marking the end of the 1st trimester. It's now safe to tell the whole world.

In other news, my bullet entitled "There is no way I am giving birth to a child in Illinois" is coming to fruition. Trevor got the okay from his boss to move back to the Twin Cities, and so our house in IL will officially be up for sale this week. Although we will miss our newfound friends in IL, we cannot wait to move back. We are so excited to pick up where we left off in MN somewhere near the end of summer whether or not our IL house sells that quickly.

So November 1 is the official due date, but we all know how accurate those dates are.

This might be dangerous ground to tread...

2008-04-17T07:47:00.003-05:00

...but what in the WORLD is Oprah doing these days???

I think she's really starting to go off the deep end or she must just be so full of herself that she thinks she can do no wrong...and she might be right. I'll open by saying I've never really been a big fan of Oprah, but I really don't like her entire genre. I think if I really had the time I would probably enjoy someone like Ellen (she just seems like good hearted fun) but Oprah has never been my thing. Don't get me wrong I respect her for getting to where she is...what a story. She's also done some great things for people, there is no denying that either.

Anyway, I've been getting more and more skeptical about her over the past couple years. She's clearly taken on a new age mindset but she's begun brainwashing her listeners now.

A couple years ago it was "The Secret" which is a book based on the "Laws of Attraction", you know like attracts like. Its a hodgepodge of unoriginal ideas that has been merged into a philosophy that because of Oprah has become a best seller. One of the main premises behind this one is that if you really believe you can do something or get something you can/will. WHAT?? She actually pitches a book that says, "The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts." Really now...I wonder how the little girls at her school in South Africa feel about that? I do believe in the power of a positive attitude...it can change your outlook on life but this is taking it to a dangerous extreme.

Now she's moved onto pairing up with this guy, Eckhart Tolle. Oprah extolled the author’s virtues, calling his best-selling "New Earth" book "one of the most important books of our time," the seminars one of "the most exciting things I’ve ever done." More exciting than all the lives you changed? More exciting than the school for the little girls in Africa? More exciting than your Angel Charity network? PUH-lease.

Anyway, not only did she put his teachings in her book club (which we all know many of her fans will gobble up anything she puts out there) but she started seminar series reminiscent of a church service of sorts. The path has been laid for years as she slowly and methodically began teaching her audience that there in fact is NOT one way to God and maybe not even one God...we all have out own Gods and our own paths to get to him. I am not going to pretend that I have read his book, cause I haven't (and won't). But I have read about it a few times and what I've hear has been very disturbing. Here is the most recent article that I ran into:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351545,00.html

I guess my point for writing this is that its really time to start looking at what we put into our minds. You hear messages like this enough and it starts become easier to hear and believe until one day you think...yeah I guess that does make sense! I caution you to not fall into the trap that she is setting up. There IS one way and one God and you can't just make up a path to Him. You can't just pick and choose the things from scripture that make you feel good and discard the others. This applies to all of life...we can't just accept the things that we like and disregard the rest. I can't just do the tasks my boss asks me to do and ignore those I don't like...there are consequences. I can't pay the bills that I feel good about this month and throw away the others. This line of thinking is TREMENDOUSLY flawed...the universe doesn't revolve around our own whims. There is order. There is right and wrong.

Sorry Oprah...this is one guy that isn't buying it.

Political in Nature

2008-04-11T14:12:00.005-05:00

I'm sick of politics like the rest of the US. I do have to post one more about why you should not vote for Obama. Get past his articulate nature, his good speeches, and his good looks and see what he is really about. He puts on such a good facade so that people like you will vote for him. Check out this article. It really gives some insight to what he stands for and maybe all you who are blinded by his facade will realize what he's about. Are you sure you want him to become our next leader?

BEYOND OBAMA'S BEAUTY
(Excerpts from http://www2.nysun.com/article/71278?page_no=1)

It's an amazing time to be alive in America. We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first frontrunning freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.

We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender.

Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.

The reality is this: Though the Democrats will not have a nominee until August, unless Hillary Clinton drops out, Mr. Obama is now the frontrunner, and its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him.

Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George McGovern. And it's time people learned the facts.

Because the truth is that Mr. Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton.

Never in my life have I seen a presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so far removed from his record. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George McGovern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost.

Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant.

Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America. But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial "beauty."

Start with national security, since the president's most important duties are as commander-in-chief. Over the summer, Mr. Obama talked about invading Pakistan, a nation armed with nuclear weapons; meeting without preconditions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who vows to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust; and Kim Jong Il, who is murdering and starving his people, but emphasized that the nuclear option was off the table against terrorists — something no president has ever taken off the table since we created nuclear weapons in the 1940s. Even Democrats who have worked in national security condemned all of those remarks. Mr. Obama is a foreign-policy novice who would put our national security at risk.

Next, consider economic policy. For all its faults, our health care system is the strongest in the world. And free trade agreements, created by Bill Clinton as well as President Bush, have made more goods more affordable so that even people of modest means can live a life that no one imagined a generation ago. Yet Mr. Obama promises to raise taxes on "the rich."

