15th Annual Nel-Roys Walleye Classic

This weekend our friends Annual Fishing Tournament up at Mille Lacs Lake. Last year was the first time Uncas and I went to it, although we didn't actually part take in the fishing. This year Uncas decided to fish in the tournament. His partner was our friend Matt (who's family co-hosts the actual tournament). Uncas was really excited to fish, especially since he hasn't had a chance to fish since we moved. After a slow start on Friday, we finally made it up to Mille Lacs. Matt and Janis had set up our tent for us, so we didn't have to do that in the dark. The wind was blowing pretty hard that night, and by the morning, it hadn't calmed down too much. I got up with Uncas and helped fix his lunch and off went Matt and him. I went back to bed and basically relaxed and hung out with people while they were finishing. Janis also went fishing for part of the day (you fish with partners and Janis and her sister-in-law split the time with Matt's dad - their father-in-law). Word had it that no one was catching much during the day. The boats started coming back at 3 pm. Here is a picture of Matt and Uncas.

As you can see, they caught 3 fish - which was great. Out of 21 boats, they tied for 6th place. Next year they are hoping to do even better! Here is a picture of their fish.

They contributed their walleye for the appetizers that night. They deep fry fresh walleye - yum!

Here is a picture of the tee-shirt from the tournament.
Here is a picture of all the fishermen.

After the tournament, it's a big bbq and bonfire with plenty of tasty food and drinks. The day was really nice and the wind had died down as the day went on. After dinner we were hanging out by the fire. Cloudy skies starting appearing, but I never believe weather reports, so I figured it would miss us - boy was I wrong. All of the sudden the wind came up and had us all running to the garage. It started pouring and the wind was scary because not only it came up so fast, but it was so strong. We kept checking out our tent, which was sustaining pretty well. Then all of the sudden someone told us that our tent collapsed. Sure enough - it was completely flat! After the storm passed through, we went out and checked it out. One of our poles was completely bent, which caused our tent to collapse! Fortunately everything was pretty much dry, so we brought it into Matt's parents house and ended up crashing on the floor in their living room for the night.

Because they had a full house, we woke up pretty early and actually headed home around 8:30 in the morning. I can't remember the last time Uncas was up by 6:30 both weekend days! It was nice to get home before noon. Of course, the storm also rolled through the Cities, and we had branches down all over our yard and driveway!

It was a great weekend. I know Uncas is excited for next year already. We have a big week and weekend ahead of us! Let's hope it goes by quickly!!!!

And - Happy Father's Day to our Dad's. We are looking forward to seeing you both next weekend and celebrating then!

Long Week

It's been a long and busy week - but I guess what week hasn't been busy for us lately?! I guess I should back up to this weekend. Saturday morning I participated in a MADD 5k walk with my friend Jacqueline and her daughter Carly (see picture of them below)

A couple of years ago they were hit by a drunk driver. Fortunately no one was seriously injured. We had a beautiful morning to walk even though the weather looked a little iffy at first. It was great to see Jacqueline and catch up with her. My "busy" life pales in comparison to hers and she still makes time to have fun!

We ended up having two bbq's this weekend. Saturday night we went to one for our friend's Janis's birthday and then on Sunday we had our old neighbors over to grill out and see our new place. It was so much fun to see our neighbors. They have two adorable kids who are curious and interested in everything. They loved our big backyard and our fun climbing tree to the side of our house. Fortunately the weather held off both days and we spent much of the time outside.

This week finds us gearing up for the annual fishing tournament at Lake Mille Lacs this weekend. Uncas is actually going to fish this year in the tournament. He is pretty excited and his main goal is to not get "skunked". My main goal is to hang out by the big bonfire and eat lots of yummy food! Let's hope for clear skies, or at least no rain!

R.E.M. Concert

Last night we went to an REM show. REM is Uncas's favorite band of all time. It was my first time seeing them. We went with Uncas's sister and her fiance. Don't have much time, but here is a video from the concert. It was actually harder to get good pictures, but the video came out ok.

