au revoir 2011

I'm sitting at work, typing this on my phone... so everything probably looks different. thats kind of been the theme of 2011 for me: everything looks different. this year has been filled with so many ups and downs twists and turns. in some ways I'm glad to say farewell to 2011 but so much has happened, I'll be sad to see it go. we bought our first house I quit my job we both went back to school I got a new job that has made me rethink everything about the future we went to Europe and much much more that I would never ever change that being said, i CANNOT wait for 2012 there is so much on the horizon for us so many memories to make, things to experience life to really live. happy New Year to all!

school:

you are driving my crazy.

two more days.

that is all.

happy december!

it's mah birthday month!

i seriously cannot believe that it's already december. it feels like the year has just flown.

i start my new job next week. the semester is done in two.

my birthday is in 3 weeks and the week after we'll be hosting my mom's 

family for christmas... yes... all 400 million of us. in our house. in 26 days. 

with all this excitement ahead, it's nice to look back on the past month to not forget...

well, forget everything that just happened :)

Erin got married! such a perfect day

invasion of the nerds.

seriously adorable, this one is.

smiley little girl.

my blue eyed boy.

No snow as of 2 days ago... we got a dusting this morning, but come on! 

uh... yeah... well that was shorter and less exciting than i had thought.

Erin's wedding was seriously a blast. unfortunately, excitement and craziness
get in the way when you're in the wedding, so i didn't get a chance to get many pictures.
but, it was just a spectacular day- filled with LOTS of love, laughs and dranks.

aside from that, my life has been filled with school. school. and more school.
accounting really is a bitch. never again. never.

this month, i'll remember to get my camera out more ;)

love.

"there are dreamers and there are realists in this world.

you'd think the dreamers would find the dreamers 

and the realists would find the realists,

but more often than not, the opposite is true.

you see the dreamers need the realists

to keep them from soaring too close to the sun

and the realists, well without the dreamers

they might not ever get off the ground."

-Cam

my realist is a hottie

haiku for my vet.

served in the Navy.
i love my vet like woa-wah.
my vet loves ketchup.

Thank you to all who have, who are, and who will serve our country.


(i know... i know. Veterans Day was Friday, but I was busy with my Vet all weekend!)

where in the world, where in the world is Matt Lauer??

he's here! the Jungfraujoch!

can you see it? the observatory in between the Monch and the Jungfrau?

can you see it yet?

here's the closest view that i was able to shoot:

i got a call from my mom early this morning, 

"trish! where is the world is Matt Lauer is at the Jungfraujoch!"

for those who don't know (and believe me, i would have had no idea had we not just been there)

the Jungfrau is one of the 3 tallest peaks in the Alps (Jungfrau being the "top of Europe")

there's actually a sweet story with how to remember the names:

the Monch (the monk) stands in between the Jungfrau (the young woman) and the Eiger (the ogre)

the monk, protecting the young woman.

We never made it to the Jungfraujoch- going to Schilthorn instead-

but we could see the building from Murren when we were having lunch.

Switzerland is the most unbelievable wonderland.

crazy expensive, but worth it.

definitely worth it. 

Europe part 2

our second day was spent traversing the city of Lausanne.

  from Old Town to the shores of Lake Geneva- it was spectacular. 

if you look real close at the picture of Kevan standing in the chapel doorway,

you'll see the "official" chapel door holder... and by "official" i mean beggar.

it took forever for me to get a picture without him standing in the background,

smiling and waving at me...

we realized after we got back that this was the only picture of the 4 of us... 

lookin' sexy as he washes his sins away... hopefully he didn't bring home typhoid

The next morning we headed around the lake...

through the country side:

and up into the Alps:

let's see how long it takes part 3 to be posted ;)

a day in the life.

today was a big day for me.

i had an interview for a job that would give me decent pay,

but would also afford for me to concentrate on my education-

making sure i could pay the bills as well as get A's.

so in true Tricia fashion- i had a ridiculous stomachache all morning

and arrived at the interview 35 minutes early... yeah... who does that?

about 15 minutes before, i went in and found... a dark, empty room.

panicked... i checked my email to see WTF was up and that's when i saw it:

the dude i had talked to had given me the wrong day- 

my interview is Wednesday... not today. 

at least i didn't miss it, right??

needless to say, i slinked outta there as fast as i could.

