Karina is two.

Yesterday, Karina turned TWO! She was such a cutie. Her grandmother bought her a Tangled princess dress that she wore throughout the party. Since Karina is a huge Tangled and Minnie Mouse fan, her party was a bit of both, which meant Tangled AND Minnie Mouse cupcakes. She must have had about 6-8 cupcakes! It was also nice spending time with friends who were in town from out of state. Great day.

Road trip to... Iowa??

Today I am mini-road-tripping to Des Moines, Iowa for a mini-reunion with some of my best friends from college. While Iowa is not my first choice for our meeting destination, I'm so excited to see all of my friends that we could be meeting anywhere and I'd be happy. {My friend got engaged after college and moved in with her fiance in Iowa.} I'm especially excited to see my friend Hannah who now lives in Memphis. It's so hard to get all of us together now-a-days; everyone's in different places in their lives and just different places.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I know I will.

{photo via}

Mallards Duck Blind

We celebrated one of my good friends' birthday this weekend at a Madison Mallards baseball game. We {semi-}watched the game from a picnic table in the Duck Blind. In the Duck Blind, you can watch the baseball game while enjoying all-you-can-eat brats, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, cheeseburgers and fries and all-you-can-drink beer and pop. Delicious!

This was my first Mallards game and I absolutely loved it! It was just baseball should be... all about the game and having a good time with friends. I can't wait to go back again. Maybe the next time I'll watch a little more of the game too.

The birthday boy was very excited to be celebrating at a Mallards game!

The best part of the night: the good beer. A few of my favorites at the Duck Blind... Goose Island 312, New Belgium Somersault, Magic Hat No. 9, Great Dane Mallards Cream Ale, Great Dane Old Glory and Great Dane Crop Circle Wheat {my favorite}. The Great Dane brews some fantastic beer. If you're ever in Madison, Wisc., you should stop in for a drink.

College town love

This weekend I am heading back up to my old college town, Madison, Wisc. I've missed this town since I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2007. Since I will only be there overnight, and leaving really early in the morning, I'm going to try to fit in as much of my Madison favorites as I can.

First, I will start the day with a cup of coffee and cinnamon roll at the Capitol Square farmer's market. I used to go there every Saturday morning as an undergrad to get my fresh vegetables and the best spicy cheesy bread ever from Stella's Bakery.

Then, I plan to grab lunch at my favorite restaurant ever: Mediterranean Cafe on State Street. I've missed out on the Med Cafe the last few times I was in Madison for football and hockey games because they're only open for lunch. This time, I will make it. My friends and I used to have a standing date for lunch there every Wednesday. It's amazing, especially the hummus.

Next, if it's a beautiful day, I'm going to meet a few friends a the Union Terrace for a pitcher of Spotted Cow {my favorite Wisconsin beer} and conversation. I miss our nights at the Terrace. We used to go there all the time during the spring and summer to relax and take a break from our heavy course loads. My favorite nights were the Monday movie nights.

The next morning, I hope to convince a few friends to grab a quick breakfast at Mickies Dairy Bar by Camp Randall. We used to stand outside for over an hour waiting to get a seat in the tiny cafe. The banana nut pancakes were totally worth it. {Or, as seen on ESPN, the garbage plate also.}

Something new I plan to do... I'm going with my friends to see the Madison Mallards play on Saturday. We're going to watch the game in the 'Duck Blind' where all-you-can-eat brats and beer are served. Baseball, brats and micro-brew beer? Heaven?

{images 1. via, 2. via, 3. via, 4. via, 5. via}

Photo booth

I enjoy weddings. They're sweet, romantic and great excuses to drink, dance and have fun with friends and family. Normally, I couldn't think of one way to make them more enjoyable. {Other than cutting out group dance songs.} But I was at my friend Heidi's wedding on Saturday and they had a photo booth parked next to the bar {poor location, considering how many drunkies ended up in the booth}. When I say photo booth, I mean the kind that you used to find in the mall and try cramming in all of your high school friends. It was so much fun to jump in and make silly faces. I LOVE the idea.

As I was telling a friend later, he said it must be a girl thing. I think it is; there were far more girls hanging around the booth than boys.

so there's a goat in the garage...

a few days ago, my friend pete came home to find this in his garage:

his old roommate zach "borrowed" a goat from someone on craigslist.com and surprised him after work one night. i really wish i was there to see the look on pete's face when he found her. hilarious.

Samuel Nyal

Congratulations to my friends Nikki and Kevin who just welcomed their second baby and first son, Samuel Nyal. Sam was born at 4:24 pm today weighing 8lbs 4oz and is 21 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing great. Their little family is growing quickly and is SO adorable.

Chasing Gracie

A few days ago, I got to spend a great night with my friends' adorable 1 year old daughter, Grace. I spent most of the night chasing her back and forth on the couch, listening to her musical abilities, reading a Dr. Seuss book about feet {at least a half dozen times} and wearing a silly combination of bunny ears and 2008 New Years glasses.

