A Day in My Life

2009 has left us and 2010 is now in full swing. Before we get too far from 2009, I want to give a little recap from the year past:

January started off right where December had left off with me playing a lot of broomball. This was the year that I experienced my first penalty and saw my first major broomball injury. On my birthday this year, my good friends Marc and Sarah Beth welcomed their new baby girl into the world. I now get the pleasure of sharing my birthday with the newest Aune.

In February, we were able to use up our free night in a Hyatt hotel. We built up the points for this on our honeymoon and used it at the Hyatt in Bloomington. It is always fun to get away from the normal routine and stay somewhere new. This was a very nice hotel and we would definitely recommend it for anyone coming in to Minnesota.

With April came Easter. This Easter, along with my normal trumpeting duties, I also sang in the church choir. This was my first choir experience and I have to say it was very enjoyable. At the end of April, Bethany went down to St. Louis for her sister’s baby shower. A few weeks later, baby Liv was born making me an uncle for the sixth time!

In May, we were confronted with some much needed home repairs in the form of a rusted out water heater. Thankfully, we were able to have our old one replaced in a very short amount of time. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if we had waited any longer than we did. For Memorial Day this year, we made the trek out to Eureka, SD to visit Bethany’s parents. We spend a few days in South Dakota relaxing and watching some horse racing. We wrapped up the month with a trip up to Duluth for our friend’s Kari and Per’s wedding. We went up a day early to do a little site seeing before the wedding. What a great time of year to be in Duluth!

June took us down to St. Louis to visit our newest little niece and her parents. We spent a few days in St. Louis visiting and seeing the sites around town. We were also able to see the Cardinals play the Twins at Busch Stadium. It was an insanely hot day we went to the game, but we had a great time watching the baseball game outside.

In July, I took part in the musical put on at Bethel called The 1940′s Radio Hour. I had a great time playing in the musical with a lot of my old band friends and with Dr. Thompson. Also in July, we made the decision to get a basset hound puppy. It took Bethany a long time to convince me that getting a dog was a good idea. That month, we looked all over for breeders and once we found one with puppies, Bethany went and picked out a puppy.

In August, we took our annual trip up to Trout Lake Camp. Daniel spent his summer at camp this summer so we got the chance to hang out with him as well. We did some boating and a lot of relaxing while we were there. That next weekend we played host to Bethany’s parents. They happened to come to visit over Bethany’s birthday. We went out on a river boat cruise on the St. Croix with both of our parents for her birthday. We had never done that before and had a great time. At the end of August, we got together with all of Bethany’s family out in Spicer, MN on Nest Lake where we had rented a cabin. We had a lot of fun in the water that weekend. After that weekend, we hosted Liv and Erika at our house for the next week. We had a lot of fun with them over that week.

September brought with it the day we picked up Copland from the breeder. With him brought the end of our quiet days at home and to our clean house. Even so, we wouldn’t take back our decision to get that little guy. Looking back at these pictures makes me amazed that he was ever that small!

On October 4th we hit our one year anniversary! Where did the time go? To celebrate this year, we went to the last regularly scheduled home game of the season for the Twins at the Metrodome, which happened to be on our anniversary day. That was a fun way to celebrate since it was a once in a lifetime event we got to be apart of. Later that month, I took a class to become a certified Crown Money Map Coach. This ministry is one that helps people move from their current financial situation towards one of financial freedom. I am really happy to be apart of this great ministry.

Over the end of October and beginning of November, we went down to Edgerton, MN to visit Bethany’s sister Rachel and her family. This was Copland’s first trip away from home. We had a great time visiting with Rachel, Paul, and the boys while we were there and Copland had a great time away from the cities.