Squirrel

We had a little friend in our yard today. Have you ever seen an albino squirrel?

 

Happy June!

Yay - June is here already! May just flew by, but I think it helped that we just bought the house and had lots of work to do on it. It's been fun to show it off to our friends and family. Last night we had our friends Matt and Janis over. They saw the house right after we closed and basically we hadn't done a whole lot. They brought us a couple of housewarming gifts. My favorite:



Hopefully in the near future, I will had an actually dachshund. Stay tuned for more details.

Just a couple of other notes. You may have noticed that I stopped talking about my training for the half marathon. That's because I stopped training. I hate to admit defeat or announce that I am a quitter, but quite simply the house work took over training. After a lot of thought (and tears), I decided that I really wanted to focus my time and energies on the new house. We are still planning on going up to Duluth for the weekend, so it should still be fun - I just won't be so tired!

And finally - LET'S GO CUBS! They have the best record in baseball right now! Maybe this is the year?!

Hail Storm - May 31

Haven't posted much this week because we have been busy. Not too busy unpacking, but busy with just life in general. Tuesday this week my half brother from California was in town for work. I hadn't seen him in years and Uncas had never met him. It was so nice to catch up with him.

Wednesday we cleaned out our old apartment. It feels so good to finally just have one place. I was a little sad as we locked the doors for the last time. It was our first house together and we loved the location and our neighbors. But I quickly got over feel sad once we were back in our new home.

Yesterday was the most gorgeous day! We were very excited because we were having friends over to grill out. Just before they were going to come over, the sky turned dark and we had the worst hail storm ever! I couldn't believe it! We took lots of pictures and even a video. There were two rounds of hail. The first is what you would expect and what I have seen before. The second was just crazy! It looked like snow and accumulated like snow too! Our friends did make it over, and when they left later that night, there was still hail in the yard!

Here is our YouTube video debut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqCewDcYGqU

Pictures of storm.

Moving Day Pictures

I didn't take a ton of pictures on moving day - but here are a few.

Housewarming Present

We moved on Saturday. A huge thank you to our parents and Marcos and Owen for helping us move all of our stuff. It took us approximately 3 hours to load the truck, drive over to the new place and unload the truck. Amazing! It went super smooth, the weather was great and we are finally in our new place! We just have a one more trip to get pictures and plants and to clean, but then we will be officially here - for good!

My dear father bought us a housewarming present. Taking a break after the move to get some food - he suggested that I get a bowl of water for the latest addition to the Sacnu family - Sammy! He was hanging out in the back yard until we were finished with the unloading! Check out the pictures - isn't he cute?!

Today, both Uncas and I were exhausted. After my parents left, we just rested. I think tomorrow we will actually work on trying to unpack more. I will post more pictures of the move later this week! Happy Memorial Day!!!

Everything and the kitchen sink too!

We took a little trip to Menards tonight. We got a hose, sprayer for the hose, two lamps for our living room, 5 light bulbs, shower curtain rod, shower curtain liner, kitchen faucet, 4 patio chairs, table for patio and a kitchen sink! AND it all fit in my Honda . . . barely! I made Uncas drive it home, cause my truck didn't close.

Carpet!

This is for my mom - she requested pictures tonight of our new carpet.

Weekend #3 Fixing Up New House

I am tired. Uncas is tired. We spent the weekend painting. Literally - the whole weekend painting! Friday night we painted all the ceilings upstairs (hallway, 3 bedrooms and the bathroom). Uncas also repainted the living room ceiling, so it now looks awesome!

Saturday we primed two of the bedrooms upstairs and finished prepping the upstairs. Saturday night we painted two coats of paint in two of the bedroom (color - Granny Smith). Sunday we painted the guest room (color - Pumpkin Pie) and the hallways including the stairwell (color - Sand Dollar - matches living room and downstairs hallway).

We were really motivated to get the whole upstairs painted since the carpet is pulled up right now. It was great to not have to worry about spilling or dripping. It feels great to have accomplished so much, but my poor hands are sore and blistered from all the painting and rolling. Check out pictures from the weekend by clicking HERE.