I really don't know how my 8-month-pregnant friend keeps up with her. Thank god for helpful husbands, huh? I had so much fun hanging out with Grace. I can't wait for her parents to spend another night out so I can chase her around again. Actually, I'm trying to talk them into it. With another baby on the way, they need to get out as much as they can while they can.

What a sweet little girl. She even tried to help me put my camera away.

But then she decided it was more fun to run away with my lens cap. Silly.

Off to another wedding

I'm off to another wedding today! My friends from college, Lindsey and Dan, are getting married this afternoon. Let's hope the rain holds out, though I've heard it's good luck to rain on your wedding day.

I just got a few pictures from the photographer of my other friend's wedding and I really like how a few turned out, so I thought I'd share.

{all photos via}

Letters from abroad

I’ve been writing to my best friend in Rwanda for a while now, but I finally got a letter back. When I saw the ragged, duct-taped letter in my mailbox with stamps of iguanas, straw-hut villages and dancing men, an enormous smile crossed my face and, I’m slightly embarrassed to say, a giggle escaped my lips. I’ve gotten emails and Facebook messages from Jessi, but there’s something special about a hand-written letter. She posted the letter about a month ago, so I’m sure much has happened in both our lives during the postal journey, but I’m glad to get the letter nonetheless.

Today I’m heading to the coffee shop and plan to write one long note than I’m sure will make her giggle too… about a month from now.

{image via pibburns}

26.6 miles in 85 degree heat

Sunday morning in Madison, Wisc. was sweltering. Temperatures hit almost 90 degrees with a dew point over 65 and a blazing sun. It. Was. Hot.

So what did we do? Well, seven friends ran the half marathon, two ran the full and one biked about one and a half marathons delivering water to the runners. I can't believe that they actually made it. At one point officials flagged the race as dangerous- they stopped official timing about 4 hours in and, while the water and medical stations remained open, they encouraged runners to stop. {At this point I was sitting under a tree with my friend's 4-month-old, sipping an iced latte and trying to stay cool. Poor little girl.}

My friends who ran the half marathon all finished around the hour two mark; one finished as early as about 1.5 hours. Out of the two marathoners, one rocked it and finished in about 3 hours and 40 minutes, but heat got to the other one a bit more. By mile nine, she said she couldn't breather and had stomach pains. {Many runners faced the same heat exhaustion.} I am very proud to say that, despite the terrible running conditions, she did finish the race in about 5 hours and 40 minutes. This is about 2 hours longer than her previous year in which starting temperatures were about 20 degrees cooler.

I love how much the community got behind the runners. Even if they didn't know any. Their support was incredible and some signs they made were hilarious. My favorites: "That's not sweat, that's your fat cells crying" and "You're no longer a runner, you 're a marathoner." There were also people with a stand at mile 4 handing out beer or bloody marys to runners. {Only in Madison, Wisconsin could you find this. Actually, only in Wisc. would you see people accept their offer.}

My running friends had a few great moments during the race. At mile 10, Lindsey to Sam: "Samantha, I'm not a runner." I guess this earned her a few odd looks from those around. {I bet she wouldn't have said that if it wasn't quite as hot.} Also Lindsey, "Oh my god, I see a hill and I am NOT happy about it." There was no hill. Apparently this was during her delusional phase. Funny.

Surprisingly, even after their intense runs, we all went to Brat Fest and enjoyed a few brats and Capital brews.

Congrats to Alyssa, Betty, Samantha, Lindsey, Gretchen, Lori, Heather, Savannah and Betsy!

amazing opportunities on craigslist

i have a friend from college that we used to make fun of all the time because he was constantly searching craigslist.org. {well, we made fun of him for other things too. one time, at a friend's wedding, he was nervous that the good beer was going to run out so he collected every pitcher, wine glass and coffee mug he could find to fill with spotted cow. our table was covered with dozens of cups of beer, just in case. funny twist: they had a second keg in back}

but back to craigslist, this guy was crazy about it. he would peruse the local sites for hours, for everything. once, we had to wait at his house to exchange a canoe for a hunting rifle from someone he met on the site. {not sure how legal that one was.}

he has a job starting in the fall as an accountant so, in the meantime, he needed a job. where did he look? craigslist. and you know what he's doing? sailing the greek islands with a turkish family. what a fantastic summer! {but it's zach, he's had a lot of those. one summer, he sailed from miami to boston, alone. another summer, he sailed with the kennedys.} i'm so jealous.

{image via anatoliansky}

Beer + brats + sixty friends = one great tailgate.

