Christmas Wish

Warm Christmas greetings to my family...3 hours away...darn blizzards! See you next weekend!

olympic trials

a letter to mom

Dear Linda,

Today we woke up to snow flurries with reindeer poop on the table. Sad news: Sara Lee died a tragic bug infestation death a few weeks ago, and was not available for her own wake. Kelly's grammar has gone to pots and has learned some new neck exercises (instructional video to follow in a coming blog post), we're predicting Amy's hair will have enough grease in it to deep fry ten snickers bars by morning, and Amber got rats after eating crab dip off Jason's pants while watching Julie & Julia. As you can see, we're delirious.

Kelly and Amy got their first lesson in snow removal today after Amy asked while holding the shovel, "How do we do this?" Needless to say, some great photos followed. Mama Sue cooked us a hearty Minnesotan egg bake, and let us take naps by the fireplace before driving back to St. Paul. We are running on 12 hours of sleep (for two nights), and are running on girly energy and a bag of high fat potato chips that took us 20 minute to polish off on the way to St. Paul. We watched the holidazzle parade, robbed Herberger's when Kelly opened another credit card and saved a whopping 20%, and met up with a male escort at Famous Dave's and got a wild chair dance while eating ribs, corn, chicken, fries, beans, brisket, coleslaw, and muffins. See the video below for evidence.

We have our beds prepared and are ready to call it a night. We'll report back on the greasy hair tomorrow with a wake-up video of sleeping beauty. We love you, and miss you (just a little). Oh, and we saw Santa tonight.

Sincerely,

The Snow Sisters

They ARRIVED!!

The best Christmas presents arrived tonight safely from LA! Kelly and Amy!!!!!!!!! We watched their plane fly in overhead as we made our way down the freeway, and greeted them with a big long hug at the gate when they got in!!! This post is for Linda...we'll blog when we can, but FUN first! YAY for visitors!!!!!!!

free up-do?

I got this e-mail from a bridal shop in Roseville boasting free up-do's and veil giveaways for one day only. So, I called up Mollie, we both made appointments for Sunday afternoon and went in for our FREE hair consult. We both got some fun ideas for how to do our hair, and got to try on nearly every piece of headgear (not night braces) we could get our hands on. Based on what I picked out to be my favorite, and seeing it priced for over $100, I decided I'm going to make it myself. I bought the main material for it tonight at $9 a yard. It's going to be one of a kind (hopefully in a good way). Maybe I'll get a call this week telling me I've won a free veil and I won't have to bother with it, but either way, it'll be fun to give it a shot. I also found wedding shoes the other day from The Annex (my favorite discount store in the cities) for $5. I am attaching embellishments that will then match some details on the dress and in my hair...OOH, so fun! Here's a shot of Mollie & me doing what we do best: being goofy! :)

engagement photos are IN!

Last week, Kevin and I received an e-mail directing us to our online engagement photos. A few days later, I jumped with glee when the copyright free disc arrived in my PO. I began editing, cropping, and perfecting the shots. I have to admit, when I first looked through them, I wasn't loving them...it took a few flips through to realize, "yes, Amber, there are some great shots in here!" I need photo therapy. It's so hard to give up control of something I LOVE to do myself. Even though my initial reaction was weary, I am now at a place where I can say, they are perfect, and Laura managed to capture our love in a way we cannot do with a tripod and remote! Here are a few of our favorites, hope you like them too!

my little forest gnome

The latest greatest update on our forest wedding! :)

one GREAT weekend!

Best Parts of Last Weekend:

1. Holly, Presley, & Madison at my house for a slumber party

2. MIA- Minneapolis Institute of Art

3. Children's Museum- FREE passes

4. Mickey's Diner

5. Candyland

6. Bridesmaid dress shopping with Holly

7. Mall of America rides

8. Build-a-bear

9. Mailing letters to Santa

10. NO SHOPPING!

What a fantastic weekend! I love when the girls come up! We had a great time touring and taking in the cultural aspects of the cities. Ok, not that Build-a-bear is considered cultural, but it was fun too! Kevin and I gave Presley a gift coupon for her birthday for a build-a-bear session. Such patience. She's waited 3 MONTHS! We couldn't take Presley and not Madison, so we treated them both to a bear and gave Madison her 2nd birthday present early! Holly and I had a great time (a 5 hour session) of shopping for dresses, and think we've found some winners! More to come on that later! As you can see, we took in two museums. The Children's Museum was awesome for the two of them, but MIA was a little rougher on Madison. I had to go there as a class trip. Presley seemed to like wandering around! Thanks to Holly for bringing the crew up for a great weekend!!

engagement photos

Kevin and I have been super excited for our photo shoot with Laura Ivanova (our wedding photographer). Our plan was to shoot in October, but because of the snow, we had to wait until today. I can't wait to share the photos with you. As soon as we see a few of them, you will!!! 3 weeks to wait. That's the part about having another photographer that I don't like. Oh well...I'm sure they'll be sweet when we see them! It was definitely a strange experience being on the other side of the camera. Laura did a great job of helping get our natural expressions. Here's a photo to show the color swatch/shoe/jewelry choices we went with for the shoot! :)Kevin also brought me these amazingly adorable flowers last night. He thought the purplish color looked much like our sangria wedding colors. Isn't he cute? They're adorable!

wedding details!!