Tuesday the new carpet gets installed. We still want to paint the kitchen before moving this Saturday. Right now - all I can think about is sleeping!

More House Pictures

Uncas has been unemployed these past few days, but that doesn't mean he has been a bum! He has been working hard over at the house every day this week. Here are some updated pictures.

Weekend in the new house #2

We are pretty tired from another exhausting weekend. First, I need to mention that today is Mother's Day. Uncas and I appreciate both of our moms A LOT this year. They have both been wonderfully supportive and helpful with our new house. Thank you moms!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Uncas came down this weekend to help us paint. And paint we did. We also prepped to paint. It was fun and tiring. We painted the living room, master bedroom and downstairs hallway. Everything looks great except the living room ceiling. We had some paint troubles (thanks to the competent people at Home Depot), so currently our living room has not only two different colors, but two different sheens. Anyhow - we'll fix it soon enough, so it's fine.

Check out the pictures from the weekend.

I also want to write about my 8 mile run on Saturday. That's right - 8 miles! It was surprisingly not too bad. I was pretty tired and sore, but I did it! I hadn't seen Marcos all week because he was traveling for work. It was great, because he talked the whole time! It works out well, cause I don't like to talk much while I am running - I am too busy trying to get enough air! :-)

As if we don't have enough going on . . .

One thing that I keep forgetting to mention is that Uncas has some exciting news. Next week he is starting a new job! He is looking forward to the switch and while he was not actively looking for a new job, the opportunity presented itself (one of the perks of working in the software development industry - I have never had a recruiter call me!)

I am also very excited for him to start his new job next week. Strangely enough, the company is located in my office building! What are the chances that of all the office buildings in the Twin Cities that he would end up in mine!? We can actually have lunch together every once in a while! And more importantly, we can save gas and carpool most days.

He does have a few days off next week, but those will be spent at the new house - not much of a vacation, but he will probably go fishing too!

First Weekend

We did a lot of work this weekend. A huge thank you to Mr. & Mrs. Sally who came back from Vegas on Friday night and then came up by us on Saturday morning to help work on the house. Here is what we completed in no particular order:

• Took down "shutters" in kitchen
• Took off all wallpaper in dining room, kitchen and bathroom
• Nearly stripped all the glue from wall paper in kitchen (little section left)
  
• Took down all window treatments and hardware (14 windows total)
• Replace light fixture at top of stairs
• Replaced cracked toilet seat in upstairs bathroom
• Tore up all carpet upstairs (Uncas did it all!)
• Took off all closet doors upstairs (to get carpet torn up)
• Spackled walls
• Vacuumed cobwebs/dust from all rooms
• Mrs. Sally cleaned our oven - took her hours, but it looks great!
• Took down all chair rail from dining room and kitchen

We did all of that from Tuesday night to Sunday late afternoon. We also took 3 trips to Menards and 2 trips to home depot! We have learned a lot about the best way to pull up carpet and take off wallpaper glue.

Tonight we purchased a new washer and dryer, as well as a new rake. Mr. and Mrs. Sally gave us our house-warming present - a new gas grill! We can't wait to use it, although, it will probably be a few weeks before we can assemble it.

Here are pictures that we took from our first week in the house.

And so the work begins . . .

Today we are officially homeowners! The closing went fairly smoothly and with the paperwork now all signed - it means the fun begins. And by fun, I mean work!

Dear Mother Nature,

Dear Mother Nature,

Are you trying to make me have a nervous breakdown? It's working. I woke up this morning to snow. On the ground. Covering the cars. Coming down with no signs of stopping. Granted, I was up north in Duluth, but in case your clock is broken - IT'S APRIL 26! May is just around the corner. I would really like to not have to shovel the walks of our new house when we go to close this week. We get it - you are in control of the weather. Now stop torturing us!

Sincerely,
Sally Sacnu

Happy Birthday to Me!

