May-June Recap!

So it has been approximately a month since I have blogged.  This may mean that I either a.) don't have anything to say or b.) can't seem to find a free minute.  Let's go with the latter of the two, shall we?

Here is snippet of the Jones' life in the past month:
1.) Visitors:  We have had the honor to host many family and friends in the past month.  Some were driving through the area and needed a pit stop and others were coming to check out the great state of Idaho.  Thank you to everyone that has come!!  Kyli D., Matt D., my family: Jill, Bruce, Susan, Eric, Mom, G-ma, David; Evan's family: Eric, Mindy, Braxton, Gella, Izzy.

2.) Camping: We had a blast camping with Matt and Stacie at the St. Croix Park near Hinckley, MN.  Between the bugs, allergies, sunburns, heavy rain, and ticks we managed to hike, take a scenic tour of logging campsite, canoe ten miles, visit the Wisconsin side, and cook over the campfire.  Sometime in the future we will upload pictures!

3.) Have an Evan weekend.  This was amazing simply because I love seeing Evan happy.  We visited Brainerd, MN, for the car races, Go-Karted, and ate at a 50's diner.  We also bought a grill!!  Best purchase ever because Evan now does all the cooking!

4.) Visited neighbors: Dorothy and Clayt are still awesome at the end of block.  They even brought over rhubarb dessert!  Eunice is crazy interesting.  She was the first sales lady for a major company up in the cities.  Katherine and Cameron are great because they are around the same age as us with two adorable kids.  Margrit and Carolyn are interesting.  Carolyn likes to garden and has already tried pawning unwanted flowers onto us.  Also she plans to take us to one of her productions she manages in the cities!  Margrit is basically blind, but can see outlines.  Whenever she spots us in the yard she comes over and offers eggs and milk (just like a story book!).  Wayne and Carolyn are still our go-to-neighbors.  They give us dessert all the time, and we have even ran over some grilled items!  Troy and Viki are still insane.  They have offered up their generator when our electricity went out, as well as pulled branches off our hostas when their tree sort of fell on them.  Biker gang for sure.

5.) Painted: I painted a rummage sale find!  I bought a $3 wood futon frame and painted it bright yellow.  Hot-diggity dog!

6.) Work: With my new role on the Brand Strategy and Planning team, I have had the amazing opportunity to run multi-million dollar marketing efforts for several campaigns.  Ever heard of the Samsung Experience Shop or Windows Shop in Shop?  Well if you haven't please visit the Best Buy dotcom site.  I supported my co-worker on the Samsung efforts, and have run lead on the Windows Shop in Shop for developing a marketing plan, teach it out to the marketing capabilities, business groups, and integrated marketing planners.  Besides those items, I have worked a lot on the Back to School campaign, trained in on the Tablets business group as the marketing lead, and supported the Holiday planning.  Lots going on.  Lots of learning.  Lots of fun!!

7.) Massive storm: We had a massive storm rip through the neighborhood on Friday evening.  Our powerlines were ripped from the house and now lay across the backyard.  Needless to say our electric company has said no electricity until Wednesday at noon.  In addition to the power lines we had large tree branches laying across them, some water in the basement, no generator, and we had Evan's brother's family just show-up.  Braxton said it best "this is the worst weekend ever."  Luckily we have awesome neighbors.  Troy let us plug our refrigerator into his generator (we had to transfer all of Jenna's food upstairs, as well our deep freeze) and Carolyn gave us candles.  Truly blessed!!  Troy later came over with his son and they took some tree branches off our hostas and will use them in their campfires so we don't have to haul them to the dump.  It is true: our neighborhood is fantastic.

8.) Craigslist: I have been selling items like crazy.  I even had a scammer contact me!  Curious killed the cat, almost!

9.) Fishing Fun: Yes, we have managed to go finishing amongst everything else.  I feel like we are crazy.

9.) Upcoming: Wine & Canvas, Cousin Night, SoDak traveling, Wedding, Birthday!, Neighborhood Party, Friend's Weekend w/ Twins Game, Kitchen flooring, and as always: please come visit!!!