The planning is well underway, and as promised, here's a sneak peek at one of our many projects! We're a little afraid other people are going to steal our original wedding ideas and coin them as their own, so we're being very careful what to publicly disclose. I have too many friends getting married this year, and want our ideas to really be our own! I'm sure you all understand!

Happy 60th Dave!

Today we celebrated Dave's 60th Birthday!! Complete with a trip to the Louisiana Cafe, ear candling (just Lynda and I were cool enough to try it), and tarimasu!! Here's to many more years Dave!!

Rascal's Teriyaki Grill

In less than a week, improvements have already been made to our MN branch of Rascal's Teriyaki Grill. Check it out!

so sorry

My goodness, where have the past few weeks gone? I'm so sorry I haven't written in weeks! Safe to say, life is too darn busy! I've been absolutely swamped with school, work, photo shoots, weddings, wedding planning (updates coming on all of that), trips home, a trip to Chicago for a funeral, did I mention school and work? UGH! Too much. We finally passed midterm here, and I am seriously counting down the days until my California visitors Kelly and Amy come to see me! At that time, school will be over for the semester, and only 4 more credits will separate me and graduation. YES! Amy, Kevin and I made this video especially for you the other night while we were eating our own version of Rascals in my room. We're always thinking about you!

What else? Oh, I won 3rd place in a photo contest and my prize was a flip video camera. Super awesome. I am so used to taking photos, I never really think to use it, but I'm trying to get better at it. Kevin's mom brought home a whole bunch of awesome clothes from Kevin's grandma's house last week, so we went over and played dress up in her many mink coats, and sweet boots! I'm also on the hunt for a sweet brooch for wedding purposes. Anyone have one? Rhinestones only...no colored stones or animal brooches please! Looking for "something borrowed"! :)

We had a wild showing of winter last week when massive snowflakes came plummeting from the sky. I got out of town as fast as I could to try and beat the nasty drivers. Two days later, it was fall again. Funny how that goes. I've had 20 photo shoots in the last two weeks. The most in the history of my small business. Some people had chattering teeth in their portraits, but they all managed to come out ok. Here are a few shots of my life lately. I promise to update more often. Missing California today, yesterday, likely, tomorrow. What's new?

Oh, and one last thing. I ate seven slices of toast with butter today. What can I say? I'm a carb maniac! :)

last day of fall

Ok, don't read this subject line and think I am enjoying all this snow! It's absolutely crazy!! What happened to autumn? My photo shoots this weekend got rescheduled (except for 3 sessions--troopers!). I can't blame the parents though. It was 33 degrees at noon today. BURR! Last night, Presley, Madison and I walked around the yard chasing each other, laying on our backs in the leaves, picking up sticks, and enjoying the final day of fall. We didn't realize that though. Madison has developed quite the vocabulary. She says little sentences...they are adorable: "Auntie, pick up, stick, pile." Someday she'll be saying, "Auntie, please pick up the sticks and put them in a pile." For now, I enjoy the Madison jibber-jabber!

door of approval

This is what I stared at today for about 2 minutes of my life. The door to Dr. Lois Malcolm's door. She is my advisor. Today I met with her and her faculty partner for my approval interview. Once you talk with them for about 45 minutes, they send you into the hall and make you wait while they come to their decision about whether or not to approve me. Usually, I'd say, "I don't need your approval!" But today I definitely did. It turned out to be an amazing affirmation of call. They helped me identify my gifts and got me thinking about the future. What a blessing. An interview was a blessing, yes it was. Two faculty who I highly respect and admire about brought me to happy tears. More evidence of the Holy Spirit here at Luther. Spirit sightings have been happening all over the place. Where have you seen the Spirit?

TC Marathon 2009

42 degrees at 7:30 a.m. We could see our breath as we walked outside and got in the car. All those weeks of non-training were not going to help us today. 26.2 miles. You have to finish in under 6 hours in order to be considered an 'official' finisher. After the 6 hours are up, they don't give medals away, t-shirts, and no more photos are taken at the finish line. Our goal was to finish!!

