Thank goodness for little one's

Lakin stole my heart this weekend into an even greater depth...if that is even possible. It's the daughter of my close friend.  I believe God sent her my way to show me how to have fun through a child's eyes once again after so many bad days in a row.  Her mama and daddy had a busy weekend planned and allowed me to fill her Friday night and Saturday with fun things!


Friday night...Rochester Fest Parade!  Right after Patrick and I both got off work, we went and picked her up for a night of fun.  We met up with my family and Rebekah and Shelley to have a little bit of parade excitement.  We told Lakin in the car we were going to get candy. It took one time of getting candy thrown at her to figure out why parades rock!  "I want more candy"  was all we heard the rest of the night.  They threw the candy and the little giggles piled out of her. Obviously the pictures explain the rest.

Looking around the corner to see what was
coming next. Such a good girl staying sitting
on the curb!!

Food and Sugar Coma after having a
 mini donut, funnel cake piece, and
 dippin dots.  The chocolate? 
The McDonalds people were kind
 enough to give her a chocolate milk 
which she drank in two minutes flat.

She got soo many stickers!!!  As the picture can tell
she was gladly accepting every one.

RUN!!!  She shoved her tiny hands full of candy till she could hold no more.

Putting stickers on me and her because
she had so many!

What a beautiful girl...and yes she did pick out her own outfit for the day!

Saturday Morning: The rain held off long enough for Patrick and I to take her to Oxbow Zoo.  We saw every single animal and said good bye to each one as we moved along.  We came home for lunch, enjoyed some nap time and then got out the little pool we got for her.  Dinner came along before we knew it.  We headed to Applebees with my family so Lakin got a chance to dance down the hallways of the mall showing every one just how adorable she is.  Before long we were home again snuggled up on the couch with pj's on and Dora on the tv.  Sounds too good to be true?  Yeah it was.

Saying good bye to each animal 
so wecould  see the rest.

Baby goats...her favorite

"GOODBYE BABY GOATS!!!"  I think the whole zoo heard her.

It was all too exciting she was
 forced to run!!

Too precious for words.

"Is this a flute?"  No Lakin that is a
 diving stick.(said 100 times with
 each color)

All snuggled up to watch Dora. So perfectly adorable! I love this little girl!

SEE

I'm being real tonight


My world is slowly falling apart.  Not really, but it feels like it.  I try to not feel like it is...but it is.  Every time for a week now I have felt like I finally have a good state of mind and everything is going right again, and then it all comes completely crashing down. I know there are so many millions of people and little ones that have it so much worse than me tonight, but it still doesn't seem to help. Some reasons I cannot say or am not choosing to say, but some include not passing important test and having no source of income come the end of August for my new husband and I...as of right now.  


I was able to hang out with a dear friend tonight.  Funny how God places things in order before you even know why.  Thanks to her, I came home with this in mind....


I recently read the book written by Mary Beth Chapman called "Choosing to SEE." Tonight, I'm choosing to SEE that God has everything in control.  I may feel like a complete mess on the inside and who knows when that feeling will go away, but God still is in control.  He has put everything in place for me.  Everything from BIG things (like where I will live in Minneapolis just 1 week before starting school) to little things like setting a hang out date with a friend before I knew I would need it tonight.  I'm choosing to SEE that it will get better than it feels tonight.  I'm choosing to wait to SEE what job God has planned for me. I'm choosing to SEE the fun weekend I have planned with people I love.


I have to admit....I can't do this on my own.


Friends, if you are reading this I hope that means you care about me.  I'm asking you to pray.  This last week I have SEEN and felt the answers of no and yes to prayers.  I don't care how you pray.  I hope God will lead your heart to how you best see fit.  But, I know I cannot do this alone.  I know that it is time to ask for prayers, and I'm willing to ask.  I have SEEN how God has used those around me to support me.  I think He's asking me to lean on those people.


Thank you for taking the time to read and pray.  I'm so blessed to have so many so close to me.  As I watch RSVP's come back, my heart just leaps to SEE people that love Patrick and I so much to celebrate with us. YOU are appreciated by me!!!!  Deep down I just want to love others and God and that's it.  Thanks for reading what's on this girl's heart tonight.  It means the world.  