How to fix Social Security? Raise taxes. How to fix Medicare? Raise taxes. Prescription drugs? Raise taxes. Free college? Raise taxes. Socialize medicine? Raise taxes. His solution to everything is to have government take it over. Big Brother on steroids, funded by your paycheck. (My comment--hmm not at all socialist, is it?? We may as well live in China under communism if he gets elected.)

Finally, look at the social issues. Mr. Obama had the audacity to open a stadium rally by saying, "All praise and glory to God!" but says that Christian leaders speaking for life and marriage have "hijacked" — hijacked — Christianity. He is pro-partial birth abortion, and promises to appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule any restriction on it unconstitutional. He espouses the abortion views of Margaret Sanger, one of the early advocates of racial cleansing. In Illinois, he refused to vote against a statewide ban — ban — on all handguns in the state. These are radical left, Hollywood, and San Francisco values, not Middle America values.

The real Mr. Obama is an easy target for the general election. Mrs. Clinton is a far tougher opponent. But Mr. Obama could win if people don't start looking behind his veneer and flowery speeches. His vision of "bringing America together" means saying that those who disagree with his agenda for America are hijackers or warmongers. Uniting the country means adopting his liberal agenda and abandoning any conflicting beliefs.

But right now everyone is talking about how eloquent of a speaker he is and — yes — they're talking about his race. Those should never be the factors on which we base our choice for president. Mr. Obama's radical agenda sets him far outside the American mainstream, to the left of Mrs. Clinton.

It's time to talk about the real Barack Obama. In an election of firsts, let's first make sure we elect the person who is qualified to be our president in a nuclear age during a global civilizational war.

We love our visitors...

2008-04-05T08:00:00.010-05:00

This weekend we had the Berger's come down to visit us from good ole Minnesota! Its spring break and they wanted to get away somewhere different. We've already had a lot of fun and its only Saturday morning! They came in Thursday night and yesterday the three of them (Julie, Jordan - 16, and Simon - 6) all went out to the Jelly Belly Factory for a "free" tour. They key though is trying to get out of there without buying any of their product. I wish I could have gone, but alas someone has to make some money around here, right? :-) Later that night we met them at "The Family Fun Center" in Gurnee for some fun games...Meg and I are all about earning tickets so we had a BLAST! It was fun to see how excited Simon would get when he would do well at a game! Best feature though, they have the original Big Buck Hunter there and its only $.50 per person for a whole round so you get 20 sites for two people for $1!!

Today we are taking the Metra down to Chicago. For those that have heard about Meg's experiences on the Metra, we are ready for an eventful day!! I think the plan is to see Navy Pier and Millennium Park, we are trying to keep it on the cheap since Julie spent all her money on the "free" tour! For those who haven't been there, Navy Pier is a great place and getting in is totally free. There is a HUGE lake front Ferris Wheel and a couple other smaller rides, some shopping, lots of summertime boat cruises, and more. Its a fun little place to visit and the views are about as good as they get with the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan surrounding it. Millennium Park, or Grant Park as I grew up calling it, is a wonderful 25 acre park in the heart of downtown Chicago. There is a HUGE (not so attractive) amphitheater with room for 4000 people and apparently some of the best outdoor acoustics around for summer concerts. It would be fun to see a show there sometime. In addition the park is littered with art and monuments including "Cloud Gate" which is a pretty cool 33 foot high (66 foot wide) umm jelly bean (stick with a theme I guess...its on the left of the picture) that is completely reflective. They even have a 300 space indoor heated bike parking facility and a really innovative giant LED lighted fountain (see bottom of picture) that you have to see to believe. You'll have to check these places out if you ever come here!

Its really fun having friends from home here visiting with us. Just about the only time we ever go downtown is when visitors come so its still pretty exciting for us. I am sure today will be filled with a lot of fun...I just hope we aren't TOO tired from all the walking!!

My new thing...

2008-03-26T22:45:00.003-05:00

I recently decided that I love finding new acoustic versions of cover songs. Last night I caught the end of AI and saw David Cook performing an acoustic version of Billie Jean (one of my favs from the 80s). So it sent me on a quest to find the song (which was performed originally by Chris Cornell) which showed me a whole new world of people who rewrite famous songs into acoustic covers. I was looking around today and found a few really cool ones...some where cool cause they were just well done while others were just straight up entertaining!!

Here is one of the more entertaining ones:

Meanwhile, this one was just pretty dang sweet!! I love that they showed the actual video to show how it matches up just perfect!!

I hope you all enjoy checking these videos out...I find it amazing that someone can hear a song like Hey Ya by Outkast and make it into a sweet acoustic song that still can keep my attention!!

I hope you all had a great night...I am glad that Syesha made it through another cut. I am not really watching AI, but I am keeping up with the results from time to time and she was one of people I kinda liked.