My ENTIRE family was up for this event...no pressure. Presley & Madison got up early to go with us to the metrodome. When we arrived, the lines for the port-a-potties were 40 deep, so we waited. That was the only time I had to go the bathroom for the next 6 hours. While I was waiting in line, I munched on an apple. This will come back in the story later.

It was cold. I was hoping to run in a tank and my capris, but the forecast definitely called for gloves and long sleeves. We made our way down to corral 2, listened to the National Anthem, and waited for the start. We were surrounded by all kinds of people. The one I was most impressed with, an army soldier carrying two full size flags, and a fifty pound pack on his back--for the whole race! I got teared up just looking at him.

It wasn't long until the first wave of people got to go. About 7 minutes later, we too were set free. Some people shot through the start line in a quick pace. We knew better. We stuck to the right side of the street, smiled for photos and waved to my family as we passed. We ran through downtown Minneapolis. A strange change considering those streets are usually packed with cars no matter what time of day you drive down them. There were so many people out cheering us on. Of course, they were wearing winter jackets, hats, gloves, and boots, but they didn't let the cold temperatures stop them! Kevin stopped at the first mile to go the bathroom. I kept running and made my way up toward Walker Art Center, where the first wave of bathroom goers let 'er rip. Men were lined up by the fence, and women were waiting for the port-a-potties. I ran over to the fence to join the men, but not to go the bathroom, to upchuck applesauce. What kind of idiot eats an apple before running? Nasty. At least I got it out of my system early in the race. I kept running until Kevin caught up. I bet I went a mile on my own before he joined me again.

About 3 miles into it, we joined up with the 5:30 pace group. There were close to 50 people running with them, so we ran close to them and it turned out to be a great blessing. The energy of all the people, one super energetic pace leader, and cheers and singing to keep us all breathing. At mile six, I turned to Kevin and said, "We're really going to do this!" He replied, "Well, now that you believe it, we will!" We saw Kevin's friends Paul & Jeni Wojahn at mile 4. We broke away from the pace group around mile 11. My family was waiting at the halfway point to check on our progress, and by the time we saw them, we were still doing surprisingly well. Presley ran down the grass to join us and run with us for a few steps. We reloaded on shot blocks, and away we went. My mom asked how we were doing and I said, "We're doing great. We're going to finish!!! See you at the capitol!!" I think they were all surprised to see us doing so well at that point considering two weeks earlier, I was about dead after 6.2 miles in Worthington.

At 13.2 miles I was setting a new record with each step. I ran Grandma's Half Marathon two years ago in Duluth. That's 13.1 miles. I've never run that far since. In fact, our longest training run/walk for the marathon was 12 miles. We stunk at training. Each mile marker after that put a huge smile on my face. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18...we made our way across the bridge that would get us out of Minneapolis and into St. Paul. 19, 20, 21. My left knee and lower back really started pinching and hurting with about 5 miles to go. Each mile I had to find a patch of grass to lie down in and stretch it out. We'd start running slowly, and it would pinch again. GRR!! Not wanting to do something to damage it, we walked most of the final 4 miles. I wanted to be able to run into the finish line, so we kept stretching it, drinking water, nibbling on our energy supply, until finally we saw the capitol building.

It's a beautiful downhill run to the finish. We pass under a HUGE American flag, and down a fenced in area with spectators cheering on both sides!! We spotted my family right away! They were hard to miss as they were excitedly waving their arms in the air! My mom had a cowbell and was cheering like mad. We felt great (minus my knee). The smiling faces and waving arms of the cheer leading captain, Presley, and her squad made it all worthwhile. They're really the reason I finished. If there was no one there to see this huge moment, I probably would've dropped out of the race way earlier! YAY for family inspiration!

About 100 feet from the finish, we spotted Kevin's dad Dave. He came jumping out and threw his arms up in the air with excitement! My sister (who got all the amazing photos from today--thanks Holly!) got a great shot of this moment as well! We finished right around 5 hours and 33 minutes. Considering we were just hoping to finish, we felt great. As we walked through the finish line, the announcer said, "Amber Marten & Kevin Bergeson!" We did it! The man handing out medals asked me if it was my first marathon. When he heard my reply, he said, "Welcome to the finish line!" What a great feeling! We were immediately wrapped in thermal wraps, and loaded up on some treats. I'm not sure about Kevin, but I was starving! We passed a Chipotle at mile 24 and it was so tempting to bop over there for a fast treat. In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't, my little snacking along the way meant NO VOMIT for the finish of the race!