Tonight Marcos and I went on our first run together. He was the one that talked me into running the half marathon, but then he didn't get in through the lottery. However, being the great friend that he is, he still is training with me - on the days I have to do my long runs. The great part about that, is he has this handy dandy GPS tracking thing, so we know exactly how far we go and at what pace. A definite must when training outside. He was very nice to me today, especially since I don't run so fast and he also provided some great tips that he picked up as he has trained for past races.

So of course, I come home and rave to Uncas about the GPS thing. Uncas, who is always thinking, informed me tonight, that for my birthday present, he was thinking about getting one for me. How cool is that? Fortunately, he decided to purchase it tonight (online), so I can use it while I train for the race. Good thing, cause my b-day is exactly 2 days before the race and if he had waited until then, it wouldn't have done me any good (especially since I am convinced that I am going to die while running it!)

How lucky am I to have such a great friend and husband?!

Meeting Caiden

I took a brief trip to Seattle this weekend to meet Caiden! He is the cutest little baby ever!


Here is a picture of baby and his Mama (Seattle Sweetheart).

I loved all the faces he would make and the little sounds that came from him.

The happy family!

A few things to share . . .

I have a couple new things to share with you. Let's start with a new blog . . . Mr. Sally has decided to branch out and start a blog. It's called "Ronning Off"(http://ronningoff.blogspot.com/) and if you know my dad, you know that I get my sense of humor from him. So, you might want to check it out from time to time. I have to say - my parents never fail to impress me! My mom joined facebook this weekend and now my dad is starting a blog. I am quite lucky to have parents that embrace technology, even if they do have a few questions every now and then. They pretty much have it down.

The next thing I have to share is a little song that found last week on the internet. I have to say that I play it at least once a day if not more. Partly to annoy Uncas, but mostly because I think it's funny! For all you Lost lovers - this is for you!

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/sawyer

Packing Weekend

We spent much of this weekend packing. We are trying to take advantage of the time that we have before we close on our house, because after the close, we will be busy at the new place.

Here is a picture of our white trash living room with 2 tv's right next to each. You will notice that one of them is not hooked up.

Uncas calls this picture Central Park - we have had to move our plants around to make room for boxes. Poor things - I hope they can survive for a couple of months like this.
Yesterday I ran 4 miles, packed, did laundry and decided to bake a chocolate cake - yum. It just came out ok, but that hasn't stopped me or Uncas from eating it!
Here is a picture of our white trash wood clamps. Uncas was repairing a broken bookshelf and pulled a MacGyver and used what was handy.
Here is a picture of all my Clinique Bonus bags that I found in another bag. I got rid of a few earlier this and had no idea that I still had this many - kind of embarrassing!
Over all, we did really well this weekend. It's a good thing because next weekend I will be in Seattle and Uncas is having a guy's night.

Update

I didn't really believe it was going to happen, and it didn't. That major snowstorm - totally missed us. We have had our share of rain and sleet, but snow - not so much. Unfortunately Duluth hasn't been that lucky. Not only major snow, but it's very windy up there as well.

It's been a long day at work. I am ready to go home. 16 minutes and counting . . .

Spring?

You know what really sucks? A major snowstorm in April! Why we didn't look for houses in Hawaii is beyond me . . .it would be really nice to have some warm, sunny 60 degree days - is that too much to ask for?

In other news, our house inspection occurred on Monday. It was much longer than expected, but we had a great inspector who was very thorough. There were a few things that we asked the seller to fix before closing. Fortunately the sellers agreed and have been working on making that happen. We also discovered that the appraiser and municipal inspection has required the seller to make other changes. One change we are most happy about is taking down the illegal shower in the basement. We were wondering how we were going to take it apart, but now we have to wonder no more!

Back to the home inspection on Monday - it was very informing and interesting. We not only got locked in a bedroom, but the smoke alarm wouldn't stop going off when it was tested. It made for a very entertaining day. I don't think that our inspector was quite as amused. He had this look of panic on his face as he was trying to take the door off it's hinges. Fortunately our realtor came to the rescue and just happened to stop by the house to see how the inspection was going. Talk about great timing!