A magnet for TV stars

2008-03-20T17:13:00.008-05:00

Most of you who know me know that I travel about monthly out to LA for work. Our headquarters is out there so I frequently go there for meetings and to work with co-workers. From time to time I'll see famous people in airport and sometimes even on my flight...for example for you MTV Real World buffs (or now WWE buffs), "The Miz" sat a few rows back from me a year or so ago. Well my last two flight have found me having even closer brushes with fame. On my way back a month or so ago I was sitting in the middle section of a 777 with the middle seat open. I looked over and saw Cooper...well Cooper from Private Practice (also known as Paul Adelstein). I let him have his privacy for most of the flight but as we decended into Chicago I decided enough was enough. We talked for maybe 20 minutes about the strike, the show, my job (haha), and a few other things. He was a really cool, down to earth guy.

Well yesterday I am in line at one of the few good restaurants in the United terminal at LAX and I look back and see Bernie Salazar. Who's Bernie you ask? Well Bernie is (now was) one of the contestants on "Biggest Loser" a show Meg and I got into this year while the strike going on. I knew he was from Chicago so I figured he was on my flight. I gave him a chance to eat his meal and as the plane was getting ready to board, I made my move. "You're Bernie right?" He replied, "Yeah man, hows it going?" We proceeded to talk for about 10 minutes about his life after the show and how things are going with his weight loss. He looked REALLY good when you consider what he looked like about 3 months ago...though he WAS suited up (as was I. He was in town trying to capitalize on his newfound fame (who could blame him) so keep your eyes open for him next year, sounds like something is in the works. He still keeps in touch with the trainers (though not in person) and Brittney, his former partner. In fact, he had just hung up with her when I approached him! haha

Anyway, I know he's not really a STAR, but anytime you run into someone that you spend weeks watching on TV and cheering for its kind of fun. Bernie, by the way, is a big fan of people coming up and talking to him. He says he really likes hearing that people are cheering him on...its funny cause sometimes you forget that this is really just real life for them. He got a chicken caesar salad minus the dressing for anyone who cares...yeah I was watching! haha

So it looks like the good luck will continue on my flights to/from LA. Anyone who wants to meet some TV stars (big and small) should come along with me...it sure makes the traveling more interesting!! All I know is I plan for my next flight to be legen... wait for it... dary!

A special day for my Meghan

2008-03-04T07:11:00.000-06:00

Today is a special day at my house. Just 2 years ago at this time, I was a single man wondering what God had in store for my life. Little did I know that the next year not only would He had prepared an amazing year for my career but that he would send an amazing woman into my life. This woman is everything that I needed to make my life more exciting and more balanced...not to mention she is a beautiful woman whom I cherish with all my heart!

Today, my Meghan turns 26 years old. While I've only known her for 2 of my [cough] 30 years of life, I can proudly say that my wonderful wife has made my life exponentially more enjoyable. She's my partner, my love, and my best friend. I'd love it if if you'd leave a little message for her to wish her a Happy Birthday...and if you know her email you can send her an email too!!

I love you Meghan, I hope you have a great birthday!! :-)

My first skiing adventure

2008-02-25T21:29:00.005-06:00

Nothing makes you feel like a man more than having a seven year old girl fly by you going down a hill. That was my most recent new experience with my wife though. Can you believe that a person who has lived in WI, MN, and IL his WHOLE life has NEVER been downhill skiing? Sure I've gone CC skiing but never downhill...ever.

A few years ago in December I told myself that was going to be the year I made it downhill skiing. I even talked to some friends about it. Within a week...literally...I was in a cast up to my elbow that was on and off for the next 9 months. I never even made it skiing a bohemouth of a Ukrainian had his way with me on the basketball court. So much for skiing! So you can understand my skepticism when Meghan told me I would be going downhill skiing to celebrate our first married Valentines Day.

We found a nice local ski hill that wasn't even 30 minutes away and decided to head out on Friday after work (so it would be a little cheaper...skiing isn't exactly a super cheap hobby). We arrived at the hill and I was instantly intimidated. "There is NO way I am going down that" I told Meghan, while looking up at the "bunny hill". She points to the tiny trainer hill and says I know we are going there! haha Sure enough next thing I know there is a seven year old girl flying down this tiny hill past me.

After a few runs down this menacing hill, we hopped on the chair lift to the smaller of the green hills for my first run at real skiing. I have NEVER gone at speeds like this in my life I swear I was going 55 mph and at a reckless pace as well!! Not only did I not go slowly, but I veered toward the steepest part of the hill. I made it though...all the way to the bottom...until I came to the crushing realization that I couldn't stop! Sure enough there was the same seven year old girl in front of me..."Who's fastest now?" I screamed as mowed her down at the bottom of the hill! Okay I didn't take her down...I did however have my first wipeout of the night. I considered it to be a noble act...even a life saving act on my part really!! Though Meghan saw it much differently and came up a moment later laughing histarically at me.

