Dia de la Madre

Seeing as I'm a poor college student...well, soon to-be college graduate... I don't have much money to buy some fancy gift for my mama this Mother's Day. But really, material goods only satisfy temporary happiness. The memories that I have of times with my mom top any gift I could buy her.

My mom used to be a crazy woman back in her younger years. Then she worked full time (at a desk job, which eventually killed her body slowly). She works at an appliance store with her awesome father (my grandpa). She thoroughly enjoys hot yoga, long walks, random stretching at home or in public places, and has to use a million pillows whenever she sits. She is gluten free, and is who started me on my g-free diet. She is the oldest of eight, which she used to hate... but now I don't think any of us can imagine family gatherings any other way than they usually go: crazy.

("Beer in one hand, bubbles in the other. Perfect combo." - Mom)

(me, Aunt Julie, Aunt Kristyn, Mama, Aunt Shelly... "Girls Weekend" in Winona)

Like the rest of our family, my mom has the best sense of humor. Sometimes the things she says...well, we're either all laughing at her because it's absolutely ridiculous, or she's laughing to herself and none of us get why. Or we all just laugh together because...well, that's how we are!

(Mama and Uncle Joe aka: my mom's baby brother!)

Three words: RANDOM. DANCE. PARTIES.

Yup. My sisters, my mom, and I frequently have random dance parties. There's usually music involved... but sometimes there's not. Lack of music definitely doesn't stop us from gettin' our groove on. Let me tell you! I think my favorite dance memories are when we were in Iowa with my dad's side of the family...

Teach Me How to Dougie

Yea, you read that right. Soooo, our mom is an AMAZING dancer. I mean seriously. I'm jealous. So anyway, you know all the rando hip-hop moves they come up with (stanky leg, two-step, walkin it out, the bernie, etc.), well when the Dougie song came out we immediately asked mom to try it. We showed her a video of these guys doing it (total eye candy. freaking fantastic dancers.) so she could kinda get an idea of how to do it. We played "Teach Me How to Dougie" and played the guys dancing so she could watch, we handed her a hat (which she turned to the side of course), she pulled her pants as low as they could get (in attempt to make them baggy...but it's funny because her jeans were tight and she had a belt on. so yea, it didn't work. but she tried!) and she DOUGIED. She just did it. My cousins and I were all just freaking out we were so excited. Hahaha, oh it was perfect. The rest of the fam (aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc) were looking at us like we were crazy people. Keep in mind, this was all in our grandparents' kitchen.

Not to cause drama...best dance party in the history of dance parties

Ok, so we went to visit my sister at her college and we ended up going to Goodwill to clothes shop for a bit on our way back. It was mama, Uncle Skip, Tori, Lexi, and me. The rest of the family ended up going to church, but we didn't make it back on time to go. So the only logical thing for us to do while we waited for everyone to come back? DANCE PARTY. We salsa danced, hip hop danced, El Baile de Meme danced, every kind of dance- we probably did it. It was so epic. Even Uncle Skip danced! And he's usually the most chill guy ever; but he was into it! Then the second the rest of the fam walked in, they turned it off. Ha it was lame...but totally wicked before then! We got all sweaty and sore... Such a great work out. ;)

Another random memory (more recent) is when my sister and I were just hanging out in the kitchen with my mom, we looked over and she had a random plastic baggie hanging from her sweater. Here is the conversation that ensued:

Emilie: "Nice bag, mom..."

Mom: "Yea, I'm trying to be Gaga, can't you tell?! I NEED MORE BAGS!"

Hahaha. Oh goodness. In short, I love my mom. She's a life saver. My sisters and I are the luckiest girls ever, and my papa is the luckiest guy ever to have her as his wife! Words can't describe how thankful I am to have such great parents. :)

(Both parents. They've both lost weight since this pic too!)

Feliz Dia de la Madre... Happy Mother's Day, Mama Bear! 

The Perfect Weekend

Hey all! I apologize [again] for lack of blogging... There's been a lot going on [again], so I haven't really been focused on blogging so much. But I do need to share my perfect weekend story with you all because it's just too much to hold inside!

It was easter weekend, so my friends and I drove up the Twin Cities. My Nepali friend Ravi and Sri Lankan friend Tasha were invited to stay with my family and I for the weekend to celebrate with us.

Friday

We drove up (leaving an hour later than I had wanted... shocking, I know :P) and jammed out to great tunes the whole way. We arrived to my house and were greeted by two new "members" of our family: my sister's friends Khushboo and Maneesha- who are also both from Nepal and Sri Lanka! We then all took off and went to the Mall of America, as Khush and Manee had never been there before. After that we dropped M, K, and E off at home; and Ravi, Tash, and I were off to see Trevor Hall in concert!

We got there early enough where we had time to buy merchandise...and since we were part of the first 100 people, we got to do a meet and greet after the concert! The music was blissfully perfect. I mean, his music is already perfect, but when it's live and you're a part of it? It's a million times better. We danced, drank, sang along...and touched him! He crowd surfed off the stage AND off the balcony of the theatre!!! And I got it on tape! It was perfect timing... I shoved my drink in Tasha's hands and immediately recorded his jump off the balcony. Haha... Words can't describe the happiness we felt after A) touching him on the way (only his hand/ leg, no worries :P) and B) precisely timing the recording of him jumping into the crowd. I also met a guy who was getting a tattoo just earlier that day at the SAME TIME as Trevor! So he was put on the guest list and joined us in the meet and greet afterwards.

