Progress on the house

Well- we are lucky that our new house is currently vaccant- we have been allowed to go in and clean and paint before our closing date so those things can be done before we start moving anything in.

Last weekend over Christmas we got started on the laundry room.

This was our laundry room before... dirty white walls- cement floor.....

Here is us working on the laundry room--- and Tigger too....

And here is the finished product... a wonderully clean and warmer feeling laundry room!!!

And of course we had to capture our very first meal together at our brand new home... here is Taylor eating the lunch of Champions in our kitchen...... And also a picture of Tigger's new hang out in the new house.

This weekend we are working on the rest of the house- we have a start to our bedroom and the office and the downstairs living room--- we'll keep posting as we go. Have a Happy New Year!!

We bought a HOUSE!!!!

Well- we finally did it- we sold the condo and bought a house!!! It's all pretty exciting and overwhelming at the same time. We close on January 29th.... right smack in the middle of dance season. I told Taylor that this move is all on his shoulders as I work 7-3:30 and come home for a half hour and go to dance from 5-8 every night and I'm gone all day long on Saturday's at competitions- so he is really going to have to step it up and just take care of it. He's pretty excited to be able to do it though. :)

The house is in perfect condition from the outside- a roof was put on last year- the siding is newer- it has great curb appeal and a large backyard. The inside is VERY roomy but does need a little bit of updating- paint, carpet, new light fixtures (you wouldn't believe some of the extreme retro fixtures that are in there no) and eventually a new kitchen- but that's all fun stuff that you expect to have to update when you buy a house.

We are really excited to get all of our stuff in there and not feel so cluttered- there are four bedrooms!!! And you should see the closet space!!! Each bedroom has 2 closets- and one downstairs has 3 closets!!! And each bathroom has a large closet along with all the cabinet space and there is plenty of room for storage under the stairs and in the garage- so we won't be lacking in space, that's for sure!

As soon as we get all settled in we'll have a big Bar-B-Que this spring/summer and invite everyone over to see our new "HOME"!!!!

Lake City Competition

We took 1st Place!!!!

WOO HOO!!! The girls danced very well this past weekend at Lake City! It was the first time we have been able to dance everyone so not having any holes really improved our scores. At Eastview we had a total score of 334--- we aim to have LOTS of 8's by the end of the season- at Eastview we had five 8's- This weekend at Lake City we had a total score of 350 and we had fourteen 8's.... a HUGE improvement!!!

We have a break from the competitions over the Christmas break but the girls will still be working very hard. We have a few changes to make to give the dance that "WOW" factor and we'll be dancing again on January 6 at Blaine.

Love..........

We're in LOVE.............

Eastview Competition

This past weekend we danced at Eastview- we took home 2nd place again. We would have liked to be 1st this weekend but we still had to dance with two holes, and we have a hard dance this year. Our choreography scores blew everyone out of the water but our execution is what we still need work on. Which, makes sense- a harder dance takes longer to perfect- which means that we have room for improvement every week. We improved a ton from last week and that is what is important. And the girls had FUN- New Ulm took home 1st again with Montevido in 3rd, Lac Qui Parle Valley 4th, Lake City 5th, and Pierz in 6th.

On the 16th we will be dancing at Lake City- mostly teams from our section- so its going to be another good meet for us. Doors open at noon.

DANCE

OK- So YES, my 26 dancers are a part of my family too, Heck, I've been seeing more of them then Taylor lately.... SO ANYWAY.... Here's an update on Dance.....

Last Saturday, 12/2- We danced at Apple Valley- we took Second! New Ulm Cathedral took home First- they were second at State last year- but they beat us at Apple Valley last year too- We had a few mistakes and some things to work on- so we were happy with what we took home and the girls have been busting their butts this week as this weekend we are dancing at Eastview against New Ulm again but also Montevideo, Lake City, Lac Qui Parle, and Pierz.... so it is going to be a BIG competition for us!!!! I'll let ya know how it turns out!!

If you don't have anything planned for tomorrow, Saturday, 12/9 we are at Eastview High School in Apple Valley- the doors open to the public at 8:45 and we are scheduled to dance around 10:55am.

By the way.... aren't our new costumes spiffy!!! Here is a shot of the seniors-

Its Fire and Ice.... works well with our music... YES- it isn't Team colors of Red and Black but most dance teams don't go that route anymore- a costume helps tell the story of the dance- so teams now get costumes that help tell the story- Ours this year is Icy Hot--- we look like we are on fire from the front- then we'll throw a surprise at ya and be Icy Cold when we turn around- it really makes some of the formations and things they do in their dance really POP!