Catch up, Happy Dad Day and an INSANE amount of pictures!!

Wow, it has been awhile.  Here's what's up


Matthew graduated...8th Grade!! WooHoo! He looked very stunning in his outfit mom & I found, and he even had a great sis to takes pics of him ;)  He didn't fall or anything and even had a smile on his face as he accepted his fancy sheet of paper.

"The Kids"...oh goodness are my parents sure they want to soon accept that middle goofy one in  a few days?!!!

Matthew singing the beginning of their choir song with a select few that got chosen!

Walking in

Husand & Wife to be

On Tuesday, Patrick and I got the opportunity to go with his parents to the Twins game.  Free tickets thanks to Patrick's dad's work.  They played the Philies and even though it was a little stressful at times they won!!! There were so many hits, including 3 home runs, which made it a really fun game.  Obviously I took the opportunity to see just how great my camera is. We had awesome seats, but these pictures really did turn out amazing due to my camera's zoom!!!

Thome, a previous player on the MN Twins team.  Please take note on how I got a picture of his famous stance. 

Get that out!!!

Then we come to Father's Day today.  One thing I got my dad today was a framed picture (see right) that I  had taken of Matthew and him one day trying to get rid of garden eating bunnies. I also made him cupcakes. Now, if you know me AT ALL and my baking obsession these were obviously not any normal cupcakes.  I took pictures to have proof of how cute they turned out!! I am so thankful for my healthy, loving, uber goofy, geeky dad.  I'm the luckiest kid in the world!

Chocolate hardening...grills and cheese for hamburgers.

Gummy bears being chopped up for skewers.  Good therapy if you ever are in need.  Chopping gummy bears' heads off does the trick.

Completed Product.  Hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and skewers roasting away on cupcake grills

I think the hot dogs were my personal favorite. Simply hot tamales with a little black frosting for our grill marks.

The boys after a tough morning of unsuccessful fishing...didn't those fish know it was Father's Day?!!!

As all these days tick by with all these events so does the wedding countdown.  Today marks just 34 short days till the weddings. I can't believe it!  All that is left is to keep those RSVP's coming in the mail. We've been getting about 2 a day, but I'm hoping to see many more pile in faster in the next week so I don't have as many phone calls to make!!!


So as I come to the end of my blog I thought it would only be fair to share with you the new toy I'm blogging on.  My graduation present from my parents was a new laptop.  They told me though that I could pick it out and take my time doing so.  I decided to stick to a lenovo (through IBM thanks to dad) since that is what I am use to and ended up with a Z470...in PINK!!!  It is so awesome and exactly what I had hoped to end up with.  The pink was just an added bonus. Here are some pics so you can see!!

I know...me right?  


I hope you weren't too bored with my super long post.  I promise it won't be so long next time!  I hope you have a great week.  Rochester peeps...get all geared up for Rochester Fest!!!  See you at the parade Friday :)
<3 Amanda

Who opened the floodgates?

Saturday our family witnessed something much larger than your typical rain shower.  We had roaring waterfalls coming off the side of our house and piles of hail covering the ground.  After a few minutes I decided to start snapping some pictures for proof of all the water and hail.

Hail...I know it looks like snow!!!

More piles of hail...it was all over the yard!!!

Waterfall off the side of the house.

Our poor flowers.  Luckily the green part of the flowers in still in tact, but all the petals have been washed away in the flood.

The river flowing through the front yard.  It literally was moving like a river would.

Flood on the side of the house.

River starting to flow to the back of the house.

Same spot literally 1 minute later.

Field across the road that became a lake

Goodbye playground!

This is all the crap left over from the fields.  It was all over the yard and had to be cleaned up!

The neighbors across the road have even more crap to clean up.  Their grass was covered!

This was one day I was extremely thankful for my house!!!

For your own sake....

