Working in the Florida Heat!

It's hard to adjust to 60-70 degree weather after adjusting to the 80-90 degree weather of FL. John was making fun of me for walking around in sweats yesterday & for keeping on the sweatshirt for our walk. I'm sure people thought I was crazy since normally this weather would be "warm" for even me. Funny how your body adjusts huh!?

Somehow Erica & I convinced our boss that it was a good idea for me to join her for a tour of FL. ;) In all reality, she decided to do a dermatology conference in Boca Raton May 22-24 & needed my help at the booth. Then the two of us would do some stops in the Miami area like a normal week on the road until the 29th. In Boca we stayed at the Boca Resort where the conference was. It was absolutely beautiful. We didn't have to leave the resort for a single thing. The service was wonderful & the prices made you glad you were paying with the company credit card! For more pictures & details about everything see Erica’s Post here.

view from our room

part of our hotel lobby, I forgot to take more

locker room on the beach side of the resort

our ghetto booth that wasn't bad compared to others, we were pleasantly surprised!

NEVER have I been treated like this as a rep! They provided breakfast & lunch...yum

fat kid having her way with the dessert & sick from it.

Erica adding chocolate to her cappuccio

our last night out to dinner. Erica dressed in 3" Jessica Simpson wedge heels in a tank & summer pants. Lisa dressed in a black long sleeved shirt, jeans, in flats, hair in a pony. Need I say more!? Perfect!

Memorial day we drove from Boca down to a suburb of Miami. We were able to relax at the beach for a couple of hours before a storm ran us off. Little did we know that was one of many storms yet to follow that week. It seriously rained everyday the rest of the time, which didn't always make for a good impression when walking into doctor's offices soaking wet. It didn't matter so much since we were beat at the end of the day & didn't plan on going to the beach or pool anyway. We worked hard everyday until that Friday (May 29) when Erica flew home & I flew to Destin for a friend's wedding. I'll tell ya all about that on the next post. Below is the only pic. from this part of the trip...it looked like this...everyday.

Happy Birthday, Andi!

This past weekend John & I celebrated Andi's birthday with the Koens in the cities. Saturday night we went to a dinner theater and saw "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!" at The Chahassen. It was absolutely wonderful! I was so impressed with the food, singing & dancing, very well done!! We then stayed at the The Marquette Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.



Sunday was jam packed with walking around downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. One of our first stops was at the sculpture garden. The boys were too funny walking around not appreciating the "art." In fact it would have been nice to have one of those kid leashes to keep them off the sculptures. Let's just say they weren't a good influence on the actual kids there with their parents.

checkin' out the giant fish

there are only supposed to look at that

famous MSP sculpture...and againWhen we found this guy Kendall said, "finally something worth looking at" hahaaren't we strong?"the walking man" and his girlfriendloved this horse, it's actually metal, but looks like wood!

After the sculpture garden we headed to St. Paul and stopped at Northwestern where Andi and Kendall went to college. It was a beautiful campus on a lake!!!!!

they were married at the college's chapel up the way!

baby duck, so cute!

We grabbed lunch in downtown St. Paul and ate the best burger I've ever had. The food went perfect with the great weather and skyscrapers!

Then, we decided to see the Cathedral of St. Paul & walk around Summit Avenue. This street was amazing! The houses were all so different and just gorgeous. Lucky for us there was an open house & we totally took the tour. I loved it!

they want how much!?!?!

Cathedral of Saint Paul, not a house on summit ave, but I could understand any one's confusion!

We randomly found this little malt shop on our way to the Mall of America headed home. Snuffy is their dog's name!!! They were delicious & the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend of fun! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANDI!!!!!!

Yard Sale!

Have you ever realized how much stuff we have, but don't even use? It's just stored away...out of sight, out of mind. Our small group decided to combine all our stuff & have a yard sale for a cause. We thought it would be nice if all our proceeds went to the student ministry at church. The kids are trying to raise money for a missions trip & we've all been there before!

My neighborhood has an annual neighborhood garage sale where almost every house participates. It draws tons of people & is advertised in the paper & all over town. There is even a website about it! Sadly, no one could take off work on Friday to man the station so we were only open for business on Saturday. Saturday was cold...it was in the 40's and the wind was like knocking us over. We were in toboggans, gloves and layers. We're pretty sure that is why we didn't make much money & have a ton of stuff left over. Everything is currently in our garage & we're discussing trying again this weekend. Wish us luck!

I can't complete this post without highlighting one of Rochester's finest. I hope somehow she finds this blog & feels awful. After bargaining me down on every item she put in her over sized Macy's bag (that we provided), she waited until the 3 of us girls were separated to pay me $1 for a book. I asked her about the other items stuffed in the bag & she told me she had already paid one of us for them earlier. She was in her car pulling away before I realized she had not paid anyone. She knew it was a fundraising yard sale too... in John's words...."takin' from the children!"

Here are a few pics. of us setting up! I'm surprised at how much stuff we had since none of us have kids!

Kerri organizing away

chaos at first

full men's suits for $10, can't beat that!


making our signs

the boys "helping" / playing corn hole

apparently this became a gentleman's game with a sport coat requirement

shame

I follow Anne Jackson’s blog on google reader and this hit me hard when I read it.

Shame is a sickness…
A disease…
That keeps us hidden.
The remedy for shame is grace.
Grace that requires you to step aside when you know you’re right.
Grace that requires you to consider others better than yourself.
Grace that hurts and is dangerous.
Someone around you needs that grace right now.
Go give it.
And give it freely.

-Anne Jackson