Overall I have to say that skiing was a pretty fun time. I ended up taking a few of the blue hills and realized just how intimidating skiing can be, but also how fun it can be. Heck, I think I only wiped out 3 times all day (not including my wipeout in front of the chair lift...yeah I am one of THOSE guys) so I consider that a pretty good outing. I even figured out how to stop going pretty fast speeds. Meg was SO proud of her man and how he concurred the big hills of Southern Wisconsin!

We are now a TWO car family...again

2008-02-17T08:08:00.007-06:00

Back in October, we made the decision to go down to one car in our lives. There were two main reasons, ONE is that my Grand Prix was starting to approach 100K and we wanted to get some money back out of that car, and TWO we needed to get rid of some high interest debt in our lives. Selling the car worked and we are really on the right track now. After sacrificing and living with only one car for about 4+ months we realized it was time to get back to two again. The last few weeks, we've been doing some research on different cars in the mid-size sedan marketplace and narrowed our list down a little based on what we liked and didn't like. We had out list narrowed down to an Accord, Camry, Malibu (only if we could find a good deal on a used 08 though), Grand Prix, Sonata, Impala (maybe), Milan (maybe), or a Mazda6. We liked all of those and a few others but price was going to be a very important factor for us...the new improved Rasmussen's are bound and determined to make smart financial decisions and live well within our means.

We ended up buying a 2006 HYUNDAI SONATA. Its funny cause I (we) never would have imagined I (we) would be in a Sonata, but Hyundai's have come a LOOONG way since their early days. The 2006 and newer models are getting GREAT reviews from consumers and from editors at various car publications. We went out to look at cars yesterday and drove an Accord and an Altima, and looked a few others. We kept going back to this beautiful Hyundai at the dealership though. We loved how it looked so we asked to take it for a ride. Wow it was SMOOTH and had great acceleration!! We loved it! So, you ask, what do we like about this car?

Here are our top highlights

Stylish looks...yeah that matters :-)
Great gas mileage, we read review of people who get over 30 mpg with the car
Sweet price, well within our budget :-) :-)
Low miles and in great shape
It fits in our garage! Sounds like such a minor thing but we BARELY fit the Grand Prix and Monte Carlo in the garage...the Sonata fits just right.

Overall we left the dealership pretty excited. The new car gives us new flexibility in life and will allow for us to have a little independence from time to time if we want it! We found a car for well under the target price we were looking at and we are both very happy with it! Hopefully we'll be saying the same thing in 5 years!

Will the USA Really Elect a Black President or a Female President

2008-02-12T16:13:00.001-06:00

Forget about bipartisanship. I want to discuss two topics today.

1. What I want to know is will White America vote in a black present, or are we (I use that term very loosely) still rooted in racism? I read an interesting article today (click title above) which outlines that White America who claim to not be racist may still subconsciously be racist. I refuse to post/discuss about politics on the actual article because all that people post on there is hateful banter with liberals criticizing conservatives and vice versa. I want to see how this goes, how many people actually read our blog, so please, let's hear your opinion. Please, no hateful speech pertaining to either party.

2. Can America vote in a feminist female president? Will the white male be able to put that vote down on the ballot to elect a female present to run the USA? Same rules apply as #1.

By the way, even if you do not have an account, you can still post a comment, either anonymous or you can identify yourself.

Some addictions are bad...others can earn money!

2008-02-01T08:38:00.000-06:00

Meghan and I have a confession. We have an addiction and it just won't end. It started out so innocently and now its become full blown...we might need help! ;-)

We are addicted to selling stuff on eBay. We started because we had boxes of stuff to get rid of and didn't want to do another rummage sale (even though we made like $500 at the last one we did). In the past, we used Craigslist to sell a lot of our bigger items and made some pretty nice cash with that money. After a while, most of the stuff we had left was small or just not the kind of thing that sells well on that site. While trying to figure out what we could do with it all, I suggested we get rid of the stuff on eBay. I had sold a few things in the past with limited success but I figured how hard can it be...I am a marketer I should be able to do well on a site like this. We listed a few things and wow we made some money...that felt nice. Next thing we knew we were scouring each others closets looking for things we didn't like on the other person!! I suggest NOT doing this!!

Eventually we knew we would run out of things to sell around the house, so it was either become nudists and sell everything, stop selling, or find a product we could start selling. We chose the latter. We are now full blown eBay sellers that are closing in on a perfect 100 feedback score. We found a pretty affordable product that can be sold with not too much investment (in case things don't work out in the long run) that is fun and easy to ship and sell. We love working on it together and while it probably won't be something that will generate enough income for someone to stop working, it provides a nice extra boost for us. Anyone else out there selling on eBay? Let me hear your story!

You can check out our listings below!

