Nehcterg's Blog

Thinking back on 2009

2009-12-28T18:11:00.002-06:00

As I sit here at my friend's house just after christmas in 2009 watching one of my favorite tv series, i am starting to think back about what all happened this year. I will say this has been the most interesting year so far of this decade. First off the year started off fine, nothing truly majorly happening. Then February hit. Can't remember the exact day (all i remember is that it was the day of the oscars). I remember I had a kinda bad day at work with this one lady who drove me nuts cause I wouldn't let her in our back room (my purse is back there so no). It did get a bit better as mom and i went to go pick up our Olive Garden that we were going to eat as we watched the show. Then my mom says she has something she needs to tell me. We sit down and then i hear the words that i never imagined she would ever utter, "your dad and i are separating." It's hard to describe the emotions that I felt then, it was a mix of a lot and then having to hear that we had to give up my childhood home just threw me. I don't remember when I stopped crying and having to tell most of my friends was very hard. So after a few weeks everything started to sink in and i knew it was time to go thru all of my things at our house. I managed to find some great stuff and one time my friend, alec, found this story that I wrote maybe in first grade that I was laughing so hard I was crying. So things did get easier as time went on. I managed to go to a very fun convention with my friend, Erin, in may. We had a great time and I would easily go again. So we did some more packing and finally moved out at the end of June. It was a bittersweet feeling leaving the house I had lived in since I was 3. Now me and my mom are living with my nana. Most of the time things are good and sometimes can be frustrating, after all when you live with someone is 90 and is very rigid can be difficult. Especially when she is going deaf and refuses to wear her hearing aid cause she doesn't think it helps, WHEN IT SO DOES!!! *sigh* not much I can do. Despite all that has happened this year, I still stand by what I said at Thanksgiving. I am thankful for all the good little things in life. I got to see my favorite band live and in the second row. I got a great new nephew named Harland, who I swear is the cutest baby to date. I got to see my brother's kids at Easter which was great fun. But most importantly, I realized I am thankful for all of my friends who got me thru this difficult year and of course for my family who I love and adore so much. Hopefully I will have better sounding posts in 2010. See you all on the flip side!

I AM NOW FINALLY PUBLISHED!!!

2009-06-08T22:02:00.004-05:00

Well I got something very exciting in the mail today. I won a contest about a year ago and they wanted to publish my photo in their new anthology book that was coming out so I said sure. I hadn't heard anything for a long time about when it was coming out or anything like that. So I was very shocked when I got a box in the mail today and it was from The International Library of Photograhers, they are the ones I won my contest thru. I opened the package and my copy of the book was inside!! It's so amazing and I am so thrilled to see my photo in publication. Makes me feel good to be a photographer and that I am good at what I do. Well here are the pics of the book and my photo!! Enjoy!!
Here is the book itself.

Here is my pic! I just love this picture!!

I LOVE BEING AN AUNT!!!

2009-04-20T21:53:00.010-05:00

I seriously love being an aunt to both my nephews and my niece. I had the greatest and funnest weekend with them. Spencer is so cute and Ally is beyond adorable. And Harland is a cute little baby. Gotta love his little smile. Considering we didn't do a whole lot but just hung around the house, it still was fun and relaxing. It was fun to watch the kidlets play and see Spencer get entranced by that Sesame Street TV thing. That was too funny. Silly kid. They got some great presents for Easter and their birthdays. I also got some great stuff but it was way more fun watching Spencer take his eggs that he found and rehide them. He loved that game and thought it was hysterical. It was totally awesome! Well here are some pics! Will add a slideshow soon.

Spencer and his daddy....I love this picture

Cute little harland in his easter outfit...it's so adorable!

Spencer and his lovies...he is so cute!!

Our easter baskets

Awwww....spencer looks even cuter when he is sleeping....

Love love this picture...i had great luck!

Love this one of Spencer...totally adorable!

Sorry this took so long......

