Mickelsen Maddness

Dearest Siblings and Members of the 2010 Mickelsen Family March Madness Bracket Tournament:

The following is a list of rules and regulations we would like to remind you of:

Each player will be permitted to fill out 2 brackets. Brackets will need to be turned in to Tournament Headquarters by Wednesday, March 17th at 8:00am via fax or email.

Winnings:

First place - $100
Second place - $60
Third place - $40

Each family member will be required to pay their respective amount in order to participate:

Mommy and Daddy - $110
Lesley and Jared (combined) - $30
Michele - $20
Brian - $10
Stephen - $10
Jeff - $10
Lauren - $10

Total: $200


Point System:

1pt 2pt 4pt 8pt 10pt 12pt

Scoring will be performed by the Council at Headquarters. If you wish to follow along and grade your own you are encouraged to make copies.

Thank you &
Good Luck,

Jeffrey E. Mickelsen
Lauren C. Mickelsen

Don't worry. In case one may be interested in the tournament standings, Mr. Gumble has taken the time to update us:

It appears as though I will not be taking any money home this year. Jeff & Lauren, you crack me up. Jeff I especially liked your guitar jump at the end. Hot. Lauren, nice jersey :)

My New Home

In February I moved to a new house, about a mile away from my old place. I am finally posting pics of the place as I promised. My new home is great, and I am enjoying all the space! Meet the roommates: Allison, Chelsea, Melissa, & I. Here we are anxiously awaiting for guests to arrive to our housewarming party. I've never seen our house look so clean!

What greater way to celebrate the move, then a house warming party with a candy bar!

Here we have the sitting room/library. Melissa found these great chairs on craigslist, and made our pretty, purple pillows. Nice work Mel.

Chels had great plans for the library, as it is organized by topic: religion, fiction, chick lit, fantasy, dating/relationships, travel, politics, children's, etc. We are a very educated group :)
The day the snow storm started, all of my roommates and I got out of work early. Most people rushed home to comforts of their warm and cozy homes, or to the grocery store to stock up on food for the weekend. Not us. We went shopping. We couldn't go an entire weekend without a few "necessary" items: a flat screen tv, media console, and of course clock for the library.

This room is the Jungle/Safari room. It is still a work in progress. It's nice to have additional living space downstairs, as well as upstairs (for all those men we will be having stop by!!).

The gym. Yep, that's right, we have a gym. No excuse for me not to be in shape for my Mt. Hood hike. The sad thing is, I have yet to use this baby. The owner of the place felt it was a hassle to move it, so we gladly offered to keep it around.

One of the best things about this house is the fact that I have a closet. I know that may seem strange to many of you, but in my last house I had a make shift closet, with tension rods that would collapse every month. Look at all that space!!!!!!
And here we have my bedroom. Pretty much looks the same as it did in my last place. When you move, you want to buy all new things, and re-decorate everything!! I can't tell you how many times I've been to Ross, TJ-Maxx, Pier 1, and World Market in the last month. Unfortunately no funds to do that now, so this will have to suffice. I am happy with how it turned out!

And there you have it. My new home.

I'm an aunt again!

Okay. So not really. But, I claim this is my little niece, Adelyn Marie Bales. Isn't she beautiful! I am so proud of Erika and her little one. I've met this little girl twice, and can't get enough of her. She is just perfect. I could sit and hold/stare at her for hours. It is fun to see one of my favorite friends in her new role, as a mother. Erika is one of the kindest people I know, and will make an excellent mommy! Congrats to Erika and Brian!

I don't know why these commercials make me laugh so hard...

BUT THEY DO!

Where to begin?

Tonight is the first night in a while that I've been in the mood to blog. Over the last several months, I've kept myself busy:

Hosting a red & white Christmas party

Traveling to WA to visit my nieces

enjoying the company of my dad and brothers

playing in Natalie and Haley's new house (that took over our family room, just teasing Les!!)

wishing I lived closer to my sibs

I moved houses!

survived snowpocalypse 2010 with my new roommates, Chelsea, Allison, & Melissa

Cheered on the bulldogs with Bishop Lybbert, Matt, Jake, and Brian at the Verizon Center!

Co-hosted a baby shower for Erika! She is due any day now!!

Danced the night away with New Kids on the Block, Tiffany, Duran Duran, Beastie Boys, Tom Petty, Madonna, Def Leppard, & Van Halen atthe legwarmers concert for the third time!

Traveled with the girls on flight Air Bachelor for the most dramatic season finale EVER!

Stayed up way too late every night watching the Olympics. Go team USA!

It was a very eventful winter, and now I am ready for summer. Why couldn't punxsutawney phil have seen his shadow?? Bring on the warm weather!