Family Filled Weekend

Earlier this November (yes, I am behind yet again on my blog) we had a great weekend with my family. Max had a play at Hoover and did fantastic! It was fun to see his talents and see all my family in one spot. Saturday morning my Grandparents came down to see our house. It was fun to have them finally see our place and give another tour. 

Grandpa and Grandma Anderson

Sunday my parents made another trip to Des Moines! They came down to see all the changes behind our house and go to the new REI store. We started the morning off on a cold walk to see the new lots. It is amazing how they are fitting lots in such steep areas. It will be interesting to see how those work in the future. 

More water at the bottom of the hill than we thought. 

These machines wake me up every morning! It is as tall as me! 

Taking in all the changes and all the trees they cut down :(

Not a fan of this as my wakeup alarm

Somehow a house will be here...

Dad exploring, what he does best! 

Justus trying on hats at REI. Sorry ladies, he is mine! 

Trick-or-Treat, Puppies, & ISU Win

I am a weekend late on this post, but better late than never! Justus and I were excited for trick-or-treaters on Friday night. Growing up in the country, we never had a trick-or-treater. I bought a 80+ pieces bag of candy in my excitement for our first trick-or-treaters. Thank goodness I bought that 80 piece bag for our FOUR trick-or-treaters. Needless to say, the kiddos on the street got a handful of candy from us.

Saturday morning we finally acted on all our talk...we put a deposit on a puppy! We discussed what kind of dog we wanted for along time, but always came back to a Goldendoodle. Once we settled on a Goldendoodle we did our research on breeders. We learned there are standard, mini, F1, F1b, various colors, etc. Mini Goldendoodles were crazy expensive and a little smaller than what we wanted. We found a good breeder that breeds standard F1 (golden retriever w/poodle) and F1b (Goldendoodle w/poodle). We will be getting a female F1b Goldendoodle in February. The puppies are due in early December. We are happy to be getting a F1b for a few reasons. This "version" of Goldendoodle is even more hypoallergenic, won't shed (if it does, very little), 40-50 lbs, and curlier. I don't want the holidays to go by fast, but we can't wait for February when we get our puppy!

Justus came across FREE Iowa State vs. Texas football tickets for Saturday night's game. ISU is terrible this year, but the seats were good and the tickets were free. We are glad we went because ISU finally had a win. Not just a win, but a shutout against Texas! The new QB and offense looked much better. It was great weather, great seats, and a great time with Andrew and Katy. I should also note the renovations to the stadium make a big difference. It felt like a whole new stadium. I also appreciate that the new end zone is a windbreaker!

Ready for some ISU football! 

CYCLONE POWER

Beautiful fall night for some football

New end zone seating and board

Selfie time! 

ISU wins! 

Last selfie before darting out of the stadium

Love football under the lights

"Fally" Home

I love fall! In college I  made up the word "fally" for when something looks or feels like fall. The leaves changing, cooler temps, and fall foods just make me happy and are cozy. I have enjoyed making our house look "fally", so here are a few pics. Nothing special, just some little touches to make it feel like fall inside and out.

I got the mum at Lowes for $3! What a deal.

Metal basket with pumpkins and leaves. Leaf garland with led lights strung through. 

After a lot of searching, finally settled on an entry table

Hallway getting a little decor- still need some art for the walls. 

Front door decor: Pitcher from my mom, grass and pumpkin was a deal at Hobby Lobby! 

This is not fall, but got this succulent for $5 at Ted Lare. It was suppose to be $35! 

Pumpkin glass jar from Target filled with my fall favorite- candy corn and honey roasted peanuts.

Wood box from Target for $3 and some cheap lil pumpkins 

Wedding Weekend in Omaha

What a weekend! We left Friday for Michala and Travis's wedding at a beautiful winery in Glenwood, IA. As we were walking up the steps to the winery someone said, "If you hurry you will see the skydivers." Uh, what?! Several guys actually skydived into the wedding, how awesome is that! To top it off, one of the guys was wearing a kilt. Skydiving into a wedding is one thing, but while wearing a kilt takes it to a whole new level. Kilt-wearing-skydivers is an elite club!

