Busy month!

It's been a busy past month or so.  My last post was for Father's Day.  Since then we've had a wonderful weekend up at the cabin for the 4th of July.  This past weekend we were supposed to go down to Jackson but I ended up getting sick and was contagious, because of that we figured it was best to not go and get anyone else (especially the kiddos) sick.  So we had a pretty relaxing weekend.

I'm writing this while watching the All Star Home Run Derby on Monday night.  Yesterday Jess and I went to All Star Fanfest at the Minneapolis Convention Center.  It was quite a bit of fun, but man...freaking overwhelming too.  LOTS of people and so much to see, but still fun.  Earlier today my buddy Killer texted me asking if I wanted to go to the All Star Game tomorrow night.  Obviously I'm giddy just thinking about it. I plan on taking plenty of pictures and hopefully will blog about the night too.  Should be a wonderful evening watching the best players in the game playing at the best ballpark in the world - Target Field.

Father's Day 2014

Father's Day 2014 - a pretty much perfect day.  After a weekend wedding full of celebrating with friends, it was nice to end the weekend celebrating Father's Day with my dad and my father in-law.  Jess and I took my dad, mom and our niece Emmy out to Pizza Ranch in Jackson.  That was my dad's choice and it really hit the spot after the night Jess and I had at the Daberkow wedding!  Had a great time with my parents over lunch, then stopped by to say congrats one more time to the newlyweds before going to my parents to pack up and start the journey back to the cities...with Emmy in tow.  (Casey and Katy traveled to Turkey so my parents watched Emmy for a week and then it was our turn).  We stopped at a huge candy store and then made a pit stop at home, unloaded the car, picked up Murphy and drove up to Jess's parents to celebrate with her dad.  We grilled, the kids played and Murphy (along with me) got really tired.  All in all, it was a special day and a whirlwind of a weekend!  

Pictures to come...

Wedding weekend!

This past weekend, 2 friends of ours got married near my hometown of Jackson.  I was lucky enough to be a part of their special day.  Jess and I went down to my parents place on Thursday so she could work from there Friday before we headed to the rehearsal and grooms supper.  While she worked, I picked rocks for my dad.  Got a nice tan too - I'm sure Jess will add a picture or 2 of that.

After work on Friday we packed up, checked into the hotel and then went to the rehearsal.  After that, the real fun started as we went to the Daberkow farm for the grooms supper.  It was a ton of fun and that fun carried on into Jackson as well!  The morning of the wedding it rained, and rained, and rained some more. As people started showing up for the wedding the clouds let up a little bit and we took in a beautiful ceremony.  Of course the real fun (for me and plenty others) started at the reception.  It was a great weekend, tons of fun, tons of friend time and some great stories!

Pictures to come.

Three Years.

Today marks three years since Scott and I officially became a couple! I cannot believe how fast time has flown. In some ways I cannot believe it has been three years. And in others, I cannot believe we have only been together for three years. It just feels like he has always been a part of my life.

I had a lot of bad relationships in the past, so when Scott and I first started dating I knew that this time was different. But, I was still afraid to let him in. Apparently, I told Emily at Lisa's birthday in May that Scott was "the one." So who knows what I was so afraid of!? We dated for a few months and he had asked me a few times if I would be his girlfriend and I just didn't feel ready yet. He told me that when I was ready, to let him know. Finally, one day after talking to my mom it just clicked. I realized that this guy was something special and even if I did end up getting hurt, it would be worth it in the end.
I decided that I wanted to make this official in a fun way. Scott had sent me an edible arrangement at work a few weeks earlier, so I wanted to return the favor. I heard an ad on the radio for Shari's Berries, a company that sells chocolate dipped strawberries. Knowing his love of strawberries - I decided that it would be a fun way to tell him. When I was on the site I saw that they had baseball decorated ones and knew this was the way to do it. (Knowing him as well as I do now... I am sure he didn't actually eat these. Or he peeled the chocolate part off and just ate the strawberries! haha)

I signed the card, "I am ready. your girlfriend. xxoo" and had them sent to his work on June 9th... I was patiently waiting for an excited call or text when Scott texted to tell me that he wasn't feeling well and was going to be going home early from work. Agh! I quickly jumped into action and emailed his boss Amy and asked her to intercept the package and get them into the fridge. I didn't tell him about what it was, just told him to check his fridge at work the next day. And that was it!

