summer classes.

apparently i'm not very good at blogging in the summer. thousands of apologies. i just got done taking 2 very easy classes to earn some continuing education credits so my license doesn't expire. ahh, the things teachers do. i'm also nannying 3-4 days a week for a 16 & 12 year-old (i know, right?) and it's completely easy and mindless. i love summer.

i promise i'll be better at blogging. chad and i are going to milwaukee this weekend to celebrate his dad's birthday and the fourth of july. i believe a post with some pictures will be due in the near future. we're also going to go down to chicago on sunday night and get some delish italian ice from johnnie's beef and to spend some time with one of chad's best friends, evan. i love getting to chicago- my dad grew up there, so it's always fun to go back and get our favs, which include said italian ice. it will be great.

in the meantime, go look at this new website i've discovered, called pintrest. you can "pin" things that you love and categorize them based on what they are: foods, clothes, home decor, hairstyles, art, etc etc etc....here's my profile: angie fabulous

it's fun. try it! :)

we built this city ♥.

i know, right?!

i love my city. when i say love, i mean love. i was a total suburban girl all the way until college, so when i moved into st. paul, i felt very cosmopolitan. however, there's nothing quite like city living in minneapolis (which i affectionately call "the minneap"). i moved into a great little duplex in the northeast area of the minneap a few months ago with a couple of really great ladies. we have the cutest, little shabby chic place of refuge that is seriously adorable. our situation is especially great because we live right above 6 guys we know from church. my favorite guy even lives in our neighborhood about 2 blocks away...so we save a lot on gas when we want to hang out.

i love the minneap. there's so much to do and see- never a dull moment! it's all so close, too! we live in an ethnically diverse part...so tons of different asian, afghani, mexican, and mediterranean restaurants are [literally] in our backyard. how cool is that?!

the walker sculpture gardens

and now, i've compiled my top 5 favorite reasons to live in the minneap. enjoy. :)

5. everything's so close!
4. when i walk out of target, i have the best view. ever. ever ever ever!
3. when our neighbors light off fireworks, we automatically think they're gunshots and freeze in fear (okay not one of the top reasons, but it was really funny).
2. class. it's so classy to go hang down on st. anthony main and eat at the aster cafe. it's so classy to do yoga on the rooftop at the downtown ymca. it's so classy to hang out at the walker art museum.
1. the community. especially in northeast. i love going to non-chain restaurants and coffeeshops and talking to my neighbors. everyone is so lovely.

milwaukee on my mind

a beautiful day downtown

my sweet boyfriend and i went to milwaukee (where he's from) over memorial day weekend and it was amazing! his parents had asked us to come a few months ago, but chad was scheduled to work on memorial day & i was supposed to lead worship the sunday before...so we sadly told them we couldn't. but then...since it was the end of the month at the y, they gave chad the day off! i pulled some strings and made a schedule switch with my roomie anna (ahh the blessing of living with 2 other worship leaders), and we were good to go!

but here's the exciting part. besides all the goodness of traveling for a long weekend getaway and having the opportunity to spend time with chad's great fam, we decided it would be sups fun to completely surprise them. so...friday afternoon, we were on our way!

after an excruciatingly long 5.5 hour car ride (with a stop for squeaky cheese curds), we got to the house around 8:30pm. we had been discussing whether we should just walk in and act like it was no big deal, or if we should ring the doorbell and have them find us at the door. since it was 8:30 and nobody would be expecting company, we decided on the latter. more shock value, of course. so, all goofy and whispery, we snuck to the door and rang the bell. and waited. a few minutes later, chad's dad showed up at the door and loudly said "wha...what?" he was very excited to see us. his mom was watching a movie in their theater downstairs, so we snuck down there to surprise her, too. mark (chad's dad) went into the theater and said, "krista, can you come here? we have a problem." she came out, saw us, and squealed. after she hugged us a number of times, we went upstairs to hang out and get settled. it went exactly as we hoped it would.

little did i know, the surprises were not over. we were looking forward to having a weekend of 'nothingness' with his family. it sounded relaxing and so fun. but, chad had different plans in his mind. i was sitting on the couch catching up with his brother and dad when he came over and said, "actually, we have one thing we need to do on sunday..." and handed me brewers tickets! now, i love baseball. love it! and every time we've been to milwaukee, we've passed by miller park and i've wanted to go there. the brewers were in town and were playing on sunday, so chad got tickets. he knows the way to my heart. saturday was spent shopping for a brewers shirt, going out to lunch & dinner, and playing rummikub with his parents. it was blissfully relaxing and fun.

go brewers!

so sunday came, and we made our way downtown for the game. it was so great. we had such an awesome time. unfortunately, it was raining that day, so the retractable roof at miller park had to be closed. but, it was still baseball, and it was still my fav guy, and it was still lovely. i am still, however, not a fan of craig counsell. and i am still a fan of the twins before the brewers. don't go crazy on me for my newfound fandom (i think i made that word up).

after the game, we headed back to the house to hang out and spend time with his fam. on monday morning, we got up a little bit early and went down to the lake to walk and get some sun. it was an absolutely beautiful day! we stopped at alterra on the lake and walked around. it was so gorgeous and fun. after i got a good amount of sunburn, we headed back to the house to grill and spend the afternoon relaxing and hanging out. we headed back home around 5:30, and the song "back to life, back to reality" was ringing in my ears. i can't wait to get to milwaukee again soon!

top ten

earlier this week, a friend of mine challenged me to list my top ten favorite bands or artists. i find this to be overwhelmingly difficult...at first response, i want to say top ten in different categories. however, i think that might be cheating a little bit. so i bit the bullet. i came up with my top ten. in no particular order (besides #1 of course), here they are:

10.  incubus. they remind me of high school and my first few years of college. it brings me back.