Pure awesome! 

Kilt wearing skydiver! 

After the skydiving excitement we enjoyed the h'orderves and wine from the winery. The sangria was delicious! It was great to catchup with family in such a fun, relaxing venue.

Grandpa Guy and Justus matching

The venue was decorated beautifully and very "fally". The card and board games were a different, fun touch. We enjoyed the food, drinks, dancing, and Uno at the wedding! Such a fun night and couldn't be happier for the new Mr. & Mrs.

Me: "Take a selfie with me!" Justus: see his face

Me: "Seriously?! Just one picture!  Justus: Cooperating! 

We stayed in downtown Omaha and greatly enjoyed the much needed Starbucks coffee in the morning. Around 11:15am we were on our way to a favorite Omaha restaurant (Upstream Brewing) to meet family for lunch. Walking out to the car I hear Justus say, "F*@$!" Then I saw it... flat rear tire with a big nail sticking out. We went to lunch and waited to fix the tire.

I love Upstream Brewery's menu, so it was hard to pick which item to get. I settled on the Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup and Falafel Sandwich. Justus got a big burger and the Gouda Beer Cheese soup! Crazy yummy! Everyone got their soup but me, so Justus asked and they brought me my soup. Soon everyone started getting their meal.... except me! Needless to say, they forgot to make my meal! As everyone was finishing up I got my food. It was delicious, but ate it way too fast. Without asking, the waitress didn't charge us for my lunch. Justus went to pay for his meal and it had been awhile since he got his credit card back. The manager arrived with his card and long story short, they messed up a bunch of the bills and the only way to fix his was to not charge his card. TWO FREE meals and a drink?! Crazy! I recommend Upstream Brewery (don't judge it based on our one experience). Food is phenomenal and staff is very kind! 

Love the food at Upstream Brewery

Just wait, the craziness isn't over...

Justus worked on getting the tire off, but the darn tire wouldn't budge! We tried everything we could, even hotel maintenance tried! We finally called All State Roadside assistance. We had to sit by our car and wait an hour for "Mr.Rescue" to arrive. He was also surprised how stuck the tire was. A couple good hits with a giant rubber mallet finally got it off. In the clear right?? NO, think again! The spare was put back poorly by the previous owner. The bolt holding the spare was bent and stripped. Justus and "Mr. Rescue" shielded their faces for shrapnel as they pulled the tire out of the metal frame. FINALLY got the spare on and were on our way to the tire shop about 15 minutes away. 

Yay for Justus! 

At this point no idea how big of a pain this tire was going to be.

We called Discount Tire and asked if we could get in (they were closing soon since it was now past 4:00). They said of course! They looked at my car and decided they could repair the tire. We went to the computer system to setup the account and info and the nice worker said, "It is on us, we will fix your tire for free." WHAT?! I must have looked like a hot mess by that point. We waited the 45 minutes for them to fix our tire and were finally on our way. I highly recommend Discount Tire, so wish there was one in Des Moines. Stayed 15 minutes past closing and fixed our tire for free...that is service! 

Our goal for the day was to enjoy the zoo (didn't get to do that due to the tire) and go shopping. My all-time favorite clothing store is Athleta. I have to buy their clothes online because there is not one in Iowa. There is one in Omaha, so I told Justus we must go! I was like a kid in the candy store walking into Athleta. Justus was such a trooper by letting me shop and try on the entire store for nearly 2 hours. He enjoyed the comfy chairs while reading Men's Health Magazine. The store was in a data dead zone, so he couldn't use the internet. As we were getting to leave the girls were telling Justus how good he was (made me laugh). He said he wished there was cell service in the store. That is when they clued him in they just got  free wifi for the store. *Justus head drop* Poor guy! He learned an important lesson - always check if there is wifi when shopping.