It is crazy how quickly things happened from there. By July we were saying I love you, Scott had bought an engagement ring in early September and we were engaged by October 1st! When I think of our "courtship" I always think of this quote from When Harry Met Sally...

"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

I never could have imagined that I could be so blissfully happy three years later. I feel so lucky to share such an amazing life with this man. Our marriage is one that I dreamed about having some day. Our life together isn't extraordinary or special in any way... It is just perfect for us.

One Year Murph-versary!

Today marks exactly one year since we added our little Murphy to the family!

It took awhile to convince Scott that getting a dog was the best plan for us! I did a lot of searching at PetFinder.com and sent Scott lots of photos of very adorable puppies. For some reason, when we saw Murphy it just clicked for us. We were so excited when our adoption application was approved!

We spent the weekend in Iowa attending my first NASCAR race and I was just counting the minutes until it was time to pick him up! He was just about the cutest puppy I had ever seen!

He is such a great dog and we (obviously) love him so much!  He has been a great addition to our little family!

Happy Adoptiversary Murphy!

What a difference a year makes!

I guess I didn't do such a good job of keeping up with this!

I remember when I was a kid I used to love getting journals or diaries as gifts. A fresh new book to fill with my thoughts. I always wrote religiously for the first week or so, then my excitement would wane and it would turn into once a week. Inevitably, the last entry in every childhood diary or journal would be dated 6 months or so after the previous entry. It always started like this, "I guess I didn't do such a good job of keeping up with this!" Then I would get a new diary and the process would start all over again. Let's hope I get better at the blog! :)

Summer has finally arrived! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately. It's been so nice to have the windows open on nice days. I love that early summer breeze through the windows! We had our first cabin weekend of the year! It is always such an exciting time. There is nothing better than pulling up to the cabin for the first time every season, looking forward to the summer that lies ahead! Scott and I got up to the cabin Friday morning and while I worked - Scott started the yard clean up and Murphy did his best to assist with the efforts.

 

We spent Saturday morning working on the yard some more. Our goal was to get as much work done as we could before my parents got there. Whew, were we exhausted! I also got my first sunburn of the year. Mom, Dad and Grandma finally got there Saturday mid-afternoon and we had a great weekend getting the cabin ready for the season and spending time together! We also spent one afternoon with the Joyers and Larsons, which was a blast! They rented a pontoon so we spent a few hours fishing, chatting and drinking beers. Their kids are all so adorable!

Murphy finally decided that the lake is a cool place to spend his time! We are pretty excited about this development. We spent a lot of time throwing the stick for him. He still has a little trepidation with the actual swimming. But, I am sure he will be an old pro by the end of this season!

 

I was just working on our summer calendar yesterday. Whew! I am exhausted already. We have plans most every weekend from now until September! Summers in Minnesota are always exhausting. We get so little of this weather, so we have to cram as much fun in as we can!

The past month has been filled with a lot of fun! Twins game, Scott's Twins weekend with the boys, A bachelorette party for Jessica, Giving Parker his first haircut at 5 months old and meeting baby Drake! We have also had some great dinners and day drinking with friends. Our appointments at Center for Reproductive Medicine have been great and we are on our second cycle of fertility treatments. Hopefully, we will be adding another member to the Ploehn family soon! We lead a very happy and busy life these days!

Looking forward to a great summer!

A whole month...

Ugh...1 whole month without blogging.  That was not by design.  Life apparently got busy.  So that means there should be plenty to blog about...right?

Lets start with the general stuff...the weather finally got a bit nicer and you know who loves nice weather...Murphy!  He gets to go to the dog park much more now than during our frigid winter.  He absolutely loves it there too.  He plays so well with the other dogs, although sometimes he picks bigger dogs to play with and then he occasionally gets trampled - but its a learning process!

Jess has been consistently busy with hair, it seems like a couple times a week she does hair and there are weeks where it seems she is busy with hair every day!  Thats what you get when you are such a talented stylist!

We spent Easter at Jess's parents house, making shish kabobs which of course were delicious.  And it was a beautiful day...so obviously Murphy spent plenty of time playing outside as we tried to steer him away from the kids' easter eggs (that were set up for their hunt).