Trevor Should Go To France More Often

2008-01-19T23:18:00.000-06:00

I kind of like it when Trevor leaves me for a week and goes to France. Did I just say that? Let me explain. I'm spoiled rotten. I AM SPOILED ROTTEN. Back in June when Trevor went on his first business trip to Paris, he came home with a surprise for me. I love my designer hand bags, so he came home with a French designer hand bag for me. Texier. TEX (as in TEXas)-EEEE (the vowel "E")---AAA (the vowel "A"). Let's say it together now Texier. The leather is so soft. The quality is amazing. I had found my new hidden gem amongst designer brands. Trevor sure knows exactly what I like and found the perfect gift for me.

Second Trip to Paris. January 13-18. A dreadful, long, monotonous, desolate week. By myself. Me and Obie. One of the first times Trevor called from Paris this time, I get a request. "Honey can you do some laundry before I get home. I will be out of clean underwear when I get home." My response to him. "Yeah, I think I just put on my last clean undies after my shower today. I'll have to do some today." My plan was to do a load of lights and a load of darks. Do the darks first. They get done. Go to change the loads and put the darks in the dryer. Open the dryer. "What the **fill in choice word here**" A box in the dryer. Note attached from Trevor. Open the box. It's the SHEETS that I've wanted since day 1 of our marriage. It's the sheets that go along with our comforter/bed skirt/shams. We (HE) weren't (WASN'T) willing to pay $170 for the sheets. So we didn't get them. Every time that I went to Bed Bath & Beyond I went back to the bed section to see if they were on sale. To no avail, they were never cheaper. So that is the pre-Paris gift.

He got home Friday a bit after 5. We said our hello's and rekindled our love that was long forgotten (sense the sarcasm--I'm over dramatic when he leaves me!!) He has ANOTHER present for me. Were the sheets not enough? Welcome French designer No. 2 to my collection. Lamarthe. Phonetically: LA-MARRRRT. Say it in that sexy French accent now and roll that "R". It's actually very catchy. I can't stop saying it myself. Onto what he got me since he didn't actually buy the designer for me. He bought me a gorgeous red leather wallet. Help me out with some synonyms for gorgeous because gorgeous simply does not describe it. Why am I so spoiled? Why am I so lucky? Okay here's a picture of the wallet.

Now girls, I know all your guys cannot be like Trevor. Actually, I know they're actually far from perfect like my Trevor is. But you know what. There can only be one perfect guy in the world, right?

A traveling man...

2008-01-18T03:51:00.001-06:00

I got my first real example of being a big world traveling businessman this past week. My boss asked me to take a trip (alone) to Paris to train our newly (6 months ago) acquired company how to use a CRM program that I manage. Initially, the thought of traveling across the country alone, to train people who speak a different language, made me apprehensive. I agreed and Sunday night I took a taxi to the airport to catch my red-eye flight (which is the ONLY way to go for this kind of flight). The benefits of flying to Europe with my company is that because of the length of the trip I get to fly Business Class!! The ticket seriously cost $5500...can you believe that?!?!

There are some nice perks that come with your $5500 ticket, though it would NEVER be worth that much of MY money. Right now, I am sitting in the United "Red Carpet Club" which is where the really special people, who spend too much time flying, get to hang out. You get free access when you spend $5500 though...a nice perk. The seats in Business Class are very nice: They recline almost completely making sleeping much more enjoyable, you get a nice 3 course meal (with free alcohol if you so choose), and you have much more space to yourself (no middle seats). My flight in was quite enjoyable though the trip from the US to Europe takes a toll on your body...I woke up at 4 am unable to sleep during my first night.

This is now my second time in Paris, with my first time being to attend the AirShow at Le Bourget. While the airshow was quite memorable, I enjoyed myself more this time because my entire week wasn't planned for me. My new co-workers were very friendly and went out of their way to make sure I was able to enjoy their city. Tuesday night Cedric (an IT guy I was working a lot with lately) took me to Paris for Thai food (which was AMAZINGLY good) and then he took me on a tour de Paris via car. He showed me all the major sites that I learned about in junior high French class including: La Tour Eiffel, Champs Elysees (avec l'arc de Triumph), the Mayor's house (which puts the white house to shame), Notre Dame, Sacre Couer (from a distance), la Louvre, le Musee d'Orsay, and much more. It was absolutely fabulous to see all of these monuments in person after learning so much about them.

The next night, the President of this company took me to le Centre du George Pompidou which is an amazing museum of modern art. I am not an art buff...and especially not modern art...but seeing Picasso's work in person was something special. Some of the art was "tres bizarre" but others were "c'est magnifique," even from a skeptic like myself. Then dinner was on the top level of the museum which overlooked the Mayor's house, Notre Dame, and la Tour Eiffel (in the distance). It was a very memorable night. I found the French people to be amazingly friendly and more than willing to accommodate me and my English (with occasional French speckled in as I got more comfortable)!! I was shocked to see how many people could speak English (and quite well).

