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  • 13Apr

    We had a busy weekend at home in St. Paul this weekend.  Saturday we prepared food all afternoon for a joint 25th B-day party for me and an engagement party for both of us for our family and friends in Minnesota.  We had a wonderful time and great weather so that we could enjoy 1919 root beer while chatting out on the back porch.  There was a DQ ice cream cake for my bday and a marble cake from PJ Muphy’s for the engagement that was beautifully decorated with pussy willows (my favorite), pink roses, and little heart sprinkles.  Both were tasty!  Sunday was Easter.  We went to the 9:30 service at Gloria Dei which was so packed that we sat on folding chairs in the back and it was a little hard to hear Dad’s duet in the anthem at the beginning of the service.  Afterwards, we joined Omi and Opa and several of my mom’s side of the family at the Town and Country Club for Easter brunch which was delicious as always.  We finished the night off coloring easter eggs and playing some games at home.  Now It’s Monday and Flanders is happy to have me home in Madison for the start of another work week.  Pictures of the Gloria Dei and the Club are under the wedding venues tab if you would like to see where we will be having our wedding and reception.

  • 28Mar
    April 11, 2009
    4:00 pmto7:00 pm

    Engagement Party at Rachel’s parent’s house in Inver Grove Heights.

  • 26Feb

    Mardis Gras in New Orleans that is!  We just got back from visiting Martha and Mark for the festivities.  Mark has an apartment near a marina on the North shore of Lake Pontchartrain just about half an hour north of downtown which is accessible by a 23.87 mile long bridge (the longest in the world) across the lake.  Martha says the lake is only 10-16 ft deep and they have to constantly dredge it to let the big shipping boats get through.  We started our drive down on Friday morning.  Most of it was spent driving straight south from chicago throug Illinois, but we passed through a bit of Missouri and Arkansas and finally into Tennessee to spend the night in Memphis.  Downtown Memphis is very surreal and feels like an empty movie set.  On Saturday we drove through Mississippi and finally into Louisiana to arrive at Mark and Martha’s.  On Sunday we set out for the city to watch 4 of the weekends parade’s the best of which was the Baccus parade in the evening which lasted more than two hours!  The parades are a blast with great floats, marching bands, and members of the hosting krewe throwing beads and stuffed animals and other trinkets by the handful into the crowds.  On Monday Martha showed us around the french quarter and magazine street.  Tuesday was spent at another parade and then at a couple parties on Bourbon Street that Mark had access to through work.  Bourbon street lived up to its reputation!  People hung out on the balconies lining the street throwing beads down at people passing by.  In some places there were so many people on the street you could barely get through.  Monday we had a long drive all the way back to chicago, but arrived in one piece with no arrests on our records!  Look for pictures later this weekend when Ruben posts them.

  • 28Jan

    Last weekend, mom and I finally visited the last chocolate shop that was mentioned in the New York Times article last year.  We drove up the the west side of Lake Winnebago this time and then cut east to Manitowoc.  Can’t tell you if the town itself is cute or not since it was so cold and a frigid wind was blowing off the lake that we didn’t want to explore much.  We found Beernsten’s chocolate shop which is a gorgeous old store with an old fashioned lunch/ice cream parlor in the back and cases of chocolate and candy up front.  Mom had a toasty sandwich on rye and I had a mini can of cambpell’s alphabet soup which we followed up with vanilla ice cream topped with marshmallow and maple syrup.  It’s about a 2.5 hour drive from Madison, but there isn’t much else to do on a cold january day than enjoy a long drive in a warm car.

  • 04Jan

    Everyone may be able to start enjoying more pictures of Ruben now that I have my own digital camera (thanks, Love!) and he’s not the one in charge of taking all the pics anymore.  He’ll still probably take better ones though.  Thanks to everyone who came to our party on Saturday night, it was a great time.  For people who couldn’t make it, i’ve put a couple pictures up.

  • 08Dec

    It was cold in chicago this weekend, but there were too many fun things happening around the city to huddle inside Ruben’s tiny apartment.  On Saturday, we had breakfast at Julius Meinl, a Viennese style coffee house that reminds me that I need to go back to Vienna someday now that I like coffee.   We spent the early afternoon doing some christmas window shopping down the Magnificent Mile, visited the Christmas tree inside Macy’s and looked at the decorated story windows along the sidewalk, and then ended our afternoon at the Christkindlmarkt at Daley Plaza.  It’s a small, outdoor christmas market remeniscent of the christmas markets all through Germany this time of year (which, I will remind a certain someone, he has promised to take me to someday).  There were a lot of people selling german woodcarvings, embroidery, ornaments and other unique items.  I picked up a traditional Advent Calendar and a little wooden snail with a Santa hat that rolls.  We had dinner at one of Ruben’s favorite bars that has a huge beer list…  I gave a draft beer called Brown Sugga a try, but it was painfully bitter and didn’t help change my opinion of beer.  I’ll try to pick something sweeter next time. Tonight there are a pair of bells and a sprig of evergreen behind my advent calendar window.  When Ruben gets a break from studying for finals, he’ll post some pictures from the weekend.

  • 26Nov
    January 3, 2009
    6:00 pm

    We’ll be having an engagement party at Ruben’s parents’ house in Somerville.  More details to come.

  • 26Nov

    Ruben seems to think that we’ll only be updating in the coming weeks and months….  I would hope he meant to add years too but merely forgot in his excitement of writing the first post :)  Today we are headed down to Martha’s in Bloomington (IN) for thanksgiving.  I am waiting at the kitchen table with my bag of cookies and load of laundry waiting for Dad and Grandpa to drive through town and pick me up.  Ruben’s taking the train from Chicago for his first holiday spent with my family!  Card games will be learned…

  • 09Nov

    Hello Everybody, Welcome to our Website!  We’ll be updating information, events, pictures, etc. in the coming weeks and months.

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