2009-03-24T20:35:00.004-05:00

Yes I know I haven't posted in a while. Guess I have been just waiting for something exciting to happen in my life. Well with the economy going into the crapper, my hours at work have been cut but at least I still have a job. I just keep telling myself that I work for a company that went thru the Depression, they have been around since 1914. So I just hope that they know what they are doing and hopefully won't have to file for bankruptcy. Besides that, I got a great tax return this year and was able to pay off one of my credit cards. Nice to get myself somewhat out of debt. Also I now finally own a Nintendo DS that I have been wanting for like the couple of years. My awesome friend Joe just gave me his for free cause he just didn't play it. Now I play with it most every day. So far I have 4 games for it, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Brain Age and Personal Training: Cooking. If anyone is interested in it, I highly recommend the DS. Great little system! Other than that, life has been good in MN (despite some crisises i really can't talk about). I have started to convert our VHS to DVD. Thanks to my work for letting me borrow a converter in order to be able to do that. (Does it sound like i am babbling?) Well anyway, I guess the biggest news is my new nephew. Harland James Dombrowski, i love that name. He is so adorable and I can't wait to get my hands on that little guy! Here are a couple of my fave pics:

I love love this picture. I think it's so cute.

This has got to be the cutest picture ever. I love it!

Well look forward to future posts! I am going to do more posting from now on!

Christmas at the Mann's

2009-01-02T22:39:00.006-06:00

This year's christmas was by far the most relaxing christmas in a long time. I had a great time with Heather and Sean and the puppies. Christmas eve was so fun with the joneses and tim and dorie. We had a fun time together. Christmas Day was great also. We took time opening up presents and i am so glad that i finally got the dvds done for my rents of us kids growing up. They were a big hit with everyone. I got some great
presents also. Thank you to all!! I love all my family so much. Have a great 2009!!!

Here are some pics (i will be putting the rest on facebook):
Aww.. Little baby Julien. So cute!

Our table at christmas eve

Me And Nana in our paper crowns

What is it about xmas season?

2008-12-16T19:40:00.002-06:00

Ok. Do customers know when i am by myself in the morning? When there are 2 people, there never seems to be a ton of customers or the phone ringing off the freaking hook. We were so busy this morning, both my area and cameras. I was so frustrated cause I always had to put down what i was doing to get the stupid phone. I feel so bad for my customers when I have to do that because I feel like I have to ignore them because no one else will pick up the phone. I constantly had customers this morning, only one lady that was in such a rush even though i was with someone else interrupted me while i was waiting for my customer to decide that i was just thinking omg real nice. Luckily my other customer didn't care but I was still like come on lady i am busy enough, what the heck? You can't wait two minutes?! This is the main reason why I hate xmas season, people just get all nasty and so impatient. I know my mother will know what I am talking about. I was so beyond thrilled once my coworker nikki finally came in, i actually hugged her and almost started crying cause I was just so happy that someone else had come to my area. Don't get me wrong, I really like where I work but I will love the day that I finally get out of retail. Will probably be one of the best days of my life. Well I just wanted to share my thoughts and feelings about what happened to me today. Hope you all still have a good christmas season!

Thanksgiving In A Box

2008-11-26T19:49:00.004-06:00

For this thanksgiving since it is only me, mom, nana and cleta (my great aunt), mom and i decided that we did not want to make a big meal so we got one of those premade meals from Cub Foods here in town. Comes in a big white box and has the turkey, mashed potatoes in a bag (yes in a bag), corn (also in a bag, man i wish i was kidding), turkey gravy in a can (sorry i am not making this up), stuffing in a tray and rolls. Mom and I just about died laughing when we saw the mashed potatoes and corn in a bag. Totally awesome but will be perfect for the 4 of us. I picked up a cherry pie for dessert and i am going to make my chocolate chip cookie pie also. Can't wait to just relax with these great girls and will let you all know how it went! Happy Thanksgiving all and hope your thanksgivings go well too!!