I can't wait to come back here sometime when I can have my wife with me to experience it. I made it a point to skip going to the really big attractions so we can experience them together one day!! I found Paris to be the most beautiful city I have seen in person. The details in the building and the materials they are built with are just stunning. Buildings in America are built to last for a century...theirs are built to last for a millennium!! Much like Americans, the people of Paris love their country and feel it is the most wonderful place. I didn't feel any animosity or contempt from the people there though...while we hear about their dislike of Americans, I didn't feel this at any point. I was warmly embraced everywhere I went. Anyone who enjoys traveling must put Paris on their agenda...they even have EuroDisney if you need a splash of America while you are there!!

Wii caved in and bought a Wii

2007-12-27T16:12:00.001-06:00

Getting a Nintendo Wii for us has generally been just a passing thought, somewhere along the lines of "yeah, it'd be nice to have one, but no, Wii cannot afford one nor would Wii be able to find one." Until yesterday when I found our match. $400 for the Wii, 2 Wiimotes, 2 nunchucks, 2 classic controllers, Madden '08, Guitar Hero III, the sports disk, and Sonic v. Mario Olympics. There was no way Wii could pass up this deal. So after work, Wii drove downtown Chicago (Lincoln Park) and picked up our new addiction. Yes, the Wii definitely lives up to all the hype. Wii would like to thank both sets of my grandparents and my parents for funding our Wii for us via cash for Christmas presents (and some for Trevor's birthday present).

Trevor adds: Unfortunately, Meghan has already hurt her elbow and thrown her shoulder out. Shouldn't be a shock to those who have known Meghan for any time now! :-) I have to admit, I think this game might help get us in better shape. We just got done playing the Olympics game and we are both breathing pretty hard now. Now we have a new reason (one of MANY) for all our friends to come down to Illinois to visit us!! Come quickly, we miss everyone!

1200 miles later...

2007-12-26T08:20:00.000-06:00

For many of you, Christmas means a time to relax and spend extended time with your families and maybe even friends. Maybe you have to travel a little bit here and there...not the case for us. Over the past 5 days, Meghan and I drove 1200 miles (yes almost halfway to our next oil change and I just got on last Friday) in our whirlwind tour of Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was sheer madness, but we managed to have a really good time despite all the driving.

Long ago (last year) we decided it was too much to do both of our families in the same weekend for Christmas so we are alternating years (with the other family getting Thanksgiving with us). This has been a tricky adjustment for both of us, but its the only way to make it work. Well, this year, we decided to take the Saturday before Christmas with my (Trevor's) family and then spend the rest of the time with Meghan's family as it was their year.

Friday night we drove 170 miles to my parents in THICK fog and spent the next morning and early afternoon with them. It was nice to get together with everyone even though it was strange to miss out on the other festivities with the relatives that I have never missed before.

Saturday afternoon, we drove up north to Cloquet, MN (just outside of Duluth) to spend time with Jeannie's side of the family. The first half of this 360 mile drive was in the same dense fog but about halfway there, the fog lifted and it was smooth sailing during the evening. The next morning/afternoon we spent time with the family there celebrating Christmas with everyone. we had a really nice time with everyone (even though I took some heat for the poor performance from a certain football team).

Later that afternoon, it was time to brave the winter storm for our 130 mile drive to the Twin Cities. About halfway home we decided to make a pit stop with Pat and Susan at Grand Casino in Hinckley. We played some blackjack and I think both couples left the table in pretty good shape despite that we were all down to $5 (at the same time) at one point! We got home that night and met up with Jason and Kelly at Major's to watch the Vikings. It wasn't a good day for either of us in the NFL department.

Monday morning (Christmas eve) was a free morning for us...ahh free time...so Meg drove down to meet up with Beth in Cannon Falls (90 miles round trip) while I went to the gym with Jason and Jamie. After and exhausting workout I returned for a shower and then it was off to Eaglebrook for the 3 pm service. This was the FIRST time I was ever at Eaglebrook for Christmas in my 9-10 years of attending there. That night Meghan's immediate family came to her parents house to celebrate together. We had a fondue Christmas which was absolutely wonderful. Its been a while since I've had an entire fondue meal at home but it was really tasty. We really enjoyed this night of celebrating with her family and seeing Gabey and Ana tear into their presents with sheer joy!

Christmas morning was spent at the Berger's who generously spent their Christmas morning with us (and cooked us one FABULOUS breakfast). It was nice to catch up with them and have that traditional Christmas morning of opening presents that I grew up with. Later that afternoon, it was Christmas with Doug's family. We enjoyed a huge turkey dinner (prepared by Doug and Jeannie) but had to zip off at 2:30 as it started snowing again for us. We finished loading the car and were on our way for a 370 mile drive. Its always a little hard to leave MN, but after such a crazy weekend of traveling, its nice to be home! I don't anticipate all of our Christmas weekends to look like this one, but its clear that living in IL is going to make the holidays busy and hectic.