My friend Matt, a die-hard Brewers fan, wanted to put together a nice tailgate with friends. He ended up with over 60 tickets and a 15+ car caravan. We took over a huge section of the preferred parking lot next to the sausage house. {Which, if you ever seriously tailgated, you know proximity to the bathrooms is incredibly important.} It was a perfect place to spread out, grill and relax with friends. And the game was also good. Too bad they lost though. {I even wore a Brewers cap... I'm a Cubs fan so this is HUGE.}

The best part of the tail gate? The games. We had ladders, bag toss, beer pong, a giant game of jenga and even a pool table. {I know, right? Pool at a baseball game, crazy.} I didn’t get a chance to play pool though and I regret that, because really, when’s that going to happen again.

{I even ran into friends that were at another tailgate. Great night at Miller Park, but aren’t they all?} Anyway, I’d like to thank Matt again for putting together such an amazing night.

I Love Tailgating

I love sports. I love baseball. I love tailgating.

They go well together.

I'm not one of those fans that is more interested in talking with friends, taking pictures and completely ignoring the game. I think I can juggle all three well.

There's nothing better than enjoying a brat and beer on a Sunday afternoon before taking in a baseball game. I would watch every game from uncomfortable wooden benches with a splinter in my butt if I could tailgate before them.

On Friday, about 20 friends and I are getting together a couple hours before the Brewers game at miller Park. I'm so excited for the brats, beers, games and shenanigans!

And while I am a Cubs fan, I will admit that there is no place better to tailgate for baseball than Miller Park. But I should probably test this theory more. Road trip?

{image via flickr}

funny story.

well, now it is. at the time, it was completely terrifying.

about two months ago, i met my good friend sam and her newborn daughter {11 days old to be exact} at her house. we were going to meet friends for brunch and decided to carpool since i didn't know that area of town very well. after sam buckled in her daughter, she remembered that she left the diaper bag inside so i offered to sit with karina in the car rather than bringing her back inside.

i climbed in the front seat and got a strange feeling that we were moving. it wasn't much at first so i thought i was imagining it, but after a second it was clear that we were in fact rolling backward. surprised and scared, i jumped into the driver seat {how i did that so easily in such a small car is unbelievable} and repeatedly stepped on the brakes. nothing. it didn't even slow down a bit and by now we had moved at least ten feet. i thought about putting the car in drive and going forward but after glancing at the stick shift gears, i realized that wasn't an option. i never learned to drive stick shift. i thought about pulling karina's car seat out but i had no idea how to unlock it from the carrier. i also thought about unbuckling her and taking her out of the seat.

but then the car stopped moving and jerked forward a bit. it had hit my car, which was in the fully parked position, and came to a stop. thank god i parked directly behind sam's car because a few more feet and we would have ended up in the ditch.

after i realized we finally stopped, i called sam to describe the terrifying drama that just occurred. i'm sure it went something like, "i just got in a car accident with your newborn!" that's a story to tell karina when she grows up.

little gracie is one

my good friend's daughter turned one this past weekend. it was a big day. you've heard the phrase "it seems like just yesterday" a million times, but it really does. i remember when she was so tiny that it scared me to hold her, when she could barely hold her head up, but now she's walking and showing her fiery little personality.

no wonder why her mom started to cry as she blew out the birthday candles. i'm getting a little emotional just thinking about it and i'm just an "auntie.'

the party was a hit. the owl theme was absolutely adorable and the cake incredible. i'm not sure the birthday girl really knew what was going on, but she sure was happy for all of the attention.

Rwanda, checking in.

As you may have heard a time or two, one of my best friends, Jessi, is currently living in Rwanda. She moved there last month for a two-year stint in the Peace Corps and she has already messaged back with stories of incredible cultural differences and amazing experiences. I love hearing her stories so much , I thought I'd share with you...

Amashyo

"This is a greeting commonly used by older adults talking to younger people. It means that they wish them to have many cows. The proper response is amashyongore, which means there should be many female cows among them to reproduce. While the concept of wishing people many cows is pretty foreign, the good-natured wishing of health and prosperity is not. No one has actually wished me to have many cows yet (although I’m staying hopeful), but everyone has been incredibly friendly and welcoming, and I am so glad to be here."

Family relationships explanation

"Talk about complicated. Your aunts and uncles are called different things on each side but the sister of your mother is your mother and the brother of your father is your father. So their kids are not your cousins, but your siblings. Your older sister is your mukuru, your younger sister is your marumuna and your brother is your masaza, but only if you’re a girl. If you’re a boy, then your sister is your mushiki and your older brother is your mukuru and your younger brother is your masaza. The children of one of your siblings of the same gender (brother if you’re a boy or sister if you’re a girl) are your children and the words for “niece” and “nephew” only refer to whether the children belong to your sister or your brother, not their gender. And just to make things a little more complicated, most of these name change if you’re not talking about your own family, but someone else’s family."

Food. Lots and lots of food.

