This should probably be the blog of a newly married woman.... "Lund's Life"? I don't know... I guess I need to come up with a new title.

Well, married in October and its already December. Two whole months and I am LOVING it! :) 

I am teaching 6-8 English and Reading in a tiny school in rural MN. 

AND I am on Christmas break!!! WAH-HOO! The joys of being a teacher! 

2 Months until Wedding Day!

A few weeks ago, Erik and I had our wedding shower in Chicago... 

Dad took our engagement pictures....

And Bubbles went to heaven to take care of her puppy....

It was a wonderful, terrible, happy and sad weekend. In the end, I know that my grandma is having a blast watching over my family and Erik and me. She will be there when I walk down the aisle (and help me so I don't trip in my 4 inch heels!) 

THEN....

Last weekend was my BACHELORETTE party! I had a 20 person entourage who enjoyed a wonderful THUNDER show!!! ;)  We went to dinner at Dick's Last Resort and cabbed over to see Thunder from Down Under!!! It was so much fun! :) 

NOW...

This weekend is my shower in Minnesota. I AM SOOO EXCITED!! 

TWO MONTHS TO GO!!

...this is what happens

This is what happens when a dog is unemployed... okay fine. This is what happens when a dog and his girl are unemployed and its raining. Naps on the porch.

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Tired puppy...

After a few days of rain and more on its way, I decided it was time to take Drake for a run! We ran down to a boat landing... where he was more than eager to get into the River!!!

We walked home and sat on the porch...

Tired Drake... worn out from a good workout and a little dip in the Mighty Mississippi! 

Summer Daze

I have been looking for jobs constantly and I have NOT ONCE heard back from any schools. Its getting really frustrating. Sitting home all day is getting really old. No offense to Drake, but I need to socialize...one-way conversations just aren't working out. Pretty much everyone I went to school with moved away and with that move came distance. However, the wonderful friends I do have around this area work all day and summers lead to busy lives. So even though there are only a few miles between us, it is hard to plan a night or two to hang out.

I am thinking about getting in contact with the "artsy" people down at the Farmers Market to see if they would sell some of my knitted things.  I recently make a "Beer Sweater" and my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Rachel, dubbed it. :)

It worked out pretty well yesterday when Erik and I went to Rosie's. I did get one compliment! Wahoo!

Its been a while, lets catch up!

Well, I am now engaged and my world has turned completely upside down in the best way possible. Erik and I are "cohabiting" as my friend Holly puts it... and I love it!

We have 131  days until the wedding, so our Macy's Registry tells us. I keep having dreams about the ways our wedding might go wrong. The latest one was about me not having good toe-nail polish, no shoes, and no hair appointments for the 28 bridesmaids. I woke up that morning and made the hair appointments. Just to be safe.

Summer took forever to get here but now that it is, I am so happy. I sit on our back porch a lot and read or go on my computer to apply for jobs (find knitting patterns, go on facebook, and check emails). Drake likes it out here too. In fact, we are both on the porch right now. He is napping... what a SLUG!

I have gone back to knitting now that my days are calm. AND ... bonus points for me.... I have planted my farmers market tomato plant in the topsy turvy Erik bought me!! and I re-planted my herbs (because the first set died.....). I'm not much of a green thumb, but I am trying!

Well, back to my coffee!
Cheers!
Vin
(ooo, I am not going to be Vin for much longer! :/ YIKES!! )

Headband!

Headband with a flower!! :) 

headband with a red flower!! 

Blanket

I finished Erik's blanket this weekend! :) 

Big enough to fit a full size bed. Here it is:

POSER!!!

It's hard to go home and not have Josie pose for a few glamor shots!! 

(that's why we call her POSER!!!)

These pictures are just so funny to me! I think because of her eyes...

 

SNOW!!

I took these at home a few days after we got a little bit of snow in Illinois. The weather was great and I decided to go out and use my camera... these were three of my favorite.

matt's action shots

I was trying to be creative in taking pictures around the house... and this is what happens instead...

OH HEY MATT!!!

I am SO SURE that my mother will be so please when she sees these pictures!! hahaha ;) 

Christmas Decor!!

Merry Christmas Eve

PHEW! What a month it has been! :)

Dan and Erik have developed a new Bro-mance. 

My seeester came to see me!!

Kevin and Aimee tied the knot 

in the biggest snow storm of 2010! 

 And Erik and I celebrated it all in style!! 

I'd say we look pretty good! 

I guess I didn't have as much "free" time as I would have liked. I did, however, spend a lot of time on the blanket I have been knitting Erik for Christmas. As of now, it is as wide as a full bed and about a few inches taller than my 5'5" hight. I'm on the last skein of yarn but I just can't finish it. 

I have been prepping for student teaching by reading every single handbook given to me by my University and the high school that I will be student teaching at. I have started to read Night by Ellie Weisel so that I can teach it to the 11th graders. And I was given a folder full of "beginners research material" that I need to update before teaching the 3 sections of 9th grade classes how to write a research paper. 

With all honesty, I am so nervous and it doesn't help that I keep having dreams where I am the worst teacher EVER!!! In my dream last night, I had a 3 minutes to give a lesson that none of my students listened to. It seemed a lot worse in the dream. 

Anyways... my plane is waiting for me! 

this face...

Drake

When this is the face looking at you all weekend...

 you would find it 

EXTREMELY

difficult to do homework too. 

This is unreal!

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players

- Shakespeare (As You Like It) 

 So, on a complete whim last week, I tried out for my Universities 2011 performance of the Vagina Monologues. One of my goals when I arrived on campus was to try out for a performance. That goal had been shoved to the back of my mind as each semester had ensued and had been back there for 4 and 1/2 years. I finally unpacked that goal and dusted off it's hope when I saw in my inbox that there were going to be casting calls for the Vagina Monologues. I thought about it on and off all day. 


After convincing myself that this would be a good idea (based on my oral interpretation class, the fact that I will be teaching a theatre class at a high school, and that being in a college performance would give me credibility in speech classes I would teach in the future) AND some encouragement from my mom... 


I went to audition. 


I knew that if I didn't go right away, I would chicken out and kick myself for not going. So I grabbed my backpack and half ran to campus. I was the first one there and I asked some questions regarding if I would actually have the time if I get a part... all seemed well.


As women came in to try out, I noticed a few friendly faces who came and sat with me from Love Song, a play from last fall. I helped with the costumes for Love Song as well as managed to fracture my big toe in 3 places during strike. 


You wouldn't think that performances were in the cards for me anymore after that incident! However, my new toenail and I decided to give it a whirl. 


With encouragement from the girls from Love Song, and some of their friends, I finally got up to read the monologue I had selected (mind you I waited about an hour and a half to get the courage to even stand up). I used all of my knowledge from my oral interpretation class and


I read "I Was There in the Room"


After I had read it and calmed down a little, I left the auditions. Just trying out was a major accomplishment in my book. Friday night I got an email saying that the cast list would be out before the weekend and when it did, I kept looking for my name. The entire time hoping, that maybe, JUST MAYBE.... and then, there it was!


I MADE IT!!! :)


I got the monologue I had performed during auditions. How EXCITING!! 

I AM IN A COLLGE PERFORMANCE!!! 

GOAL (check!)

At that very moment I grabbed my phone and called all of the numbers I could possibly reach my mother on, but she didn't answer. Erik was hunting so I couldn't call him. So I called Kelsey and her whole family applauded for me in the background. :) I eventually informed both my mom and Erik! 

I am soooo excited for the first meeting in January!