Our amazing friends Darrin and Emily recently bought a house.  And guess what - Jess volunteered us to help paint. :)  We had a good time and its fun to see the huge change a simple coat of paint can make! We've also had fun plans with friends the past few weekends.  Dinner and bowling, enjoying some beautiful weather on the deck over dinner.  Did I mention Jess did hair...a lot?  Did I mention Murphy likes being outside...a lot?  A draft party with friends at my brothers house also took place.  Perhaps the "party" atmosphere was more for guys who like football, pizza and beer tho. We also took in our very first Minnesota Machine game as one of our friends plays on the team.  It was quite an experience...weather included (which was a rainy mess).

And of course...making Jess and Murphy watch the Minnesota Wild's run in the 2014 playoffs.  She is fairly use to me screaming and cursing at the tv during the fall (Viking and Gopher football) but hockey playoffs are so much fun.  Even tho I might keep her up with my yelling...she loves me even more for it...and I think secretly doesn't mind watching the games with me...or maybe more so...reading a book and slightly paying attention to the hockey game.

Jess needs to update the blog with pictures to prove our busy-ness...but trust me, its been busy!

Jessica: As promised - here are a few photos!

Murphy's 1st Birthday!!!

 

Yesterday was Murphy's 1st Birthday!  What a great day.  We had done some planning for it.  We knew 3 things.  I was getting him a pupcake (figure it out if you dont know what it is - you are reading this blog, so I'm sure you can), Jess was making him a special dinner (hamburger and rice) and we were buying him some new toys!  We picked up the toys a day before his birthday, he helped us a little bit.  Jess had made plans to do hair for 2 of our really good friends, Bree and Selina.  After work yesterday, I grabbed the pupcake and we celebrated with it and the hamburger/rice dinner Jess made for him.  Jess has some wonderful pictures that I'm sure she'll share soon.  As we were playing...I made a comment to Jess about Murphy seeing 2 of his friends on his birthday and they were 2 of the very first people he met when we brought him home.  Very fitting for his first birthday!  As I said...pictures to come.  :)

Jessica:
And here are some photos! (Yes, I made the hat myself. Yes, I realize we are certifiably insane)

 

Ploehn Family Fun Weekend

Just got home from a weekend in Okoboji, Iowa at Bridges Bay with the whole Ploehn family!

We had started talking about taking a family vacation a few months back and decided that with so many little ones it would be easiest to do something close to home this year. I happened to come across a Living Social deal for Bridges Bay in Okoboji... Perfect!

We got a suite that had three bedrooms attached to a living room and kitchen area. It worked out really well because we were able to bring food and cook! The kids were really excited to get down in the pool so we all headed down right away! They had a really great shallow depth play area for the kids with lots of water jets and slides, a lazy river and two water-slides. The kids had an awesome time playing in the shallow area and the adults had a little too much fun flying down the water slides! With a 37 stair climb to the top each time, I feel like we got a pretty good workout this weekend!

Everyone had a blast and we are definitely planning on doing another vacation like this soon!

Needless to say, we are exhausted! So I will post some pictures before I pass out! :)

...

Better Late Than Never!

St. Patrick's Day 2014

We had a blast at Cristin and Matt's annual St Patrick's Day party! Jarisa and Kate came over early and we all got dressed up in our green best! (I was lucky enough to have Kate do my makeup!) We had some delicious food, drank a little too much and had a lot of fun! Bree, Selina and Lorie stopped by a little later in the party and we got a game of flippy cup going! I am getting much better at the game! Every year Matt and Cristin give away prizes for the best dressed - This year Scott won! A bottle of Dude vodka was his prize.

A little later in the night mom and dad stopped by! It's always fun to play flippy cup with your parents! We cabbed it home for safety (always a good idea!) and I got to enjoy a 2 day hangover. 

I am getting much to old for this stuff! :)

Now for some photos.

Ugh...winter problems?

As most of you know, winters can be pretty brutal in Minnesota.  I've always enjoyed winter and really this one hasn't been any different.  I'm lucky that I have a snowblower for the feet and feet of snow we get.  However, this winter has been a little costly too.  First, after a few weeks with the new car, one of the rims was cracked.  A couple different mechanics said they see it quite often during the winter as more and more potholes cause more and more problems.  Then last week I noticed a leak from in our utility room.  It was from a drain pipe or vent pipe, I did everything I could think of to figure out which pipe was causing the problem.  A friend of a friend (a license plumber) and immediately thought it was the drain pipe, but after an hour or so of further investigation we concluded it was indeed the vent pipe.  Its fixed temporarily but a little roof work needs to be done once the snow melts!  Winter problems in Minnesota...

Bock Fest!

