Author: Andi

Swiffer

Posted on by Andi

I have a Swiffer Wet Jet that I used a lot in our first house with all the hard floors. In our second place we had mostly carpet and just a couple hard floor areas, so it didn't get much attention. (Plus, I really shouldn't spray wet things onto my hardwood floors.) Now that I have more hardwood floors (which I LOVE), I needed to find something better to clean it…or get up some of the stuff. I was going to get a Swiffer Sweeper Vacuum, but the reviews weren't great on them. So I went with the Swiffer Sweeper. This doesn't pick up any chunks. It's just like sweeping your floor…ONLY BETTER! You still have to sweep things into a pile and then vacuum them up or use a dustpan. But the dirt is something the Swiffer can get that the broom can't.

I was so grossed out when I used it the first time and saw how dirty the swiffer sheet was. Granted we had been moving and walking in the house, so it was expected that it was a little dirty, but YUK! I was similarly grossed out when we got our Dyson vacuum and I saw all the stuff that picked up. But I was disgusted in a good way…because think of all of that stuff that isn't on my floor anymore! So I went from disgust to elation! 🙂

Chuck likes to go barefoot around the house and I always have socks on because my feet are so cold. So I didn't notice the small things on the wood floor. I have been barefoot more often since we moved in to this house, and after using the Swiffer Sweeper, I could immediately feel the difference and didn't notice the small pieces a broom would have missed. Also, since our floors are so dark, I notice the little pieces of things on the floor that I might have missed before. Therefore, making me want to use it more. 🙂

So the moral of the story is…I hate cleaning and this will make me clean more. I have even taken it out while dinner is cooking to do a quick sweep. I am not one for quick sweeps…EVER! Now if I could just find something I loved this much to clean bathrooms with! 🙂

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Yum!

Posted on by Andi

I love D*Brian's. I love their soups. My old favorite used to be Loaded Baked Potato. Until I tried the Spicy Chicken Tortilla! YUM! I could eat this stuff every day! And, it's only 230 calories for a bowl! You can't go wrong! If you have never been to D*Brian's…Go! If you haven't been there in a long time…Go! 🙂

I recently had lunch at Chili's, and they have a great lunch deal with endless soup and salad. They had a Tortilla soup, too and that was really good. They also have a Baked Potato soup. I had to say no to more soup, not because I didn't want it, but because I had eaten my weight in chips and salsa! MMM! 🙂

Are you hungry now? I am!

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Flowers! Finally….

Posted on by Andi

Three years ago we planted this adorable little flowering crab apple tree at our house…the old house. This little bugger WOULD NOT flower. I think the first year we planted it I maybe saw two flowers, but now I can't remember. The following season…NOTHING. I was going to be so upset if that darn tree wasn't really a flowering crab. (Yes, I would have driven by next season to check on its flowering status.)

But thankfully, right before we moved out…and I mean two days….this tree finally flowered for me!

So pretty! Now I don't have to stalk the tree next year! You are probably wondering if I'll plant another at my new house and wait anxiously for years for it to flower. Of course, I will. Ok. Well, I don't know what trees we are going to pick yet, but if we pick a flowering crab, I will be out checking for buds every day! I am a little nuts! 🙂

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I am such a trekkie!

Posted on by Andi

Ok, well, I'm not as much of a trekkie as some of the people that were at the movie with us, but still! I love Star Trek! We went to the Imax (which isn't too far from our new house) last night and saw it. I had never been to the Imax before. That was quite the experience. Although, I think I prefer newer theathers because the guy's head in front of me was still in my way and I don't have that at the newer theathers with the stadium seating.

I didn't know much about the premise of the movie going into it. But it didn't matter. 🙂 I liked that it took place before the original Star Trek and when the characters were younger and at the beginning of their careers. This is one I will have to add to my collection one day! There are so many movies coming out that I want to see this summer!

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I love my house!

Posted on by Andi

Many people have asked about the new house and how moving went. So I thought I should write about it.

Friday
Friday went well. We had the trailer and cars mostly packed Thursday night except for some clothes we were putting in at the last minute. So we jammed as much as we could in the cars and left our house about 8:45 for the closings. We were planning to drive slowly, but it wasn't going to take us THAT long to get to the closing by 11. So we stopped in Wayzata, had some lunch, and made our way to the first closing. We were still there early, so we went to a mall and walked around a while.

Closing went well and the new owners were really excited. It was the wife's birthday the following day, so she was very excited for her birthday present of a new house!

After closing my uncle/realtor took us to lunch. We still had some time to kill before the next closing at 3:15, so we went to the bank and then read until it was time.

This closing also went well. We were hoping to be out of there before too long since it was looking like rain and we wanted to get to the new house and unload the trailer and cars that night.