"Tonight we had rice and beans and guacamole for dinner- definitely one of the best meals so far, it was delicious. We eat a lot of potatoes (usually as french fries), carrots, and goat meat (kinda tough, but not nearly so strange as it sounds). Breakfast is almost always bread and crazy salty eggs and lots of coffee (thank goodness). We eat pretty much every two hours, so whenever it’s longer, everyone gets hungry- probably not the greatest thing to get used to, but the food is delicious so we all dig in."

International Women's Day

"Last Monday was International Women’s Day, a holiday that goes largely unnoticed in the States, but that Rwandans apparently celebrate. In the morning we were invited to the soccer stadium for a women’s day presentation. We got there sometime around 9, which of course was hours too early. There was a (high school?) group there that sang and danced the entire time while we waited to start. Eventually they pulled all of us down onto the field to dance with them- it was a riot! None of us knew the songs or the dances, but we danced along just the same. One of the things they do is sing a song and form a chain bridge where you clap hands with the person across from you while other people run under. Between their group and ours it took a while to run through the whole thing. I’m sure we looked hilarious, but everyone had a good time with it.

When the presentations finally started there were a number of Rwandan dance groups. No one has actually explained the dance to me here, but before I left one of the fellows told me that in Rwanda they do cow dances where you are supposed to dance like a cow. Having never seen that before, I imagined sometime like lumbering around like a slow cow, which turns out to not be even remotely correct. Your arms are supposed to be the horns but they move them more like a slow hula dance. I have no idea what’s going on with the feet, but both the men and women wear bells around their ankles that jingle while they dance. The men jump around much more while they dance, but it looks much more graceful than how I’m describing it. I’m not sure yet, but it seems like the men and women always dance separately, and least while doing traditional dance."

I'm glad Jessi is so deliriously happy in Rwanda.

"There are really a hundred little things every day make me so happy. Here are just a few of them;

1. The hundreds of butterflies that like to fly around Nyanza en masse
2. Waking up to the sound of the rain hitting our tin roof
3. The sun tattoo that AJ drew on my foot
4. The genuine smiles that the old women here give you when you’re trying to speak Kinyarwanda
5. The gorgeous view of the countryside that you get when you walk up into the hills
6. How clear the sky is after it rains
7. The millions of stars that come out every night
8. Hearing “good morning” from the neighborhood kids every night as we walk back from dinner
9. Reading on our front porch
10. Sunday afternoon yoga

And a hundred other things that make me so glad to be here."

Isn't this all fantastically interesting?! Read more of her experiences here.

{image via}

Fight For Air

On Saturday, four of my friends participated in the American Lung Association's Fight For Air stair climb. Participants climbed the 97 flights {1,034 steps} of the U.S. Bank Center building in downtown Milwaukee, the tallest building in Wisconsin.

Unbelievably, they all survived. To be completely honest, they rocked. The fastest climber last year finished in 5 minutes, 39 seconds while the fastest of my friends finished in 10 minutes, 9 seconds. Very impressive. They were a bit sore and tired- and couldn't stop coughing for a while after- but all extremely happy they completed such a challenge.

Some people apparently didn't think that one thousand stairs was enough of a challenge and decided to spice it up a bit more. I saw many, many people race up the stairs two or more times as well as dozens of firefighters competing in full gear for the fast time. {Unbelievably, I think most completed it way under ten minutes too.}

Why in the world would someone ever do that, you ask. Well, each participant raised over $100 for lung cancer research. {A cause close to a few of us.} I'm not sure what the donations totaled, but there were over 1,300 climbers so I can imagine that it was fairly large.

A very loud congratulations goes out to everyone who braved that staircase on Saturday!

Mwaramutse, friends

Today is a very sad day. Today one of my best friends leaves for Peace Corps in Rwanda.

After a short stay in Philadelphia and New York, Jessi will fly to Africa, to her home for the next twenty-seven months. Jessi, who majored in public health, is going to work with non-governmental organizations to increase and strengthen HIV education, prevention and care.

While I am incredibly excited for her, I'm really sad that she's leaving. I still can't believe she's going- or at least so soon. When we used to sit at coffee shops talking about the Peace Corps, it always seemed so long away. {My friend Jillian is already in South America for Peace Corps!} I'm going to miss her so much when she's gone. I know I didn't so the best job keeping in touch when she was in Washington D.C. and I was in Chicago, but it was a comfort to know that I could get a hold of her at any time.

At least I got to spend a lot of time with her this past week before she left {we spent a day together in Chicago and a weekend in Milwaukee}.

Even though I am quite sad I won't see Jessi for a bit, I am incredibly excited for her. What an experience working with NGOs in Rwanda will be! We were talking about some friends making a trip to Africa to visit Jessi, but I'm not sure I could travel so far. But after hearing about her amazing adventures, you never know!

Urugendo Rwiza, Jessi.