Hi From Mexico

2007-12-03T21:54:00.000-06:00

Greetings to everyone from Mexico. For those of you who do not know, Trevor and I came down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with my whole family and Trevor's parents. We arrived on Saturday and took it easy. Sunday was a day spent at the beach and boogie boarding--Trevor's first time, and he was a pro! Today six of us went fishing. We got up at 5:15 this morning and were on the ocean until 4 this afternoon. We caught nine mahi mahi. We also saw humpback whales, dolphins, and a sail fish. Needless to say, tomorrow night my brother-in-law chef (Erik) will be cooking up the mahi mahi for dinner.

Thank you Lord!

2007-11-16T15:45:00.000-06:00

I just got off the phone with Obie's vet and they said the tests came back negative, he does not have any cancerous tumors. She said there is a small chance the test was inaccurate but she says its over 90% accurate so she feels very good that our little guy is cancer free!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support through this! Its been a long two days for us waiting to hear if he was okay. He is also back to eating good again which is encouraging so the meds they gave us seem to be working! Yay Yay Yay! :-)

Tom Petty was wrong...

2007-11-14T21:31:00.000-06:00

Sometimes life isn't so much a highway as it is a really scary roller coaster. It seems like our lives have been filled with a lot of highs and lows but very few long highway like stretches like Tom Petty wants us to think it is.

We've been through some tough financial times, a terrible act of nature that wiped out one of our homes, and a couple trips to the hospital. We've also seen some great new friends come into our lives, got to see God provide when no one else would, and had many prayers answered. Today we experienced another of our lows.

We brought Obie into the vet today because he hasn't been eating well which is a good sign that something is wrong...especially when he loves his food as much as Obie does. Well after running a urinalysis the vet confirmed that Obie in fact has ANOTHER bladder infection. This is his second in the past few months now. It also meant another $160 out of our pocket...but hey a bladder infection isn't TOO bad.

We got home and started watching "Til Death" when the home phone rang. There are only a few people who have our home number: Telemarketers, the car salesman from last night, and the vet. When the phone rang we knew it was likely Mak from the car dealership (that is a whole different blog) or the vet (believe it or not we would have rather had Mak...even though we were avoiding him). The vet informed us that she is a little concerned about Obie. She looked at the urinalysis again and noticed that the bladder cells were splitting, rather rapidly. She is concerned that our little Obie might have Bladder Cancer!

This was the devastating kind of news we did NOT need in our lives right now. Those who have met Obie and know us, you know that Obie is more than just some dog...he is like a child to us. The thought of losing him is pretty devastating. So this blog is more of a pleading for prayer from all of our friends. We want our little boy Obie to be around for a long time yet. Please pray for his health and that it is in fact NOT cancer but just the infection she initially thought it was. In addition please pray for us, especially Meghan, as we deal with whatever God has in store us here.

Tomorrow morning I will be dropping off another urine sample in a sterile container to be submitted to a lab for further testing. We should know more in the next couple of days and we will keep you all updated...

Building a social life from scratch

2007-11-06T21:37:00.000-06:00

Moving to an area where you know no one is scary...especially when you have a really established core group of friends that you are leaving. Our biggest struggle while we've lived in Illinois has been figuring out how to find all new friends when you have no one to start with...it can be a lonely time (luckily, we had each other)

Well, Meghan and I are both taking some big steps in our lives here in Illinois. I've lived here for about a year and Meghan has been here for a half a year but really we've only done things with each other the whole time we've been here. I think the biggest thing we've both been missing since being down here is actually hanging out with other people of the same sex. While we really love spending time together, sometimes you just need to be apart and have fun with other people too (all you married couples know what I mean).

We joined a great small group here at our church, and as a result made our first real friends here. Its been so nice knowing other people that we can build relationships with. This Friday Meghan has a "girls night" with a bunch of the girls from the small group. I am excited for her to get out and hang out with them...honestly, I think its really good for us. I don't know what they are doing really but I am sure they will have a lot of fun. Since we only have one car now...looks like I'll be chillin at home for the night.

I joined an indoor flag football league and talked two of the guys from the small group into joining with me. Man, I needed this league. It's so nice to just have some time to play sports again and to spend some time with the boys. So we had our first game on the 29th, though we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into. Let's just say it showed. After being thoroughly humiliated by one of the better teams in the league (they even had team shirts) we regrouped and talked some strategy. We came back this past Monday and beat the team we played...the final score was 50-8!!!! Wow, did that feel nice! I think we all started to get a better feel for where our role with the team was going to be. My goal is to be the Wes Welker of the team!

While IL might never be "home" for us, its finally feeling like a place where we can enjoy life as long as God has us here! I am excited to see what God has in store for us here in Illinois. Its been a very trying time so far, but also a time of tremendous growth as a couple and I look forward to even more! My memory verse for this week reflects how our life has been so far since our wedding:

Hebrews 12:11 -
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

I Went Hunting!...For Poop!

2007-11-04T22:47:00.000-06:00

This weekend most hunters in Minnesota packed up their shotguns, donned on their blaze orange hunting gear, and headed to the deer stand for deer opening. Not me. I got a flashlight, put on some shoes and a coat, got my nephew Gabriel, and went poop hunting. That's right--poop hunting.