Chuck's sister's boyfriend doesn't work too far from the new place, so he met us there after work and helped us unload. That went really quickly. I put some things away and then we went to have dinner with some nearby family. Then after dinner, they came to see the new house and then we drove back to Mound to sleep and rest for the next day of moving.

Saturday
We got up about 5:30 and packed the few things left in the house…what was left of our bed, food, a few bathroom things and some clothes we left out. We were done by about 8:30 and headed to the storage unit to rent the moving truck and start loading.

My brother and his girlfriend came over to help us and we made pretty quick work of loading. We were done before 1 and went to grab some lunch and then they followed us to the new house. It was a cute little moving train we had…Chuck in the moving truck, me in the suburban with the trailer and my brother behind me in his truck with more boxes in it. 🙂

We got to the house and they helped us unload the cars, trailer and a little of the moving truck. And see the house, of course, since they hadn't yet.

After they left, we put part of our bed together so we wouldn't have as much to do when we got back from the graduation party we were attending for Chuck's cousin that evening. So we cleaned ourselves up a bit and drove to Brooklyn Park (about an hour away) for the graduation party. At least we got to see family and they were feeding us! That was very welcomed by this point!

We then went home to finish putting our bed together and we quickly passed out fell asleep. This was our first night in the new house!

Sunday
We got up and did a few things around the house and then Chuck started to unload what he could from the moving truck before his sister and her boyfriend came to help. We made quick work of the moving truck and by 12:00 we were bringing the truck back and finding some food.

When we got back, Chuck's mom and step dad were there with his grandparents to see the house. They loved it! After their tour, we put more things in the rooms they were going to be living in. Then Chuck's cousin came to help and move the last of the things upstairs. I am thankful he came because poor Chuck had been moving for days and these last few things being done by someone else were quite helpful!

After his cousin left, we went to find some dinner and make a Target run. We then collapsed on the couch for a couple hours until it was time for bed.

——-

So overall, we had a really productive weekend. We still have a bunch of things to put away and another storage unit to clean out at some point, but we'll get there. At least we live there now. That's the exciting part. It's so fun to come home to it everyday. I even cooked dinner in it last night! 🙂 We also found out after a trip to Home Depot, that it takes 9 minutes to get to Home Depot and 5 minutes to get to Cub. There's a Target between them! I love it!!!

After I get things put away a little more, I'll start planning a time to have people over!

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I'm a Gopher!

Posted on by Andi

I looked online today to check my application status and saw that I was accepted to the University of Minnesota! Yay! I know what I am doing tonight…having a celebration drink starting my Calculus class! 🙂

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Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

Posted on by Andi

This is the second book in the “Shopaholic” series. They are really cute books. There's always something dramatic that happens to the main character that then gets resolved by the end of the book. It astounds me that one person can get themselves into so much trouble! Then again, it is just a story, so the realistic factor isn't really there. 🙂 But still…oofda! 🙂

The author did a nice job of making the story understandable even if you haven't read the first book. There wasn't a lot of things that were pulled from the first book that couldn't be explained in a sentence or paragraph. I think that is nice if you happen to come across it in the store and want to read it unknowing it's part of a series. But if you are reading the series, she also doesn't bore you with too many details from the previous book. So, well done Sophie Kinsella! 🙂

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Closing time….

Posted on by Andi

I was thinking about the song Closing Time by Semisonic when I wrote the title to this post.

Today is the big day. We close on the old house at 11 and have until 11 tomorrow to be out. At 3:15 today we close on the new house. And we're bringing a full suburban/trailer/jetta load on the way to closing so we can move things in the new house. We will be sleeping at the old house Friday night and do a couple last minute things Saturday morning. Then we're out of there!

When we went to the final walk through for the new house on Monday we got this cute little gift!

They wrapped the front door and the kitchen counters for us. We were also given fresh cookies! How can you not get excited with all that fun stuff!

I will be MIA for a few days since we'll be completely busy this weekend! Saturday we are loading up the moving truck with some helpers and going to a graduation party in the evening. Sunday we have other helpers to unload the moving truck into the house. And there's another potential dinner Sunday night…if we feel up to it! Thankfully the following weekend is another long one so we'll have an extra day for moving. We will still have one storage unit to empty gradually.

Hope your weekend is as fun-filled as ours is going to be!

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Daisy cupcakes

Posted on by Andi

I was at a jewelry party at Katie's this past weekend and she had these adorable cupcakes!

A friend of hers made them for the party. They are made out of french vanilla cake mix, the white is white chocolate and the yellow and green are frosting. And they yellow part has glitter on them. I didn't expect to take pictures there, so they are with my phone and not the greatest. But I know I want to try making these sometime! Enjoy!

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