Jack Frost nipping at your nose....

I think that song left out the part about the 50 mph winds knocking you over!  Just a quick post to alert the world that thanks to that ridiculous storm system that affected the ENTIRE country practically, we had our first snow yesterday!  Granted it didn't stick for too long, but there it was when I got out of bed yesterday.  Not so sure that I'm ready for this!  I'm pretty sure the amount of snow that was on the ground yesterday morning was equal to the total amount of snow I saw all winter last year in Missouri.  Not that I'm complaining - after all, I do have new snow boots to wear! I'm sure I'll survive but I did ring in the first snow of the year last night by curling up on my couch with some hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course) and turning on the heat in my apartment.  Yes, I caved.

On a much different note, but in my mind, still equally thrilling, as I am getting ready this morning I turned my TV on to one of my Cable Music channels, the "Adult Contemporary" station.  Typically a lot of Jack Johnson, Rob Thomas, Daughtry, etc.  Imagine my surprise and utter excitement when the Spice Girls "Say You'll Be There" came on this morning!!  Pretty sure I haven't heard that song since about 7th grade when a bunch of us girls were going to form our own singing girl group.  Those were the days....thanks for the flashback NVC Cable.  

Happy Thursday Friends!!  

Run Forrest....

Two weekends ago I took a little adventure outside of Aberdeen.  A three hour drive to Sioux Falls, a 45 minute flight to Minneapolis, and another hour flight to Midway Airport and I got to spend some time in one of my favorite cities with some of my favorite people!  I spent that weekend in Chicago staying with my very best friend from grad school Michelle, who now works there, and my sister Kristin and her husband Will who were there to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Michelle and I spent Friday night when I arrived catching up, and laughing our heads off.  Saturday we met Kristin and Will in the city for lunch at Xoco (which was AH-mazing and worth the 45 minute wait in line to order) and did some shopping on Michigan (again AH-mazing).  Then after some R&R at Kristin and Will's hotel, we headed to Carmine's for fantastic Italian and so the runners could carb-load for the marathon the next morning.   It was packed with people doing the exact same thing but it was so good!!

The next day the runners took off at 7:30am and Michelle and I were able to see them about halfway through and then again at the finish from the Bank of America customer bleachers.  When we met them at the reunite area they were exhausted and hot (it was an unusual 85 degrees in Chicago by the time they finished).  But they did an awesome job and we couldn't be more proud of them!  It was Will's first and they ran it together at the same pace so it was pretty impressive for them to run the whole thing together!  Congrats you guys!  

Silly Will....you can't be THAT hungry after the marathon! 

So proud of them! 

Back to the gypsy that I was

A couple weekends ago (yes, I'm a bit behind), Northern State University held their homecoming festivities culminating in 95th Annual Gypsy Day on Saturday, September 18.  NSU's homecoming originated as a single-day event  back on November 18, 1916.  Three individual convinced the NSU President and Aberdeen businessmen that turning the campus into "one big Gypsy camp" for the homecoming game with Madison Normal would be a great way to promote the college and community. Thus, Gypsy Day was born!

This year's theme was "Fifties Fever."  I attended the Gypsy Day parade, which I expected to be much like the St. Patrick's Day Parade in O'Neill, but I was a little off.  There was the expected marching bands, farm machinery, fire engines, and of course, political candidates, but the sheer amount of parade entries was incredible!!  There were many marching bands, lots of floats from different companies (including ours!), and some pretty different entries as well.  Here a few photos from the day!  The weather was gorgeous and the bright blue sky provided a fantastic back drop for the morning!

The Avera St. Luke's float, complete with "Lukey" the Lion!

One of the many marching bands.  Made me miss color guard!! 

The Twist Cone's float, I think the Fifties theme came pretty easily to them! 

Firemen, playing bagpipes, wearing kilts....enough said.  

Like I said, farm machinery (don't worry, there were John Deeres as well!) 

I got the biggest kick out of this little girl who was having a great time waving in her costume, but of course the adults had to make sure she wasn't going tumble off!!  

In the middle of September, we'd still play out in the rain

Hey all!  I've been a little MIA lately but work has been super busy!!  The last couple weekends I've been out of town visiting friends.  Two weekends ago in Minnesota for Labor Day and a fabulous trip to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with my good friend Brittany.  Of course, I didn't remember to get my camera out!  And this past weekend I was in Omaha with a bunch of the girls to hit up the Farmer's Market, picnic in the Midtown Crossing park and go out on the town....again sans camera, but I think plenty of photos were taken so don't you worry!