PLEASE DON'T INVITE ME TO EAT OUT WITH YOU!!!!
I'm not joking...in even the slightest bit.  I'm not quite sure what it is, but everyone that invites me to dinner with them ends up getting something free because of some displeasure that occurred to them during their dining experience.  Usually the Sullivan family gets suckered into this trap.  From spilled cocktail sauce on a coat to the completely wrong meal being delivered it has happened with them.  Tonight my parents decided to overlook my bad luck and invited me to dine with them at Baker's Square.  They were complaining that it was taking too long to get our food...little did they know this would be the least of their concerns in a little bit. While trying to enjoy my sandwich, I found a hair.  A dark hair that we couldn't even pretend was mine. Needless to say that meal was free and I got a slice of pie to enjoy later too.  Still grosses me out though.  So tonight just reinforced that no one should invite me to dinner with them.  


On a much happier food note, I thought I'd share my latest food pinterest follow through.  They are called Strawberry Chocolate Nachos.  The "Nachos" are simply tortilla shells that had a little melted butter on them and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  Then they are baked in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.  Easy!  They were very good and a nice quick snack.  I guess the strawberries made me feel like I was attempting at a healthy snack. I guess the chocolate probably took away from that healthy snack idea.  Here's how they turned out.

With the sunrise in the morning also begins the birthday bash!  Come on it's my golden birthday...clearly a big deal ;)  Actually just the fact that I will be home on my  birthday and not flying off to some other country or driving across the country is a big deal.  Excited to celebrate with special friends tomorrow!!!!

Sing a little, Laugh a lot

This week I was able to go with my parents and Patrick to Matthew's choir concert.  It was a great concert and fun to watch Matthew.  I did realize two things at this concert...
1. Pretty sure every 8th grade boy was taller than me...sad day :(
2. Matthew got his rhythm (or lack there of) from his dad.  This means that Matthew will get down the aisle to the beat of his own drum and I'll be counting for my dad as we dance...it's okay I still love them both :)
A few fun pics to share :)

Doing his best to keep on the right beat!!

Also, today I had the wonderful pleasure of attending another bridal shower with my younger ladies hosted by my amazing Maid of Honor, Lauren.  We had a lot of fun catching up and sharing a few funny stories about Patrick too!!  I am blessed with so many wonderful women in my life!!  A few pics to share of course!

Beautiful table on the porch.  How can these color not make you smile?!

Not sure why we had these crazy faces, but I love them!!

Beautiful Kasson ladies!

Can you blame me for asking them to be in my wedding? Look at these gorgeous smiles!! 

I guess I'm still learning to cope with graduation. ;)  Just 4 more days till my birthday and just 2 more weeks till my last bridal shower.  I can't believe Monday will be exactly 2 months...it seems like that came up very very quickly on us!!
 Have a great night and I hope you're enjoying your weekend!!!

Not avoidable forever

Well graduation came and went last weekend.  I didn't write a post right away like I tend to do. (There are already pics on facebook though) I think I am trying to avoid how hard it was to say goodbye to my little kiddos.  Having a sweet 7 year old sobbing her heart out in your arms is not the most easy way to say goodbye.  It still hasn't sunk in what really happened last weekend.  I am a college graduate...ahh so weird!  With graduation ending, all has been checked off the countdown list except for two bridal showers and the wedding!  You couldn't imagine how many desktop sticky notes I have covering my computer screen with wedding to do's.  


I have been thoroughly enjoying not worrying about college every day though!!  I have been getting quite a few hours at the Christian preschool that is part of the same program as my camp job.  Wednesday I got to spend some time with Kindergartners, Thursday I spent the entire day with 4 & 5 years old, and Friday I spent the day in daycare (getting some amazing cuddle time with a 4 month old)!!! I have still found time for fun though.  This includes spending some precious moment's with my friend Sara's little girl Lakin.  I don't know how she can't melt your heart.  She wasn't feeling up to par so we spent many moments cuddling and relaxing.  I snapped some pictures to share :)

Patrick and Lakin sharing a special moment.  Man he's going to make a great daddy!! ;)

This is called the Dora stare...she literally can't hear you once this look is upon her face. 

Obviously one needs to be as close to Dora as possible!!

Ahh I can't wait for more Lakin time.  She is so much fun!  Maybe this college grad thing will work out for me after all!!