Busy Weekend

We certainly made the most of our weekend. It was busy, productive and fun too. Saturday we spent the entire day out and about. The weather was amazing and while we had a lot of running around to do, we started out by walking around Hyland Lake in Bloomington. We saw lots of wildlife - a frog, a turkey, and 2 muskrats. Uncas is excited to see that the ice is melting more and more. He is ready to get out and start fishing!

After the walk, we went to look at carpet and flooring for our new house at a few different stores. We stopped by LE to work our connections and get boxes for packing. We even went by Home Depot to price French Doors. All that looking around and browsing made us hungry, so we went out to dinner to celebrate the house. And then, we decided to go see a movie. Surprisingly we agreed to see Leatherheads - it's cute and funny and George Clooney is in the movie, so what's not to like.

Today (Sunday) we spent the day packing and going through things. As you can see from the pictures below, our apartment is starting to look a little bare. Of course, you will also notice that while going through stuff, Uncas found some Lego kits that he hadn't put together yet, so there was time for that too.

Tomorrow morning is our inspection. I don't feel too worried about it, but you never know what they could turn up. We'll keep you posted!

Bare House

Lego Vikings

Gorgeous Day

Big Frog

No More Waiting!

I got the call this morning from SS around 6:20 am. She had the baby!!!!!

Caiden Brian was born at 1:45 am on April 4. He is 9.1 lbs and 22 inches long - big baby. He was so cozy in his mama's belly that he didn't want to come out! Mom, Dad and baby are all doing fine. I hope to have some pictures to post soon. I am excited to go out and see them in 2 weeks!

This has been a crazy, emotional week for sure! We got a house, SS had her baby, and the Cubs won yesterday! What a way to end the week!!!!!

One Thing Down . . .

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!
Now that Seattle Baby needs to make an appearance!

Still Waiting . . .

Still waiting to hear on the offer. It's fun - the waiting game. We, unfortunately did not have in our offer an expiration date. That really sucks because one of us is not good at waiting for things. I won't name any names, but maybe I have said aloud that the only persons that I want to talk to on the phone are the realtor or Seattle Sweetheart (who is also playing a waiting game of her own, but hopefully that will end very, very soon!)

Check back soon for some updates!

GO CUBS

My dad sent this to me . . . our family (the Sally-side) are die-hard Cubs fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHqX5Sn2hg4

Here's hoping for a World Series Championship this year! Mr. & Mrs. Sally are going to a game this week (Thursday, I think, maybe Friday), which is a little early for them - hopefully they will dress warm.

Random Items

• It's March 31 and it snowed all day long today. I am so over winter, it's not even funny. It's a little depressing to think that tomorrow is April and there will still be snow on the ground - suck!!!!
• I figured out what I did wrong with those bird's nests that I made for Easter. They were hard as rocks and the reason was that I cooked the corn syrup too long. Tonight I made scotcheroos for work tomorrow, which also uses sugar, corn syrup and peanut butter and they turned out amazing! Good thing I am taking them to work, or else I would make myself sick!
• I don't have any updates on the housing situation - still waiting to see if they accept our offer . . . I hating waiting for things about as much as I hate snow in April!
• Uncas is the greatest husband! He not only made me dinner tonight, but cleaned up too, since I am not feeling so well (did I mention that along with this crappy weather, I got a crappy cold?!)

Making Progress

We are putting an offer in on a house. It's very exciting and hopefully we will hear back quickly. In anticipation of us moving, my dad went out and arranged for some help:

Waiting . . .

This is the week that Seattle Sweetheart is due to have her baby! I am super excited that my best friend is about to become a mom. I think about her constantly thru out the day and I am never far from my phone, so I can immediately hear the news! I will be sure to update my blog the minute I have the news . . .until then, we're just waiting . . .