I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to cheer us on today! Seeing your faces along the way made it all worthwhile! We love you all so much! Following the race, we walked to the car, and bid my family farewell. After soaking in my tub for a few minutes, and a shower. We both napped for 2.5 hours and then treated ourselves to the ultimate supper: CHIPOTLE! We're both stiff as a board. My legs and lower back are killing. I have a big blister on one toe, and will likely lose a toenail on my right foot. Other than that, we got away pretty much injury free for such a long run! Check 'run a marathon' off my bucket list!!

bye bye vera west

Bitter: I drove Vera West for the last time today.

Sweet: I drove my new 2006 Subaru Forester for the first time today!

I recall our drive back from CA. I was sweating and sticking to the seat, about cursing my car out because I hated her so bad. Hate is a strong word, but I meant it then. I really think Vera had cancer. Vera had a few good weeks when we got back, leading me to believe we might get along for a while. This week she took a turn for the worst. She got hit by an unknown vehicle in the parking lot. Knocking her back light out and scratching her up pretty bad. Then she started shaking at 15 mph. The air conditioning still doesn't work. Not good. So, Kevin and I got real serious-real fast about buying a car, and we found one our first night out!!

My mom stayed over last night after the fashion show, so she came with us in the hopes that we could heckle with them a little. No such luck. Nobody does that anymore. It takes all the fun out of buying a new car! I did manage to get them to give me $200 more for my trade in, a complete body restoration to repair even the smallest nicks, and they threw in a cover for the trunk of it. We feel really good about it and are excited to be in a small SUV that has been rated #1 for safety for the last 7 years!! Perfect for little Bergeson babies in a few years! Check it out!

THE DRESS!

I have been going crazy about this whole wedding dress thing. I've tried on over 200 dresses in the search for finding the dress! And I feel like I've been all over the Midwest on the search:

1. The Wedding Shoppe (3x)
2. Napier Bridal
3. David's Bridal (2x)
4. Our Shop (2x)
5. Raffine Bridal
6. The French Door
7. Interlude
8. The Bridal Gallery
9. Lasting Impressions
10. Jeanne's Boutique
11. Elegance Bridal
12. Storybook Bride
13. Jennie's Bridal
14. Mestad's
15. Pearls & Lace Bridal
16. The Wedding Outlet
17. Bridal Accents Couture
18. Lorraine Shop
19. Vowed in Elegance
20. The Bridal Gallery (2x)

25 visits to wedding shops! It has been one heck of a journey. All wedding planning has been on a hold until I get this not-so-small detail out of the way. Because school has been so hectic and my work schedule leaves no room for fun, I took an afternoon off from work to head over to Stillwater, MN with my friend Mollie in the hopes of finding the one. AND WE DID!!! It was the second one I tried on in the store. When I was standing in the dressing room, I remember calling out to her, "Brace yourself, Mollie, this one is sweet!" It's incredible. I can't describe it too much because nosey-Nellie Kevin will be on here trying to figure out what it looks like! What I can tell you is that it's raw silk, ivory, and absolutely stunning. Unlike anything I've ever photographed, and I look GOOD in it! :) Well, at least I feel good in it!

I was so pumped about it, I called my mom to see if she wanted to come up on Friday (the next day) and go to a mother of the bride fashion show, then to see me try it on. Talk about spur of the moment! She went to work super early and drove up 3 hours to come see it! What a mom!! She, Lynda, and I all went together, and had a blast. The fashion show was awesome. They both got to see some beautiful potentials for what they can wear next year. We ate a whole bunch of yummy treats! And, my mom won a door prize! A $30 gift certificate to a cleaner in Stillwater! That'll do her a lot of good in Worthington! :) She handed it off to me as a gift. The final prize of the night was a $300 gift certificate to Our Shop, the store hosting the fashion show. I had my fingers crossed that I'd win and knock $300 off my dress. I didn't. Shoot. After the show, we went over into the store, and I put on my dress. My mom LOVED it. She really did. It's so me, I can't even stand it! I even got to try on some jewelry and veils with it to see how I wanted to jazz it up! I didn't order it there, am hoping I can find it cheaper somewhere else, because it's WAY more than I wanted to spend. One day, right? I'll regret buying a cheap dress I don't love, when for a few hundred more could have the one that makes my heart flutter just thinking about it!!

It was awesome to have 3 people who I love see me in it. I sent out a mass e-mail to a bunch of ladies who I thought would enjoy seeing me in it. I can't post a picture on here, so if you want to see it, let me know. I'll share it with you!

We made our way back to Mendota Heights. Kevin picked up some tiramisu and some chocolate cake so we could celebrate my mom's birthday with her. She turned 50 last year, and I missed it while in CA, so we made up for it with some yummy treats! What a great day! And what a huge weight has been lifted. I found my dress! YIPPEE!!!