Made it home safe and sound. I was inspired by the Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup we had at the restaurant in Omaha. Sunday I went to Trader Joe's to get ingredients to recreate the soup. I also picked up some Gouda and Asiago bread to make open-faced grilled cheese. It turned out great! Will definitely keep making this. 

New favorite! 

That is the extent of our weekend. Memorable, fun, and a lot of lessons were learned!

Apple Season

I love apples, especially in the fall. Lately I have been making a dip to go with my apples and it is my "new favorite thing" that I have to share.

Ingredients:
- Greek yogurt
- Peanut butter
- Apple or other "vehicle" to eat the dip

I love to use Jif Whips Carmel Peanut Butter and Dannon Light & Fit Greek Vanilla yogurt. Put a little yogurt in a bowl, scoop in a spoonful of peanut butter, and stir. I don't have any special measurements, just throw it together. I make this for one serving, so no need to worry about storing it. Sometimes I add a little granola to the dip for an extra crunch. Enjoy with some apples and you have a fall, healthy treat!

Dip: Greek yogurt, peanut butter, and granola 

Landscaping...Again

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Well, when life gives you 50% off to Ted Lare you spend it! Justus and I had been saying we wanted to put mulch and plants in on the south side of the house. The sun is so hot on that side of the house, so the grass doesn't grow well (the cement foundation also heats things up). Landscaping this area seemed like a good solution. Our goal was to do this next spring. Well... one morning we got that email with 50% off and it was meant to be! We needed to replace some sod that Century Link so nicely killed (*sarcasm*) and some by the deck that didn't come in well. We used the sod by the house to replace these areas and then got to work mulching and planting by the house. All-in-all it worked out great! This time I mean it- no more landscaping projects until next Spring! The amount we have spent on mulch this year I could have had a very expensive purse! 

Here are some before and after pics of our project, including some pics of our praying mantis!

Fun time at Ted Lare picking out plants (Little Lime Hydrangea)

The tall grass didn't fit in the car well. "Buckle up kids!"

Before- no mulch and dry grass

Before- Notice the grass can't grow under the AC

Before from farther back

"Before": In this earlier project we used the wrong grass. This pampas grass is too floppy,
so switched it for more upright grass. 

Me thinking: Weird leaf stuck to the house. Me speaking: WOW! That is NOT a leaf! 

According to Wikipedia after some lovin' the female eats the males head off. Notice the head in the females mouth. #GirlPower

The massive praying mantis on the move. Cool! 

Below are the after pictures. We moved the "floppy grass" to the new section, added in a Little Lime Hydrangea (Ted Lare), Eastern Snowball (Lowe's), and nine bags of mulch (Lowe's). Note the hydrangea is titled "little." The nice lady at Ted Lare showed us the non-little version and it was the size of an elephant. Settled on little and in this case, little still means big. As for the Eastern Snowball I saw 50% off and "Big, white, snowball shaped flowers with red leaves in the fall" at Lowe's. I thought, wow how pretty and perfect. I should have read more than the 50% off sticker and brief description because it ends up it gets to be 12 feet tall and 10 feet wide! Eeeks...trimming will be needed. In my defense, it was 50% off! At least I read the tag before planting or in a few years I would be amazed by our giant plant. 

Mid-project. Justus is such a hard worker.
He moved all the old sod to new places and cut a perfect line for our new flower bed.

After: We split this big thing of grass so it would cover more of the electrical box.
It will fill out over time by getting taller and wider. This grass remains upright, so shouldn't cover the walkway. 

After! 

Pampas grass and little lime hydrangea

Eastern Snowball and pampas grass

Too early for Christmas!

This weekend my mom and I went for a walk and then headed to Scheels for some shopping. I thought I would get some fall decor for our house but no.... I walked into the North Pole! Scheels must think "Tis the Season"... in SEPTEMBER! It is September 20th, which means it is technically still summer. This is ridiculous. Don't get me wrong I love, love, LOVE the Christmas season, but cannot stand how early the season creeps up each year. I am a little worried I am going to have to give out candy canes for trick-or-treaters!

This the Season in September