Easter Nests

I got this really cute recipe to make Easter Egg Nests a really long time ago. The recipe was from Jif Peanut Butter. This year I decided to get motivated to make them because they look so cute. WARNING - this recipe is harder than it seems. I hate nothing more when a recipe doesn't give enough detail. The result below was my second attempt making them. I still don't think I have it right and I don't think I am going to be rushing out to make them again. You use light corn syrup, which I have never used before. If anyone has ever made these before and finds them easy, please share your tips with me. They sure do look cute, but I have no idea if they are edible!

White Easter

Yesterday (Good Friday) we awoke to snow! Lot's of it, so this is the picture that I took in the afternoon.












Now it's Saturday morning and IT'S STILL SNOWING!!! Check out this picture that I just took. I don't think spring is ever going to come. I know that March is our snowiest month and you know what? That really sucks!

Happy St. Patty's Day

Uncas and I are not Irish at all (with names like Sally and Uncas, what would you expect?) So, this is about as festive as I get. Green frosted cookies - yum! It's a new recipe and they are quite tasty. On the menu for tonight . . . Tacos! It's our tradition to have mexican on St. Patrick's Day.

House Hunters

We have been receiving many inquiries this weekend about how our house-hunting has been going. I thought I would share with you some of the conversations/comments that have been exchanged as we have looked at houses:

Uncas: A one-car garage is fine . . .

Sally: Oh – check out the huge spider in the living room
Uncas: This house would need about $6,000 worth of work in order for us to just move-in
Realtor: That sounds about right.
S: This house needs a good cleaning. I don’t like it.

U: The garage needs to be fixed up a little bit. Look, the edging is coming off up here.
S: If we have to do all of that, we can tear it down and build a two-car garage.

U: Whoa – look at how big the upstairs is? Three bedrooms up here!
S: Wow – there is not a tree in this background – holy crap!

S: It’s too small – only has two bedrooms. This won’t work for us.
U: Check out the cool, old-school stove/oven.

S: I don’t like the whirlpool tub.
U: The location is terrible – not a sense of any neighborhood.
S: Look – it has a two-car garage.

(we just drove by the house which looked like it was going to fall down)
U: Yeah, we need to take this off the list . . .
S: Hey – there is a sign on the front door that says “Winterized” – what does that mean?
U: Well, you have to winterize a boat, but I just assumed that houses came winterized.

We still have a long list of houses that we want to see. We are going back out later this week.

Cave of the Mounds

This past weekend we went and visited Mr. and Mrs. Sally. We decided to do something different and fun for a change since our weekends have been really busy lately. We went to Cave of the Mounds in Southwest WI. This was Uncas's first visit to a cave even though he was a geology minor in college. The first picture is Uncas checking out the cave walls.

On a side note - I am still struggling with liking this new blog. I had another picture that I wanted to add to this post, but I guess I can only post a few pictures - annoying! And I can't figure out how to add a picture to the post.

Ice Fishing (again)

Here are some pictures of Uncas ice fishing a couple of weekends ago. I actually went and sat out with him for a little bit, but I assured my dad that at no time was I ever in control of the pole!

Minneapolis from the lake

Heading back home for Sally - it was a little too cold out there for me!

Grandmas!

Don't worry - this post doesn't have anything to do with my grandmas, they are both just fine.

I just found out this morning and I got accepted into the Grandma's 1/2 Marathon in Duluth, MN on June 21. There is a drawing for this race, as they only let 4,500 people run. I can't believe I am actually going to run 13.1 miles! Thank goodness I have some time to train! The most I have ever run is around 4 miles. I think I might be a little crazy for trying to do this . . .

Dream House

I think Uncas summed it up best this afternoon when he said "Apparently no one buys produce or eats in dining rooms anymore . . .!"

We spent the afternoon looking at houses since we are finally ready to start buying. We walked through some very nice ones today, but they lacked a dining room. All had eat-in kitchens, but they were pretty tiny. We actually happen to use our current dining room and can't imagine buying a house without one! Then we went to three different grocery stores to buy fresh basil. Maybe folks around here just grow their own . . .?