We had such a blast this weekend at Bock Fest! I have been a few years previously with my friends, but this was Scott's first time! It is always so much fun introducing each other to new experiences! 

We went down to Mankato Friday night and spent the evening in the hot tub and playing Cards Against Humanity with our friends. 

Saturday morning came REALLY early! It was tough getting out of bed after the fun night we had. After getting ready we went over to a bar and had breakfast and then got onto the bus to head to New Ulm! 

Selina trying to spoon Scott awake

Looking good! 

We spent the afternoon playing tippy cup and drinking beers with our friends. We ate some delicious brats and listened to polka music all day! Scott also experienced his first "poked" beer. They have hot pokers in the fire and put them into the dark beer and it caramelizes it. YUM! We had such a fun time! It was VERY cold, but we were all bundled up! I actually had my jacket off for part of the day! haha. Mom crocheted us awesome hats, which helped with the warmth and cute factor! :) She also made us awesome nose warmers that worked surprisingly well! Everyone loved them! 

LOVING the hats! Thanks mom! <3

It was SO cold the beers froze in the glasses!

The whole group! 

Tippy Cup Champions!

Drinking my "poked" beer

We went back to the hotel and got BWWs for dinner and got ready to go out for the night! We had so much fun dancing and playing pool! I am still a terrible, terrible pool player, but it was a great time! As you can tell by the pictures, we were feeling good! (Don't worry Mom, we walked!)

Such a fun weekend! But man, I am still feeling the pain! Getting old is rough ;)

Bockfest 2014

It's been a couple weeks since I've had a chance to blog and figured this past weekend was a perfect reason to write something quick.  I was introduced to Bockfest.  It's an outdoor beer festival held in New Ulm, MN at the Schell's brewery!  You probably think I'm crazy for wanting to go to an outdoor anything in March in Minnesota...especially this winter, since the high for the weekend was almost a whopping 2 degrees.  But Jess and her friends make this an annual event.  I'm sure she'll have some great pictures to add.  I had a great time, tons of fun and really the cold didn't get to me at all - granted I was bundled up in plenty of layers.

Valentines 2014

Jess and I had a very busy week leading up to Valentines Day this year!  As you can see from the previous blog post (or from seeing Jess drive anywhere and everywhere in the Cities the last couple of days) we got a new car!  It was time, her old one needed some major work and we had been talking about getting something a bit newer and more "family friendly" - so the new Malibu works great!

Our Valentines Day tradition is having a heart shaped pizza and watch movies together.  We continued that tradition this year, but I added something of a surprise.  We agreed that we weren't getting anything else for each other.  But we both lied.  I left work a little early and went up to Maple Grove to stop by Nadia's Cakes to get a couple cupcakes for us.  We don't get them very often, but they are absolutely delicious.  I surprised Jess with that and she surprised me with the best homemade chocolate chip cookies!  On top of that she had a little gift for me...little but so extremely thoughtful. She definitely wins the 2014 best Valentines Day award.  She did much better than I did.

We went to Rocky Rococo to pick up our heart shaped pizza and then got a couple movies.  Bad Grandpa - absolutely hilarious.  The second movie was Don Jon...which we both agreed was just weird and odd and had a very awkward ending.

All in all, it was such a great Valentines!

I got a new car!

SO excited! 

After lots of car shopping and discussions about what would be the right choice - We bought a new car! 

We are now the proud owners of a 2013 Chevy Malibu ECO. It is "slightly" used - only had 20,000 miles! It is also completely loaded. Leather heated seats, power sunroof, back up camera, touch screen - just about everything you can imagine! I was the most excited about the ability to bluetooth connect my phone and listen to my music! My music list even shows up on the screen! So awesome! It was my first time buying a car at a dealership, that was interesting!

The car is really fun to drive and now I am finding any reason to leave the house. Scott and I are having arguments over who gets to drive! Quite the change from the usual!

Thanks for the awesome Valentine's Day present honey! :)

Winter Carnival 2014

Over the last weekend in January, Jess and I got a chance to do something pretty cool.  One of her best friends and her husband are thoroughly involved in the Winter Carnival.  Her husband is part of the Royal Guard and they invited us to be part of the parade.  We weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into.  We were told - dress warm, dress very very warm.  Jess and I got all bundled up and headed to downtown St. Paul.  We spent the afternoon riding on the back of a truck thru the parade and had a ton of fun along the way.  Enjoy the pictures!!