Here is the box of food!! Looks great, don't it?

Yes that's the mashed potatoes and corn in bags. Totally hysterical! I love it!!

Here are some pics!

2008-11-17T20:37:00.008-06:00

Cute pumpkin mom had above the tv!

Pumpkins on top of the piano. I think they are adorable.

Cute little foam house that took me forever and a day to put together. Turned out good though!!

Totally awesome spider mom had put on the piano! Love how this picture makes him look!

Cute pumpkin and ghost garlands hanging from the chandelier in the dining room. I loved them!!

I love this little house that lights up. I think it's adorable!!!

My cute cake that I made. The next day I had the flu, totally stinky. Still it was a good cake.

My first post in a while

2008-11-17T20:07:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Kept forgetting that I did have stuff to update my blog with. Halloween was really great. I put together a costume so I was a halloween CSI. I wore my black kitty shirt from old navy and had my nametag say i was a CSI and my belt had film canisters that were labeled luminol, evidence bags, dna swabs and fingerprint powder. People at work liked my costume. Well my old manager Steve was demoted from our store and he got moved to our Edina store where he is just in photo sales. No idea of what happened but according to Nikki, he didn't handle a situation well. So it was really hard to let him go. My coworker Amanda and i just cried when Nikki told us. We really loved him so hard to see him go. We got the assistant manager, Mark, from Edina as our new manager. Took a while to get used to him but he is a really great guy. Well anyway, on Halloween, I walked in as a CSI and mark and mike, the assistant manager were all dressed up too. Mark was all out as a pirate and mike was a vampire. It was so funny and i was so touched when mike said they dressed up so I wouldn't be all alone. Anyway, not too much going on in MN. I will post some pics of mom's halloween decorations. They were very cute. I also made a really cute cake for dinner one night when nana was going to be coming over. I have a pic of that too that I will post. Other than that, mainly catching up on my shows that I watch. So far all have been good. I am a big fan of Heroes, CSI (vegas), Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, Family Guy and the Office. So far all have been really good this season. My friends Alec and Katie are doing good. They are coming up to their 2 year anniversary. Not sure if they have plans yet. Guess we will find out. I guess the big thing in my life is my sister having a baby boy! I am beyond excited for her. Can't wait to meet the little tyke!! Oh and i also had about the worst flu ever about a month ago now. I was sick for about 3 days. Was not fun at all and I ended up passing it on to my dad too. I felt so bad. Stupid flu!! Well i only get it every few years so it's not a big deal. But would rather not get it. Anyway, it's getting colder here but still no snow yet. Maybe we will get some soon. Not sure when but I would love to have a White Christmas. Guess we shall see! Well expect a new post with pics. Talk to you all later!!

One Fun Day

2008-10-17T16:46:00.002-05:00

My friend Katie and I went to new CSI exhibit yesterday at the Science Museum of Minnesota. It was really fun. We both decided we should do the same case. So u start off by watching a video with the executive producer, Anthony Zuiker and a couple of people from the show. Then we go to the crime scene (there are 3 different cases) and we got the one called No Bones About It. It was about bones in the desert and by figuring out the hair and the seeds and the bullet from the victim's gun that shot him, we figured out his ex wife killed him. It was a ton of fun in the exhibit. We got to watch videos and see all sorts of stuff from the show. They had the head supervisor's, Gil Grissom, office there and from the 7th season, the miniatures from the miniature killer that was prominent in that season. It was really awesome!! After CSI, we had lunch then went to the omnitheater and saw a movie called the Mysteries of the Great Lakes. It was mostly about a group of guys trying to save the sturgeon but they talked about shipwrecks and they showed the Edmund Fitzgerald. I didn't see Marquette but they did mention Presque Isle so that was cool. We looked at the rest of the exhibits and then went home. We had a great time!! Would easily go again!!!

One of the Coolest Things I have ever done!!