WEDDING PHOTOS!!!

Our photos are finally ready!!!!

Check them out on

www.flairstudios.com

Click Your Albums- then search for Pagel Wedding- 9/16/2006

Enjoy!!!!

We are ready for Christmas

Christmas is Coming......

Tigger is so excited for Christmas- his favorite place to lay now is under the tree. So cute!! And yes, its only November 27 and I have all of my gifts wrapped.... and I'm just about done shopping too. Taylor and I LOVE Christmas, it's the best Holiday ever!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and now I say-- Merry Christmas!!!

Honeymoon...finally planned....

Carnival Cruise Line- Eastern Caribbean-

Well- we've finally made up our mind... we are going on a Honeymoon!!!! We are going on a cruise- Cruise ShipVictory.... this is a picture of our boat!!!

We are leaving out of Miami, Florida and porting at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the St. Thomas and St. Maarten Islands- It's a seven day cruise. - Heading out March 4 (after Dance is over) and returning March 11.

Here are some of the sites we can take in at our port in San Juan- Great place to site see I've been told....

Here is lovely St. Thomas- we are thinking of doing a little snorkling at our port here... I can't wait to see that pretty blue water....

This is sunny St. Maarten... we are for sure going to be taking in some good beach time at this port.

We are really excited about our cruise- everyone we've talked to that has been on one has said it was the best vacation they have ever gone on.... so we are hoping that is true for us too. Any cruising tips are gladly welcome.... We'll be sure to post pictures when we get back... until then.... the count down to the days of sun and sand couldn't go fast enough.. at least I have dance to keep me busy- it will be a great treat after I have won a state championship!! :)

New Member of the Family....

My cousin Heidi had a baby boy on Tuesday.... Perfect timing for a new member of the family to arrive.... check out her blog to see pictures.....

Welcome to the family Maddox!!!

Gramps

For those that don't know- my Gramps passed away Tuesday afternoon from a sever case of lung cancer. We are so glad to know that he is now in peace and without pain- but we will all miss him very much. He was such a good man with a good heart for helping those in need. He was a wonderful father and the best Grandpa in the world!!!

We would like all of those that have had their lives touched by Duwey to come to his wake and funeral.

The wake will be held at First English Lutheran Church on Friday the 20 from 4-7
The funeral will be held at First English Lutheran Church on Saturday at 11- there will be a lunch after the service and the burial will follow.

My Gramps was the best Gramps in the whole world and he will be greatly missed- for those Saturday morning coffee stops, the great big hugs and kisses he always gave, all of our nicknames that only he called us, his help whenever we needed it, and his love that he had for his entire family.

We love you Gramps- always and forever

Happy Birthday To Me....

I am offically 22 now!! Happy Birthday to me!!! I didn't do a whole lot for my 22nd birthday.... Guess when you get older birthday's aren't as big as they use to be. I'm now past all the exciting birthdays a person has in their lifetime- 16, 18, 21.... now what is there to look forward to.... 40 and over the hill!!! I think I'll just stay 22 forever then.... :)

Well- I did get to have a nice dinner with Taylor and my parents- my choice- so we had Bar-B-Que ribs, bisquits, cheesy potatoes, green beans and chocolate cake- which I decorated myself with cute little pink and purple sugar candies- which by the way- aren't very good- but they looked so darn cute!!!

So Happy Birthday To Me!!!

And Heidi- I was hoping I was going to get to share my birthday with your little buddle of joy.... When is that baby coming out!?!??! !

Married Life

Well, So far married life is just what I was hoping it would be. Just perfect, just the right amount of arguements that we laugh at 5 minutes after we have them because we realized how stupid the arguement was, and the perfect amount of love, happiness and laughs. Its just wonderful. Although it hasn't been a lot of newlywed time spent together because we are so busy, Taylor has work and all the extra stuff he ends up doing throughout the week and I have dance every night so we don't get to spend a lot of time together during the week, but that just makes the time we do get to be together that much better.

We ARE planning our honeymoon- the plans are in the works- we are thinking a trip to Cancun to stay in an All-inclusive resort. We are hoping to take off on March 4 and be gone for a week. We have to wait until March because dance has already started and we have our state tournament at the end of February, then I have the banquet for dance on March 3- so we'll be taking off right after that......perfect time to take off- it will be cold and icky here and sunny and 80 down there! We'll keep you updated on what we finally decide.

