"He's a Keeper!" Fishing Themed Baby Shower

Last weekend I hosted a baby shower for my sister Bonnie with two of her best friends, Amber and Joanie.

Thanks to a little help from pinterest, and the imagination of Amber and Joanie, we were able to incorporate some cute fishing themed ideas into the event.

Fishing cupcakes and dirt cups, yummy!

Goldfish snacks!

We tried to put swedish fish into blue jello, but it's tough to find the exact moment to put the fish in when the jello is firm enough that the fish won't sink, but not firm enough that the top will still be smooth. If I were to do it again, I'd just make the jello and put a ducky on top!

Caprese skewers: mozarella balls, grape tomatoes, basil leaves drizzled in balsamic glaze.

The sperm and the uterus...

Pin the sperm on the uterus!

Mix and match to determine what the baby will look like!

Fish the pacifier out of the pool game!

The hostesses!

The two best friends, due dates only a few months apart!

Kangapouching

It's been an exciting week around the Imes household. Before we brought the new puppy home we made a trip to PetSmart and, well... as you can see, things got a little out of hand. 

We have also read three different puppy training books, one of which stressed the importance of three types of toys: chew toys, stimulation toys (brain-teasers etc) and comfort toys. Consequently, we spent about thirty minutes evaluating the various plush comfort toys and debating the pros and cons of the various squeakers and textures of the various stuffed-animals available before we finally settled on the giraffe blanket we refer to as Jambo.

Loki and Jambo the Giraffe are good buds already!
                                              

Recently, Drew and I were discussing the words Shakespeare introduced to the English syntax. It’s amazing how many words and phrases that we use every day were actually something dreamed up by the playwright, such as the word “eyeball” and the phrase “dead as a doornail”. Naturally, this motivated us to try to come up with our own words. Since most of our time is now spend doting on Loki, the winner was “kangapouch” as in, “Amanda was kangapouching Loki all weekend”. ™ 

Me kangapouching Loki at Split Rock Lighthouse with the Alaskan nieces. 

So anyway, we spend most of our time these days staring at Loki and praising him for doing things like pooping outside or going up stairs unescorted. Yes, the joys of a pet owner are boundless.

KANGAPOUCHING!

Glamour Shots for Puppies

Meet our new puppy.

We don't actually have him yet, as he still lives with his owner in Arkansas.

She sends us pictures of him every 2 weeks- apparently she is really into pictures of puppies in buckets. I mean, there is no denying it, a puppy in a bucket is pretty darn cute.

   Here's the little guy at three weeks. 

Here he is at 5 weeks, only 3 lbs 2 oz!

Here he is at 8 weeks... only 9 more days until he comes on home to us!

This picture reminds me of those internet memes that say, "go home puppy, you are drunk." LOL

Look at that little tummy!

Happy Mother's Day!

To the best mom, mother-in-law and grandmas in the world!

Glitterin' Grad

As you probably know, I’ve been a graduate student in the Applied Economics program at the University of Minnesota the past two years. I entered with a cohort of twelve, representing several different countries.  I’ll admit, the road was very long and I can’t say I’m at all sad to put it behind me.

While I have yet to defend my thesis, I was able to walk for commencement last Friday. Bonnie recently graduated with a Master’s in Technology Education from Texas State. At her commencement, most of the girls decorated their caps. Bonnie felt a little left out that she hadn’t thought to decorate her cap, and being the loving sister that she is, she didn’t want me to make the same mistake. So she decorated my cap with glitter, the letter “M” for Minnesota, a “π” representing profit in economic equations and a check symbol, meaning, “grad school, check!” Katrina added some googley eyes and a peace sign.

I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed about wearing the hat. I was planning to just blend into the crowd. I was going to wear my plain-jane black hat for the ceremony and throw on the glitter cap for some fun pictures after.

I arrived at Mariucci Arena, checked in and was about to find my cohort when I saw a girl crying and explaining to one of the coordinators that she had forgotten her hat. Before I even really knew what I was doing, I went up and handed her the black cap.

I went off in search of my cohort. Economists tend to be a rather serious type, and as such they found my cap both perplexing and amusing. They said things like, “wow, you are really brave” and “it’s not that noticeable.”

I was feeling more and more excited and soon forgot about the cap. As I walked out, I spotted my family amongst the huge crowd almost immediately. They were waving and cheering, and soon they began signaling that my cap was on upside down so the “M” looked like  a “W” (!) Of 1,000 graduate and Ph.D. students, I was the only one that wore a glitter cap, but at the end of the day, it was the perfect way to march across that stage.

My poor sister had to listen to so many phone calls about how I thought I failed a test or couldn’t finish my thesis, wearing that hat allowed me to honor my family and their support.

It was a great day, and I’m so thankful to have a family that has supported me through nearly 21 years of schooling.  They’ve proofread papers and offered words of encouragement time and again. Probably most importantly, they listened to me complain and put up with me when I was cranky and stand-offish.

Now I'm excited to move on with my life. School- you were fun (well sometimes fun), but I won’t miss you. At all. Like not even one tiny bit. (Family, force me to re-read this if I ever decide to go back for a Ph.D.)

Bonnie made a super awesome video montage of the day, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5yBmpOIlmA