{Ravi. Tasha. Mary. Me. Nick.}

We waited in line with these awesome [crazy] girls... and finally got to meet Trevor! I told him I liked his tattoos, he signed my poster, Tash hugged him and had him sign her shirt... It was so great. I really just love that man. So, so much. Nick (tattoo guy) invited us out to the bars afterward, but we ended up losing him in a crowd, so the [crazy, awesome] girls we met invited us to come with them to a different bar! We went; it was fun... Had some good talks with them, etc. Then we dropped Ravi off at his sister's house, and Tash and I went home...where we were greeted by friends and a rabbit. Ha, it was grand. I had seen Trevor in concert before, but even the second time- it was life changing. He is so inspirational and his voice- HIS VOICE! It's so magical. Mmm...

Saturday

Grandma and Grandpa Scott (B and B as we call them) came to town Saturday morning. Em and her friends went down to El Burrito Mercado, where they have authentic Mexican goodies, and they brought back this triple salsa sampler which consisted of medium, spicy, and crazy-spicy salsas. We all gathered around them with a GIANT bag of chips and annihilated ALL THE CHIPS AND SALSA. We were all dying (eyes watering, noses running, etc.) from the intensity of the salsas. It was delicious. We hung out for a while, then all the cousins came over and we had our annual easter egg hunt in the house... Unfortunately, my sister Lexi and Grandma miscounted the eggs so not everyone got the same amount... I ended up with just two eggs. :P Ha, but it was fun nonetheless... It's all about the experience not the material goods. (Even though I definitely stole some of my cousin's fruit snacks... Hehehe) After hanging out with the family, Tash, Khush, Manee and I went to the Nepali New Year celebration to watch Ravi dance and have delicious Nepali food! It was a tad on the boring side due to entirely too much talking and un-organization... but seeing Ravi dance (and meeting a new friend: the cutest little girl who fell in love with Tasha) was totally worth it!

{Happy family: post egg hunt}

{Red: Spicy} {Light green: Crazy-spicy} {Green: Medium}

{Cute little girl who fell in love with Tasha}

After the celebration, we headed off to Northfield for a party with some of my former high school classmates. We got some food on the way, and jammed out to tunes again (of course) in attempts to wake ourselves up for the party. It was about 10pm at this point, so you can see how we were tired. ;) We got there and I ended up realizing I had gone to school with basically everyone there! Ha, it was kind of a weird flashback. We had some drinks, played with bullets, guns, and military things, had a flood in the bathroom, had munchies, watched Archer before passing out around 3am or so. It was great. Totally worth the hour long drive out there!

{Tasha rockin' the chemical resistant military boots}

Sunday

We woke up bright and early to make the trek back home. It was an absolutely beautiful day out, so of course we took advantage of it! We played corn hole, basketball, velcro catch, took a million pictures, and listened to Trevor Hall ALL. DAY. It was so marvelous. We had some great laughs and memories... Really. Mom's side of the fam came over, we had some tasty food and talked. Then the highlight of the day: Americans vs. Asians basketball game. It was EPIC. There was a perfect amount of people: 5 people for the Asian team, and 5 people for the American team. We hardly kept score; got really intense about it; liked to yell things frequently such as, "REBOUND! REBOUND!" or "KOU!" or "AY, AY, AY!" None of us wanted to leave... Tash and Ravi fell in love with my (our) family; we took [literally] 315 pictures throughout the weekend. It was just perfect! Then we headed back to Winona while reminiscing all the memories we had shared and experienced. 

{Happy family in the sun}

~ BLISS ~

Happy Valentine's Day: Andrew ♥

Well, here we are! Valentine's Day... I've never really been one to celebrate it (besides getting dressed up and wearing red stuff). But it's kind of fun to be extra romantic and such for a day ;)

This year my valentine is 7 hours away from me and working for the big man. He sent me a cute homemade card and two homemade DVD's, so this post is my gift to him. If love and copious amounts of couples pictures make you want to vomit, you should probably stop reading now. :)

Happy Valentine's Day, my love!

[Disclaimer: VERY photo heavy!! ;)]
~~

Back in the beginning... We happened to both enjoy Ed's bar. [Shocking!]

We both happen to enjoy Nepali culture...and food!

I needed a second opinion [and a photobomber] when purchasing new glasses

We both enjoy Mexican food. And margaritas. ;)

We like to be weird.

We also like to be weird with other awesome couples.

We both love Matisyahu (and hate humidity).

We enjoy drives to downtown St. Paul, especially after huge storms, to listen to great music.

We like to cuddle and watch fireworks together.

We like pretending to ride bikes (that are actually bike racks).

We like dates by the river.

We like late night walks.

We like snuggling, relaxing, and watching tv.

We like coffee (from the French press especially!) in the morning.

But mostly... We just love each other, and like to enjoy the simple things in life. :)

"You got the love I need to see me through."

"All I know is I love you, and that's about all I can do."

Love,

Lisha

♥