Married Life is Great................

We're MARRIED!!!!!

Honestly, we had a PERFECT wedding day. Everything went perfectly, we had a blast, and now WE'RE MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!.............How weird!!! :)

3 Days 16 Hours.....

So....I have a count down on my myspace page and I just looked at it this morning and it said 3 days and 16 hours until My Wedding Day..........OH MAN.....its coming up fast!!!

In these last few days I am actually VERY calm about everything....at this point in time whatever happens- happens. I've done the best I can do with planning out every detail and now its all about execution and I know it will all pane out as its meant to be. Me and mom have off the rest of this week...starting Wednesday to just do those last minute errands that really just have to wait till the last minute, but those errands are the fun ones to run...errands that really set the stage in knowing that the big production is about to start..........

I'm just soo pumped!!!! I can't wait to have all our friends and family all together to celebrate for such a special occasion!! And knowing all the crazy things that have happened to the family in the past month, God knows we need a little celebrating to bring the family all together and cherish each other.


And to think this picture was posted on here 9 months ago......crazy how times flies.....

Taylor's Bachelor Party

Well, this site seems to be ALL ABOUT ME....so I thought I'd add some of the fun that Taylor has been having during the count down days of us being husband and wife.

This weekend was also his bachelor party and they first started out the day Golfing bright and early.....

Then they headed down to Wanamingo for a grill out and then a Keg as they waited for their bus to pick them up and take them all over the place.

They went out DANCING............

And Singing.............

And Taylor had an AWESOME PINK SHIRT that his Best Man Ben made for him.....here is him and Brian while he sports his sweet shirt..... The front says Mindi Who?? (hey now..) and the back says Tinkerbell 9-16-06..... maybe I shouldn't call Taylor funny nicknames when we are drinking around his friends....obviously that nickname stuck.....hehe

They all seemed to have a BLAST and felt it pretty good the next day...but I guess it was worth it to have a fun night out with all of your best buds!!

Renaissance Festival

I had a jam filled day of excitment for my bachlorette party....some of my girlfriends took me to the Renaissance Festival during the day to enjoy in some good food, good shows, and weird people watching!!

Here is me and Bekki in the backseat of our LONG drive to the festival....people sure don't know how to make good efficient maps on brochures....

We got lost like three times trying to get there.....here is Kelly pouting because its taking us FOREVER to get there....we even called the directions line and they told us three different ways of getting there each time.....it was confusing...BUT we made it and that's all that counts!!

Here is me and Crystal hanging out watching the parade go by......Don't I look cute, they really decked me out!!!

Me and Kelly hanging out by the pretty water wheel right after I got my Henna Tattoo from Crystal!!!

Me and the girls posing for a portrait!!

Here we are again...and little did we know that right behind us people were getting their wedding pictures taken....OPPS hope we didn't get in any of them!! HEHE

I had a WONDERFUL DAY thanks to all my friends that made it so special for me!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Pictures from Personal Shower

OK....so I couldn't get these pictures to fit in my personal shower blog so here are the two that couldn't fit.....

My AWESOME thong from Meghann.............WAY TOO FUNNY TO NOT SHARE WITH EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And here is me and all my girlfriends who made it to my party..........I love you girls! Thanks for a special evening!!!!

Personal Shower

Well, since I am on so many meds I wasn't allowed to drink any alcohol for my bachelorette party. So, instead of the drinking party my friends still threw me my personal shower.

They decked the whole basement with Pink and black everything.....that's my kind of party!! While the girls enjoyed their beer and Pink vodka slushies they had a different idea in mind for me.... They came up with this game that every time I said the words - Pink, Taylor, Wedding or Like I had to stick a piece of gum in my mouth and I had to keep all the gum in my mouth until after I had opened all my gifts.....This is me fairly early on in the game.....I think I had like 6 pieces in my mouth at this point.....My favorite word to say is LIKE.....they really got me with that one!

So as the party continued I just couldn't catch myself from saying LIKE....I got good at not saying Pink...I called it purple, Taylor I said Tinkerbell or Twinkie...his buddies nicknames for him....and I instead of wedding I said MY DAY..... Here is me and Megan as this fun game was her clever idea........I really had a mouth full!!!