(didn't want anyone to see me wearing the same outfit i'll be wearing in 2 days...)

so, i decided to be productive today; took a walk with my favorite 4 legged girl

came home, tuned into the Edith Piaf pandora station and cleaned the kitchen, 

browned off veggies and beef then threw it all in the crock pot

 roast is now roasting. the smells coming from there are unbelievably comforting 

my favorite picture of grandma Lucille. after she passed, one of my aunts took a bunch

of her aprons and made those little angels for all of the women in my family.

such a treasure to have her with me in my kitchen in spirit :)

isn't she just the frickin' cutest thing you've ever seen in your whole life??

 yummy tea for the boyfriend and me

now it's time to paint the bookcases in the living room 

then study... study... study.

if anyone out there has a strong affinity for accounting,

please let me know.

you can take my class for me.

seriously...

i can't erase this off my DVR.

i'm not sure why, but i feel such a strong connection to this performance. 

the words, the voices, the fact that it's a group of women.

something about this makes me cry every time i watch it... and i've watched it far too much.

maybe i'm just a crazy biz-nasty and i feel bad for the boyfriend

for the freak-nasty that he's stuck with foooor-eeev-er.

maybe it's just that it's muah's time of the month and i feel

 like he should be doing more around the house and that's why i'm crying...

either way, i just can't get enough of this performance.

brav-ah Delilah!

wanna sing at my birthday party??

eh?

no?

whatever... i hate you bitches...

jk

XOXO

gossip girl

T

need to try.

love this. really should try... with all of our cable boxes...

europe part 1: finally!

we left from MSP on Friday Sept 2nd, landing in Amsterdam at 5:30ish their time.

the flight really wasn't that bad, considering we were on a more updated plane

and each seat had their own TV screen on the headrest in front of them.

i watched Midnight in Paris, Limitless, and Something Borrowed

which completely made the 8+ hour flight fly by... get it?? fly by?? yeeeah...

we had a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam before leaving to Geneva, Switzerland

so we hung out at this cool restaurant in the airport that i wish i had gotten a picture of.

naturally we ordered beers, wine, and a spicy bloody mary

by this time i think that we were all a little tired... doesn't he make tired look super sexxxy??

once in Geneva, we hopped on the train that would take us around the lake to Lausanne

after everyone (except my dad of course) was well rested from our 4 hour naps

we headed to the cafe across the street from our hotel

the pick thin woman stretching behind kevan and my mom was our waitress

...who we never saw. it's actually amazing she ended up in this picture.

sidenote: a never noticed how much my mom and kevan look alike until this picture...

i guess instead of marrying my father, i'm marrying dating my mother.

they're personalities are even creepily similar... wow.

we walked around Lausanne for a while that night, finally ending at

wait for it...

Le Chinese Dynasty.

yep. traveled for 15 hours to eat at a Chinese restaurant.

it was raining and we just ran in to get out of the storm, but it was like fate.

it was on the second story, so we had a perfect view of the town, Lake Geneva, and the Alps

(you can see to the left of my dad in the above picture)

and the food was out of this world.

i had beef curry that i'm still drooling/dreaming about

and kevan had some duck thing that was crazy good.

That's it for day 1!

time to go take my take home accounting test---blargf--- wish me luck!

and so it goes

our time in Europe was amazing.

will never be forgotten and if it were up to me, 

we would have never left.

but alas... we've been home for a week,

greeted by our loving kids (puck and winnie),

a pile of laundry,

tons of homework- including 2 tests for me... eek!

and the realization that everyday life has begun again.

now if you don't mind, i'm going to pretend that i am back here,

about to have an aperitif and beautiful conversation with my honey:

i promise more to come... much more. Tomorrow?

just a tid bit.

i've been up since 3:30am and it's now 1am Paris time, which is what i'm on... so i'm pooped

first stop was Lausanne then off Wengen.

then Basel and a day stop in Offenburg

Strasbourg and finally Paris.

It was the trip of a lifetime and still feels like a dream.

It's a strange juxtaposition to be back.

on one hand, it's nice to have the comforts of home, but I miss

Europe... more than i thought i would. 

it was an amazing adventure that i hope to relive again and again.

au revoir for now!

my last week at the office

this is what happens when i'm training my replacement.

she needs to know how to do important things like this.

in less than a month.

i'll be here:

then here:

then here:

and lastly:

i honestly can't thank my most amazing parents enough for the trip of a lifetime.

i feel so incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to experience such beauty,

especially with my wonderful family.



ps... 10 points to whoever guess where we're going :)

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The Classic

A little background here:

My Grandpa Louis was the oldest of 13 siblings who gre up on a farm in MN.

My Dad was the youngest of 8 siblings on a farm in the same area.

My Dad has a total of 72 first cousins... On one side.... yeah.

For the past 41 years, that family has gathered together on the last full weekend in July for a get-together/golf tournament/family runion catchall and if you take into consideration all of the 6 generations in attendence and the age limit you have to reach before you can come- there's roughly 150 family members at the 9-hole golf course.

i can honestly say that it is something that i look forward to each year.

there's something special about my dad's family. i'm not sure how to put a name to it.

it's more of a feeling.

i know... sap sap mush mush.

but really, every single person that attends the Classic is funny, generous, outgoing, caring, hilllllllarious, etc. etc. etc. etc.

i could go on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever...
you get the point.

anywhos... this year was no exception. we headed down on friday afternoon.

you can see the Milroy watertower waaaaaaaay in the background <3

we hugged and visited and drank and laughed the whole time.

it is always so much fun to catch up with everyone.

next year we're going down on Thursday... fo sho.