Then came December. Each year my dad take all of his employees to a show at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre. This year we all went to see Oklahoma. We had a wonderful time at the show. It was Bethany’s first time seeing this show and she had a great time. Also in December, we replaced the flooring in our living room because Copland decided that it would be fun to rip up the carpet. While this was something we hadn’t anticipated, our new flooring looks great. For Christmas this year, we made the rounds by visiting both of our families. We started out in South Dakota with all of Bethany’s family. Peter was even able to join us this year from England. We spent five days there and then headed out to St. Francis to visit my family, including a bunch of relative from out east. We spent three days there before heading home. Copland did very well throughout the trip and especially had a lot of fun running around on the farm without his leash. It’s nice to be out in the country where thare are no leash laws! Tyler also came home over Christmas and spent a couple days with us. It was great to see him too.

Also during December, I finally purchased and received my new digital SLR! I have had a great time learning all about my camera and taking many pictures throughout Christmas. I intend to fill up my site with even more pictures from it in the future.

Finally, I wanted to give my annual Fantasy Football results for 2009. This year I took part in three leagues. In the first, I ended up finishing in tenth out of twelve teams. I’m trying to forget about this one. In the Jazz League, for the second year in a row I took the consolation 10:20 trophy. And finally in Austin’s league, I took home the championship for the second straight year! Also, in my spread pick-em contest, I beat out all the competition to take first! Even with my awful finish in the first league, I must say that this was my best Fantasy Football year yet. Bring on FF 2010!

Well, I think that brings us to the end of the year. You should give yourself a pat on the back for making it all the way through this lengthy post. As we move forward in the year, I hope to be posting more frequently here as well as posting more pictures. May you have a blessed 2010!

Happy New Year to all of you and welcome to 2009. I’m happy to be here in the new year and I hope you are too. I decided to follow the lead of Austin and post a year end wrap-up. However, I’m going to take the chronological approach. Here goes nothing:

January was filled with a lot of Broomball. I played on two teams; one in the Minneapolis City League and one in the newly established Twin Cities Church Broomball League. Fortunately, we were able to play for quite a long time last season.

February brought the wedding of one of my best friends from High School, Mike Wallin. I was a groomsman in his wedding which was a lot of fun. During this month, I also helped out a bit on Austin’s campaign. Unfortunately this year, he was forced to stop short of the election. Here’s looking to 2010!

On February 29, I proposed to Bethany! Fortunately for me, she said yes. That sparked my activities between then an October 4th.

In April, Bethany’s grandmother past away. We made the trip up to Eureka, SD for the funeral.

My brother Tyler graduated from Bethel in May. Also, my brother Daniel graduated from St. Francis High School. Daniel is going to Bethel this year while Tyler is working at ACR Homes this year and will be going to George Fox University in the fall.

In June, my good friends Emily Nelson and Bjorn Larson were married down in Topeka, Kansas. Bethany was a bridesmaid and I serenaded everyone with my trumpet during the ceremony.

July took me up to Trout Lake Camp for a weekend for my home churches annual retreat. We did a lot of boating and playing outside. Also, throughout the summer, Bethany and I were in a Crown Financial small group through our church. We had a great time in the group and learned a lot!

Now I’ll jump ahead to October, because not much else happened last summer. I had my bachelor party where we played some Broomball and had some apps at Applebees. Then on October 4, 2008, I was married to my beautiful bride, Bethany. We went to sunny California on our honeymoon.

We went to visit Bethany’s sister Erika and her husband Eric in St. Louis in November. We were able to see some of the town and hang out with them for a couple of days.

We were able to use a free hotel night we built up on the honeymoon for a night in the Hyatt in Minneapolis. Right before Christmas, Bethany got the flu which forced her to call in sick for the days leading up to Christmas. On the positive side, she was able to come out to my parents house on Christmas day. The following day, we went down to Betany’s sisters house in Edgerton, MN. We were down there with her whole family, minus one, through the 28th. We were able to meet and spend some time with their new baby, Abram.

I know were now out of months for the year, I just need to add this in since I’m so proud. In fantasy football this year, I took the consolation trophy in my Bethel Jazz league, took fourth in my work league, and took the championship in Austin’s League! My best year in fantasy yet!

That should catch us up to the present. Thanks for making it all the way through this long post. One of my resolutions this year is to post more often to the blog. I’m off to a good start already. May you be blessed in this new year!