so, it's been a while since my last post! time has gotten away but lots has happened since august 8. we went to minneapolis and enjoyed a great weekend there with jill and jay. shopping, eating, shopping, and then a little more shopping--the guys loved every minute of it and so did jill and i! i have posted some of the pictures of the bridge collapse. we couldn't get too close but it was still a sight to see and a little eery. after that, we spent some time in sd relaxing with our families. we got some expert tips on how to make dumplings from Na. oh, yum, they are soo good. i find myself craving them now. too bad they're so much work. maybe one of these days i'll tackle that. when joe and i returned, i started painting again. this time, the bathroom got a small makeover. i'm thinking that i'll never wallpaper because i'm a little sick of ripping it off! anyway, i also included some pictures of that. we also got our new table and chairs that we had ordered. i really like it! joe also got our grill put together...you wouldn't think a grill could have so many pieces! thankfully, joe put the grill together in the correct order and we only had a small scare when he turned it on for the first time. lol. i had to laugh when i saw him jump back. he has already made some tastey burgers and chicken. we are hosting joe's brother and friend for a couple days. that's exciting. joe has created quite the basement so i think that's where they will be spending most of the time! i guess that's all for now. i promise it won't be this long between posts again! oh, and congrats to jill and jay on selling their house! whew hoo!