hello!

tomorrow is march 20th~

the official first day of spring 

and guess whaaaaat?

the forecast says it's going to snow.

hahaha- well you know what?

snow away!

i am not going to let it bum me out.

when you get to mid march, even if you do live in 

cold, frozen Minnesota, you know it's not going to last.

spring is on the horizon. you can tell by the water 

running down the street and the shrinking piles of snow.

i saw the first two robins flitting from tree to tree yesterday.

and we saw people driving a convertible with the top down on Saturday.

i've see people wearing shorts!

it is after all, 

averaging 40 degrees by midday.

so that's it. i'm calling an official wrap to another winter.

so long, farewell, au revoir, goodbye, but

before i start showing you photos of my gardens and

green grass, I've found a bunch of photos of winter to share with you.

i think winter is very beautiful too.

tulips (that i bought) on the table. buying myself flowers is one of the ways

i make myself happy in the cold winter months. 

we had a LOT of snow in the twin cities this winter. if it's gotta be cold i prefer having 

a lot of snow though... it just makes everything bright and prettier.

who wants it to be bitterly cold and brown? not me.

 snow delicately stuck to my outdoor garland 

 ice writing on the front door.

purple cone flower seed heads in the garden

feeding the birds is another way i find joy in the winter. the 746 squirrels that

are constantly finding ways to get to my feeders make it more challenging,

but the birds still get some of the seed i put out. : )

hello mama cardinal

"excuse me, do you have any grey poupon?"

speaking of feeding the birds, did i mention the neighborhood turkeys?

there is a flock of them that live here and they parade from yard to yard all day

long, eating the birdseed that's fallen on the ground, or better yet, the 

berries from the flowering crab trees.  that's what's going on in the next pictures.

these big critters are so comical to watch, they'll fly up in the trees and perch

while they eat berries, but they also sit on the ground and leap up to grab

the berries they can reach.

"hey, check for mail while you're out there will ya?"

see the tuft of stiff hair that sticks out on both male and female turkeys?

i have a new haircut and the sides of my hair stick out and remind me of this.

until it grows out a little, i'm tucking it behind my ears and trying not to gobble.

so long.

we live just two blocks from byerlys grocery store and

we also see coyotes, deer, pheasants, fox, rabbits, all kinds of birds,

& there's even a resident owl that coo's us to sleep at night.

how lucky are we?



so here's a shout out to spring,
we're ready for you!
*and if that means I have to shave my legs on a regular basis
well then, I guess it's a small price to pay.

like chip gaines says, "be sweet"
xo, beth

ok, so it's been a month since I've blogged again and boy do

I have a wonderful reason to start typing today. : )

some of you have heard the news but

I don't think all of you have~ 

have you?

    eric is engaged!!!!

um hmm, that's right

ENGAGED!

eric is 37 you guys. 

he was a self professed "bachelor for life".

we'd all heard him say many times,

"i'm never getting married".

when he was invited to a wedding, he would say he was going to a funeral.

funny, but not that funny.

he dated quite a few girls over the years 

***he actually holds the prestigious guinness book of world records

as the guy who attended the most CHS proms!

*five i think?   ; )

this was possible because he started by dating a girl older than him

and ended by dating a girl younger than him.

it's a favorite family joke but I digress...back to now.

there was just never anyone who was "the one" and as the years went on

I think he really began to feel like finding his soul mate wasn't in

the cards for him, so it was easier to say he was never getting married and

he seemed pretty content being single.

for the past 3 years eric looked for a house to buy.

(if you live in the twin cities you know what a competitive market it is

and how hard it can be to find something.)

all he really wanted was a nice big garage for all his stuff and a little house

for him and his yellow lab, duke. 

in that order.

last march he finally found it and he bought it and moved in the 

middle of april.

the weekend of may 5th was my birthday and eric was

at our family cabin by himself. he called to wish me happy birthday.

 after we'd talked for a little bit he said

"well, I wasn't going to say anything yet, but I met someone and

i'm soooo excited!!!!

then he proceeded to tell my all about this girl that he'd met the week before.

they had seen each other about 4 times already.

they lived 45 minutes apart and that made seeing each other 

a challenge. especially on "school nights".   *which is what

i will forever call mon-fri. nights.

I think we talked for 45 minutes....he told me every little detail he knew about

this girl who he couldn't even believe he was seeing. he said that after their first date,

when they said goodnight and walked to their cars, he was completely star struck

but knew he'd never see her again.

I asked why and he said 

"because she's way too good for me".

well, fast forward again to the fact that if i'm any kind of

story teller at all, 

that wasn't true.

: ))

I think lightning struck for both of them that first week and

it wasn't long before corinne moved into that

cute little house with e. and duke and brought another pup into his life.

 (lily, her golden retriever who's now the boss of their pack.)

summer went on and corinne grew weary of making the long drive to her job working nights at a hospital in the northern suburbs and working weekends. she applied for and

got a job as a therapist in a school closer to their home.

eric never stopped smiling.

corinne is a wisconsin girl  (a big packers fan).

eric loves hanging out with her family.

some of her family hunts and fishes too.

YES!!!

(***bonus points corinne)

c's been in the army and she taught school for 10 years before going 

 back for a masters in psychology.

she has adorable little nephews and a niece.

(***add a bunch more bonus points- they both love kids).

i guess her dad teases and her mom sounds lovely.

so in november eric and i were talking on the phone and he let me in on

the big secret that he'd been ring shopping and was going to propose!

i was thrilled for him and excited to be in on the surprise.

obviously i knew it was going to happen then, but didn't know when so

when we got a group text on jan. 30th with a picture of two red-faced happy people

who were smiling through their tears,

i cried too.

it's been a month since she said "yes" and the two of

them just got home last night from an engagement trip to the dominican.

lars said this about adria and chris at their wedding:

"they have a quiet contentment with each other"

and that's what we see with these two too.

~it's all we've ever hoped for for our kids,

so our hearts are happy.

just this week in punta cana

father's day. corinne was meeting eric's siblings. he's a goof ball and even though this is blurry, i love when he makes her laugh!

july. eric's birthday at the cabin

lily  (lil, lilleth)

c. probably isn't going to love this picture, but i do. they are in the kitchen of their little

casa on a hot summer day when she and i made salsa. a whole lotta salsa.

eric came home from work and helped us add more of the peppers from his garden.

oct. hanging out with new nephew cj, who was 2 weeks old.

dec. the girls and i decorated Christmas cookies.

jan. 30th. this was the way we all found out 

it happened!!

*news flash:  paul bunyan, minnesota's most eligible bachelor proposes".

cj's baptism last weekend.

(he was about to taste frosting for the first time.

shhhhhh~ do not tell his parents!)

: )))

congratulations and love to the two of you,

we're so very happy to have you as part of our tribe 

corinne!

(also known as quinn, a nickname her little nephew started and i love.)

i hope you never stop smiling like this.

xo, b