9. bethany dillon. her lyrics and sweet melodies totally influence the artist that i've become. i love her stuff.

8. the civil wars. yes, they're new. and amazing. i've been a fan of joy williams's for a few years, so teaming her up with a guy only makes me like her that much more.

7. coldplay. i could listen to these guys forever and never get sick of them. so good.

6. sherwood. their pop-py, fun, summery sound always puts me in a good mood. always!

5. john mayer. sometimes the lyrics he writes speak directly to me. he's a triple threat. the voice, the lyrics, the songwriting...whew.

4. mumford & sons. yes, they're also relatively new. but there's a reason their tickets were selling for $400 on the street last time they were in the minneap. they are phenom. so, so, so good.

3. hillsong united. the worship tunes that these people come up with almost automatically bring me to my knees. every. single. song. they are just incredible.

2. brooke fraser. my ultimate hero. she inspires me. she's gotta be the most profound, articulate lyricist i've ever heard (without making it so "deep" that nobody understands what she means). her smooth voice with a hint of her accent here and there make all of her songs simply outstanding.

1. mutemath. mutemath mutemath mutemath! aside from the fact that they are one of the most progressively brilliant bands to come out of the last 10 years, their live show is something that no words can describe. they are unbelievable. each and every musician in this band plays a part that cannot be replicated. they are my ultimate #1.

His grace abundant

in my element

because i just got home from my long weekend away (which was glorious), i haven't yet gotten the chance to upload my pictures to make my memorial day weekend blog post much more exciting. but i will do that...soon!

until that time comes, i wanted to send you to read a guest post i did on the substance worship blog. i've been leading worship a few times a month at substance since december of 2010 and  i absolutely love it. when i was asked to do a guest post on the blog, i couldn't resist. especially since what i've written about is something that's been on my heart lately. so...go read it...here. 

mani[i found a]cure

for the first 26 years of my life, i bit my nails. when i say bit, i mean chewed down to complete nubs. i bit off every last piece that i possibly could. sometimes they would even hurt or bleed. disgusting, right? i know. one day, back in october of 2010, i decided i was going to be done with the disgust. so many of my friends had these beautifully manicured nails with the cutest colors (i'm all about the darks), and i was envious. never in my life had i been able to paint my fingernails. while i frequently visit the pedicure chair, i never got to have a pretty little manicure. i was over it. from that point forward, i stopped biting my nails. within a couple of weeks, my nails were long enough to paint and i stocked up on millions of different colors. i would paint my nails and wait, wait, wait. after what seemed like a ridiculously long amount of time, i would decide that they were dry and go on my merry way.

glory.

and then BAM! i would ruin one, two, three, or all of my nails. it never failed. every. single. time. this is a frustrating problem to have, if you've ever experienced it.

recently, i found a cure for this problem. a real cure. none of this "30 second dry," "express dry," or  "insta-dry" nail polish. no. those products lie. my cure comes in the form of a little square bottle and you can find it at my all-time favorite store, target. it's by essie, and it's called "good-to-go." someone recommended it to me, and it completely revolutionized the way i paint my nails. you use it as a topcoat and, literally within 2 minutes, your nails are completely dry. like it says on the bottle, trust me.

end of the year conundrum

i'm about to embark on something wonderful. something every teacher dreams of for 9 months out of the year. something everyone has experienced in their lifetime at least 13 times:

the last day of school.
oh the joy of the last day of school! this weekend chad and i are surprising his family in milwaukee for memorial day; a post summarizing what i expect to be a beautiful weekend is to come. after this lovely weekend, we have 7, yes 7, days of school left. one of which is spent going to valleyfair, so my kids aren't even 'counting' it. it's finally time. i can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. finally!

so why the conundrum? well...here's the thing... i'm just as excited as my kids to get out of this place for 3 months. they can sense it. i can sense their excitement. everyone is loud and things are moderately chaotic, and my soon-to-be-graduated 8th graders have checked out long ago. so, of course, i do the best thing possible: i assign all of my english classes extremely large research papers for their end of year assignment. they're going to be good papers. they're going to show me that my kids have learned something and grown over the last year. they're going to show me exactly what i'm looking for from these kids...

...as soon as i correct them. yikes! what did i get myself into!?

"let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." galatians 6:9.

(thanks to chad's momma for texting me this the other day in encouragement for completion of this year)