2008-10-07T21:30:00.008-05:00

Tonight, I got to meet one of my fave writers, Nicholas Sparks at the Mall of America. He was signing his latest book, The Lucky One. So i got in line WAY in the back and talked to some nice ladies while we waited. One of them was telling me about her trip to NYC. So that was really cool. Mom managed to get some pics of him while he was answering questions. It was great to finally meet him and he was about the nicest guy in the world. A great priviledge and honor to finally meet one of my favorite writers. Here are some pics! Enjoy all!!

Me with signed book!!!

The author himself

Me way back in the crowd with my hand in the air!!

Big advertising sign!!!

A Fun Dinner Tonight!!

2008-10-01T19:04:00.002-05:00

Well mom and i had a fun dinner tonight. When she picked me up from work, i was starving. So i started to name off some places but mom said what about sonic? I think it opened in savage not too long ago. So i thought that was a great idea cause i have heard from people that it is good. So we went there and you can either do the drive thru or do the drive in. We decided to do the drive in so we could do something a little different. Once we decided what we wanted (they have a lot of choices) so we pushed the button to order. I got a cheeseburger with ketchup and lettuce, fries and a chocolate malt and mom got a grilled chicken sandwich with tater tots and a sprite. It was really cool because they deliver the food on roller blades and bring it straight to you in your car. Food was great and i am glad mom and i had a unique experience for dinner for once. I highly recommend sonic to anyone who wants to go. Great food and great experience. I enjoyed it thoroughly!!

Renee's Baby Shower

2008-09-24T18:49:00.007-05:00

We had a shower for my cousin, Renee, this past weekend. We had a complete blast. Food was great, games were totally awesome (thanks to my cousin, Siobhan) and she got a ton of great gifts. I had fun making all the scrapbook pages for Renee at the end of the shower so she could use those in the future. Just nice getting the whole family together. Here are some pics. I will add a slideshow later on. Enjoy all!!!

Here is the food table.

Caroline eating baby food like no tomorrow.

Our Jeopardy team (heather, renee, ashlyn and me)

The 1st round of price is right contestants.

The scrapbooking bunch!!!

Trip to Marquette

2008-09-09T21:38:00.007-05:00

So we went to Marquette this weekend (we being, mom, nana and me). We had a great time hanging with Heather and Sean and the puppies. Moxie had to wear her cone again (she has bad allergies so they put that on her so she doesn't lick her legs dry anymore). Poor thing but she still looks cute in it. But the greatest part was seeing Pam again. Been years since I saw her last. We had breakfast at Big Boy (surprisingly, it was pretty good) and played pool at JT Shaft's. Sonni is a good guy and he and pam get along great. Will have to figure out a way to be able to see them in Germany while they are still there. Here are some pics! Will put up a slideshow later.

Driving....

2008-09-02T20:35:00.002-05:00

Ok, I am learning how to drive so my friend, Alec, took me out on sunday. I did a much better job than I did before and he was very proud of me. As always, there are things I need to work on (merging and turning are the ones i remember). We drove around burnsville and apple valley. Then as we leave best buy, alec said he wanted to go to cabelas (it's like a REI) so we get onto 35W south. I was already on the highway a few times at this point so i was nervous but not as much as i was before. I stayed in the farthermost right lane the whole time doing between 65 and 70 the whole time and it wasn't that bad. Just had to drive all the way down to almost owatonna to get to cabela's. Great driving experience but wished it was a little closer. I passed a couple of cars, including a truck, otherwise i mostly stayed in my lane. I was just trying to get used to it before being a little more adventurous. Just proud of myself that i did that. Will let you all know about my further practicing later. Tata for now!

Very eventful day!!