This past week I also had quite the adventure here in Aberdeen!  A week ago today I auditioned for the Aberdeen Community Theatre.  I didn't end up getting a part in this production but got some great feedback from the director and absolutely LOVED the audition process and hanging out with all of the other theatre hopefuls.  Check out the theatre webpage, it is pretty awesome and has some incredible backing here in Aberdeen.  I'm definitely planning on auditioning for the next show and may have caught the acting bug again!

Hopefully back with more adventures in the coming days as Fall has arrived here in Northeast South Dakota!  My favorite season!  In celebration of that fact, a new fall facelift for the blog care of The Cutest Blog on The Block!

Ain't nothing I know of can make you fall in love, like a night at the county fair

Well maybe there was no falling in love (maybe with the funnel cakes) but I did spend a good portion of my non-work devoted time this week at the Brown County Fair.  Now I know what some of you are thinking, especially those from O'Neill, how could that much time be spent at the fair?  Well, there is an incredible amount of support in Aberdeen and the surrounding areas for their county fair. Not only do they have the typical fair things like the 4H exhibits and the rodeo, but they also have food vendors as far as the eye can see, carnival rides, constant entertainment in different tents, musical acts all weekend and many other things.  I was lucky enough to use one of my supervisors fair tickets to see Love & Theft and Jake Owen on Friday night so below are some photos from that as well as the rest of my time spent at the fair.  One of the coolest things at the fairgrounds is Centennial Village which is this old fashioned village that hosts smaller musical acts and other performers.  A lot of time was spent down there, especially for the State Chilli Cook-off on Saturday, which featured one of our VPs cooking for the Chamber of Commerce.

Petticoat Junction at Centennial Village (anyone else remember watching that on TV Land?)

Centennial Village

Barber Shop at Centennial

Some of the rides at the fair!

Walleye On-A-Stick and Deep-Fried Pickles....this is why I love the fair

Love and Theft!!  

Mr. Jake Owen :)  

Call you later?  Ok!  Haha....

In the end, if you ever have the chance, check out the Brown County Fair.  It was tons of fun, great food, and a good opportunity for me to meet some new and interesting people!

Wizards & Weddings

Hey there blogosphere!  I realize it has been far too long since my last post and to be honest the weeks fly by so fast that I was shocked when I realized how much I had to post about.  So I will try and get you all caught up and then I have a special post of what I've been up to this week.

So about three weekends ago now my dad came to visit for the first time!!  It was a super hot weekend but we headed out to Wylie Park which is a big recreation area here with a lake, campgrounds, mini golf, and Storybook Land, which I blogged about earlier. The nice part about the park and Storybook Land is that there are lots and lots of trails.  One of which is of course designed to be the Yellow Brick Road.  Dad and I walked there for a while, checked out some of the famous statues and then headed over to a round of mini golf.  I couldn't tell you who won, we lost track of our scores after the first hard hole, but it was fun!!  We then had a lasagna night (had to prove to my Dad that I actually CAN cook since he claims we always eat out when he visits).  It was a great weekend and I can't wait for him to visit again this fall.

As for the second part of the post title, just as many people my age, I've been going to a lot of weddings as of late.  (7 so far this year to be exact).  And two weekends ago, I had the honor of reading at my friend Allison's wedding to her now husband Bennett.  It was a beautiful wedding and very much represented them.  As evidence of that, the photo here is of the Bride and Groom dancing to Thriller -- which they both know completely.  

I then traveled on to Lincoln from Omaha for my friend Holli's wedding to Brandon.  It was equally gorgeous, and although very different from Allison's, again it was perfect for them.  And what a beautiful weekend weather wise for both of them!  Unfortunately I neglected to get my camera out too much at Holli & Brandon's but was able to catch up with a lot of good friends from high school that I hadn't seen in a while!

Last weekend I decided to head home to O'Neill to spend the weekend before my birthday with my family.  Believe it or not I turned 25 this past week!  I know I'm having a hard time remembering that when asked now!  Mom and I went to dinner at The Blarney Stone with my best friend Angie who was home and Sunday I had brunch with my Dad and Barb so it was a great time to relax and see everyone.  

As you can see I've been keeping pretty busy.  More to come!  

Let the music play

This week's adventure came in the form of volunteering.  The marketing & PR department at work provided free ice cream at a concert in Melgard Park in Aberdeen.  The concert featured the municipal band playing the big band hits of yesterday and the musical stylings of our Director of Marketing, Patty, and her brother Bob.  The concert was really great and we had a good turnout!  It was an awesome night, the weather was perfect and I got to know a few more people from work and from the community.  Below are a few pics of the evening!

The bandshell at Melgard

The Municipal Band

Patty belting it out

Patty's brother Bob singing "Come Fly With Me"

The crowd enjoying the show....and the ice cream!