My 20-month-old nephew's new favorite book is one that my parents got for him from a recent vacation to the Appalachian Mountains: "Who Pooped in the Park" (The Great Smokey Mountains National Park). So I decided to take Gabriel out on a nature hunt of our own to look for our own poop. Good thing I knew that the dog had just taken a poop outside so that I would not let Gabe down. He is now obsessed with looking for poop.

P.S. Sorry to disappoint, but the picture had to be taken after church as a set-up. You see, when we did our actual search for poop, it was dark out, and I did not think to get the camera out. When I realized I wanted to blog about poop hunting, I thought I should get some sort of picture to post also.

If you have a child, you should really get them a book on poop. They will be fascinated and be entertained for hours. I hope you all continue to have a fabulous fall.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?r=1&ean=9781560373216

The Results Are In!

2007-10-31T14:26:00.000-05:00

I know many of you have been eagerly and patiently awaiting the results of the pet contest that Obie was in on Sunday. We got a knock on the door today, and it was the person who sponsored the party. She delivered Obie his very own giftcard to Petsmart! YAY! Don't tell Obie because he might be disappointed, but he only got second place. But STILL, HE WON. Now he can be spoiled with more new clothes or beds or something of the like since he can't have treats anymore.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-28T14:11:00.000-05:00

Well, since we do not have any human children, we consider our dog like a child and often times treat him as one. (I know, pathetic.) Trevor brought a flier to me on Friday evening that advertised a costume contest for children and pets at our local community park. Since we already had Obie's costume, I just could not resist taking him to the contest. I had to pry Trevor away from the television and computer (football consumes our Sundays), and we went to the park. Trevor got a free hot dog and orange soda, and I got a bag of Doritos and Diet Coke. (The contest was sponsored by a realtor who was getting her name out there.) We made a pumpkin together, got Obie's picture taken, had some snacks, and hung out for about a half hour. The first prize for the contest is a $50 gift card to Petco, second place $25 to Petco. As it happens, we were the only people who brought a pet for the contest (but there was still an hour and a half left after we left). However, Obie's costume was so cute that I do not know how we could not win. Happy Halloween everyone!

Getting on the right track!

2007-10-28T07:44:00.001-05:00

Meghan and I know how much of a strain money can be on marriage...I heard about it for years in my single life and now as a married man I've already seen it. We made a decision to do something drastic to get ourselves off on the right foot though. Last night we sold my Grand Prix. Woh right? Those of you that know me well know this was my baby! I loved that car, but I love the idea having no credit card debt in our lives more. I hate credit cards, I hate debt.

Anyway, we made the decision to sell the car months ago but finally got a started a few weeks ago. Our first interested person turned out to be a scammer...GREAT...luckily I know all their tricks. Well we had an ad in cars.com and also in Craigslist. On Wednesday I decided to knock the price down 500 after really no real responses on our first price (it was really high, but worth a shot, right). Anyway, that same day I get an email from a student at Purdue that wanted the car...badly. To make a long story short, we ended up agreeing on a price that she could afford and that was fair for us and last night she came to buy it.

It was a very sad and happy time but I feel good about it. Its going to be a struggle having only one car, but with Meghan working from home I think we'll be fine! During the car ride home we talked about how amazed we are that we are going to have so little debt in such a short time given what we've been through so far in our three months of marriage. Somehow we managed to spend over 10K remodeling the entire lower level of our rental house in Rochester and not be out a dime. Our God takes such great care of us...we are so thankful for him. We made the decision together early this summer that we will always tithe no matter how tight it was...knowing that he'd always take care of us and I have seen him do it so many amazing ways already, even when I doubted! I have such a great feeling about things now!

Lets give it a try...

2007-10-27T09:42:00.000-05:00

Well as many of your know, I used to be a big blogger. I went back and forth with writing about life and topics I found interesting. I decided I miss this part of my life. I was thinking a lot more when I was blogging...about big topics...I like thinking and using my brain. I also need a way to keep in touch with my friends so here I am again. This time, this is a blog for both Meghan and I, but I imagine you'll see more from me than her!

So cousin Julie (Meghan's cousin) is in town and she stayed with us last night. I had to go downtown to get her last night...which is kind of a crazy idea. So I decided instead to take the Metra...yeah the train. Can I just tell you (especially those in MN with no real train system like this) you haven't lived until you've had the convenience of the metra. I got downtown in 30 minutes from my office, co-workers told me it would have taken 1.5 hours to drive. What an amazing timesaver...it was well work the $3.50 I paid!! :-) We finally got home a little after 7 and then headed out to Vicky's (one of our fav. lowkey local places) for some dinner. We rented a movie called Domestic Disturbance...its a thriller from like 5 years ago staring Vince Vaughn as a bad guy. I liked it. Nice twists and it was only 86 min long which is a great movie length! Anyone remember that movie?