Finally it was time for me to start opening up my gifts.....it was probably the most quite I have ever been when opening up gifts........My mouth hurt!!!

As I was opening up all kinds of fun little gifts I get to one from Meghann and let me tell you I was pretty shocked with what I saw..........

Taylor's face on a THONG!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is just TOO FUNNY!!!!!- See picture above....

Well, even though I couldn't go out and have a wild and crazy time with my girlfriends I was still happy that they could share this fun special day with me. You gotta love your girlfriends!!!

Crohn's Disease

Well, as some of you may or may not know I have been pretty sick lately. Everyone was thinking it was stress or anxiety from the wedding planning but I knew by the way I was feeling that stress wasn't the reason. I had been seeing my doctor for 2 weeks trying to reveal something that was the matter with me, doing a scope down my throat and first thinking the pain was just from a sore in my esophagus but that turned out not to be the case because after 4 days of that diagnosis the pain came back. I ended up in the ER due to the increasing pain and a fever. While in the ER I had a CT scan done of my stomach area and it turned out that my small intestine was so inflamed you couldn't even see the other organs in that area. So they sent me home on some pain pills and had me prepare for my colonoscopy the following day. The pain of that exam was very intense due to how inflamed my intestine was but I made it through and the doctor was amazed with what he found. I had several little ulcers in the lining of my small intestine where it connects to my colon and by seeing that my doctor knew it was Crohn's disease.

Now, a week later, I am still taking a lot of medication to help bring down the inflamation but I am feeling better and better with each passing day. Once we get it under control I will take a controller medication for the rest of my life to help prevent any more flare ups, along with eating a diet more suitable for people with Crohn's- meaning no lettuce, corn, seeds, nuts, onions, celery and popcorn. I guess those foods are harder for the small intestine to pass. Crohn's disease is normally a genetic disease but I seem to be the first in the family to have it.

I am feeling much better knowing what is wrong with me and knowing that it is something that I can take care of and treat.....its not curable but its treatable, so that's enough for me. Now, its on to the wedding...I can't believe that its already only 17 days away!!!

If you are interested in learning about Crohn's disease check out this website, it's full of helpful and interesting information. http://www.crohnsandme.com/Default1.asp

Shower #3

This weekend Taylor's aunts all threw me my last bridal shower. We had it in the basement of St. Ansger's Church. They had a delicious breakfast...giant muffins and lots of fresh fruit. The shower, of course, was done all in pink. It was a lot of fun!

Here is some of Taylor's family enjoying their breakfast at the shower.

Me and Taylor's Aunt Jodi next to all the PINK gifts!!! Gotta love all the fun pink stuff! :)

Taylor's family who helped throw the party! THANK YOU!!! I had a WONDERFUL Time!!

Also this past week Taylor had a Tool Shower thrown by his uncles. They had a grill out, beer, and a bonfire and lots of TOOLS! Taylor had a GREAT time and can't wait to play with all his new stuff!

Full Force Planning.....

This past weekend was my friend Holly's wedding. I've been a very good friend and have devoted all of my attention to her and her wedding since I was a bridesmaid and this was HER special day. And because her, her twin sister Megan, and Kelsey are all in my wedding, I would want them to have their attention on my wedding when the time came so that is what I did for her. The wedding was beautiful and we all had a really good time.


Now, being at the wedding, it just made me and Taylor even more excited for OUR wedding. We are just over 1 month until the big day and now all the planning is happening. We need to get our marriage license at the courthouse, we need to follow up with all of our vendors, I have one more shower, we both have our bachelor and bachelorette parties to attend.....and then all that last minutes stuff.........I can't wait!


So now we watch the countdown clock tick closer and closer to September 16th............it will be here before we know it. :)

Shower #2

I had my second shower this past weekend given by my aunties, Janna, Lisa and Heidi. It was a wonderful time!

I got a TON of pink stuff at this shower......and when I mean a TON, I mean pretty much every gift given to me was in pink!!! But I LOVE IT!!!! Just to name a few..............

I got a PINK cozy robe.............

I got a PINK Williams and Sonoma apron.........

And even my PINK and white dishes set..........and the list goes on and on........

One very special gift was this sign that my Grandpa Pete hand made for me and Taylor, and he even drew a picture of Tigger!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

I had a wonderful time at my shower, I love all the new and creative shower games people come up with! And especially all the delicious food!!!!