2008-08-30T16:21:00.003-05:00

Today was a very eventful for mom and me. First off, I had to take my old ipod shuffle into the apple store because i couldn't get it to charge anymore. She took a look at it and said that the pins that connect to the headphone jack had come out from their normal place so she tried to get them back and it didn't work so I just decided to throw in the towel and got a brand new ipod. I traded in my old one and got the 4gb nano for 10% off with my trade in. I got 3 cases to put the nano in also and I absolutely love it. It's so cute and i am glad to finally have an ipod with a screen (very nice). Then we went to Marshalls, i got 2 new pairs of shoes, a couple new bras (they are very cute) and a great book (for who it's for, i won't tell). Mom also got some great stuff too. Guess u will just have to see for yourself what she got (i am not allowed to tell). we then went to target and i got some great nail polish, 2 of which i am going to use for halloween. We then went to Slumberland and looked at the kind of beds that I want to get for my new place. So i know now how much it will cost me and won't be too bad. We had a great shopping experience. It was totally great!!

Something I wish I did more often

2008-08-28T19:34:00.007-05:00

Seeing as how I work inside all day, i get the urge sometimes to just sit outside. So today, I took a 15 minute break once my other coworker got there and it was so nice out that I decided I just wanted to eat dinner outside on the deck tonight. So I called mom and she said that sounds nice. So I went out to the garage and grabbed my Cartoon Network TV trays that Kelsey gave me a few years ago and set them on the deck. So mom and i made some chicken with mashed potatoes and corn and just relaxed and talked outside. It was nice except for all the bugs that kept attacking me. It was getting annoying. I really wish I did that more often. It's just nice to be out in the fresh air and admire our beautiful backyard. Here are some pictures! Enjoy!

Trip to Ren Fest

2008-08-25T19:53:00.006-05:00

My friend Katie and I went to the Renaissance Festival this weekend. We had a blast walking around, looking in the stores, watching the Tortuga Twins show (those guys are so funny) and getting henna tattoos. Katie got hers to go around her ankle and mine is located on upper right forearm. It's so cool looking that I may get it again when we go in September (thinking about putting it on my leg). The reason I love henna is because it doesn't hurt and it's not permanent. Here is a couple of pics from it. I am working on a slideshow for the rest. Will let you all know once it is up. Slideshow is up!! Enjoy!!

Places I want to go

2008-08-25T18:41:00.002-05:00

I have been thinking lately about the kinds of places that I want go to. Don't know why it came up, i think it's because i feel the need to travel since I don't get to do it much. Have never been outside this country so I have just been dying to go to other countries for years. So here is a list of the kinds of places that i want to go to (feel free to leave comments of any place that you can think of and also in no particular order):
Ireland
Spain
France
Italy
Germany
Austria
Prague
Japan
Wales
Scotland
England
Hawaii
New Zealand
Norway
Jamaica
And a lot of states in the US (particularly New York, South Carolina, Colorado and Florida)
That's the list for now. I am sure that it will expand sometime. Can't wait to travel to all these places!

One of My Greatest Accomplishments

2008-08-24T11:38:00.002-05:00

As a photographer, I take pictures hoping that someone will see them and like them enough to win a contest, put in a museum, etc. So at the beginning of this year, I saw that the International Society of Photography (i think that's what it is called) was having a contest and i saw the link on facebook. So on a whim, I entered it not thinking in a million years that I would ever win. A few weeks passed and one morning I check my email and saw that I had won the Editor's Choice Award for my photograph. I was completely shocked and very happy. I didn't buy the pin that came with my winning, I just wanted the acknowledgement. And to make this even better, they are going to put my photo into a new book they are putting out called Endless Journeys. Haven't heard when they are putting it out. Will let everyone know once it does. The photo is posted at the top of my blog. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

Greetings to Everyone.

2008-08-24T11:25:00.002-05:00

Hello all. Just thought I was getting behind on the times so I decided I should post a blog. I will be putting on here the kind of projects I am working on with my photography and all the kinds of going ons that are going on here in Minnesota. Hope you all enjoy my blog. Stay tuned for my next post.