So much to blog, so little time...

This last weekend was awesome! It was super busy but with fun stuff.

Saturday was the DFL 2nd Congressional Convention, for which I was a delegate. There were two primary purposes for this convention: 1) to endorse the candidate who will run against Rep. John Kline for the House seat, and 2) elect our convention's allotment of delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Before I go into much detail, I just want to give a disclaimer that I totally respect each person's own political views, and I hope that when you read this you'll respect my own view. Saying that, the main reason why I'm blogging about his is because it was such a great learning experience for me, and it was really exciting to play a larger role in the political process than just going out once every couple of years to vote on the first Tuesday of November. The only thing I'll try to convince you of is that it is important to stay current on the politics in our country. I think now more so than ever in recent years, people are feeling the effects of the choices politicians make in our government -- from the war, to the economy, to owning a home. So it's important to be aware of what our politicians are doing so we can make educated choices when we vote. And I don't really care who you vote for as long as you're doing your part in the process. And I am finding out that it's actually really fun to be part of the entire political process.

Now that I'm off that soapbox.

One of the things I did at the convention was run to be a delegate to the National Convention for Barack Obama. Unfortunately, I didn't win. But in the process of running, I really had to step out of my comfort zone. I had to talk to lots of people on Saturday and lobby them to vote for me. One of the things on my 101 in 1,001 list is to get more comfortable with meeting people, and I have to say that I took a big step toward that goal by talking to hundreds of people I had never met and ask them to support me. Then I had to take a bigger step out of my comfort zone and give a speech in front of everyone. And I did that too. And I survived. And I'm proud of myself for doing those things that I hate doing. And I actually did pretty well.

Take into account that unlike me, a lot of the people running for national delegates are really involved with the DFL and are already friends with each other. That's what I was competing against. So we were able to elect two women to be delegates to the national convention for Barack Obama. There were 19 other people running with me for those two spots. After everyone gave their speech, we did a vote. After the first round of voting, they dropped off the bottom 10 people and voted again with just the top ten. I made the top ten!! And really, that was good enough for me.

The other thing we did at the convention was endorse a candidate to run against Kline. I am really excited about the candidate we endorsed, Steve Sarvi, who is an Iraq War vet and I think that gives him good credibility for a campaign against Kline who always touts his former military experience. If you're in the 2nd Congressional District, check him out!

After the day-long convention, we rushed home from Faribult to change so we could go to my cousin Ginny's wedding. We didn't make the ceremony, but had a great time at the reception. It was gorgeous. My nieces came too, and they were loving it...though they got tired quick and Steven took them home. The rest of us got to stay and dance all night long to the awesome band that featured three lead singers and a band director who also played the saxophone.

Sunday was fun too. Krissy and I went to see Maid of Honor. It was predictable, but really cute. And I liked the ending better than the movie My Best Friend's Wedding, which has a similar best-friend-of-the-opposite-sex-realizing-they're-in-love-after-the-friend-gets-engaged-to-a-near-perfect-person-plot.

After the movie, Dave and I went to my parent's house to have a birthday dinner in honor of both Dave and my birthdays. My mom is going to visit Stevie next weekend, so it was the closest day to both our birthdays that the family could get together for dinner. My mom made a terrific dinner consisting of brawts and hamburgers, the special salad w/ avocados, German potato salad and broccoli....and red cake. Yummy! It was kind of funny, because we were all wore out from my cousin's wedding...so we pretty much ate quietly and were pretty low-key.

Now that I'm done with the novel, I'll share some photos. And I really just need a photographer (Katie?) to follow me around to take pics, because I didn't get any pictures of me at convention, or Lake Calhoun (which the club where the reception was at looks over), or a full-length photo of my dress, or a non-blurry photo of the bride, or any photos of the b-day dinner.

Here's Sarvi giving his speech before voting on the endorsement.

Me and my nieces!


This looks like it could be a family photo. We coordinate nicely and my husband looks hot!



Emily and Amanda and their cousin Preston are all in love. He says he's going to marry both girls. lol.



And Amanda loves Unlce Dave! He entertained her with his goofy faces at the dinner table.


Rachel and Dad getting down on the dance floor.