Approximately 240 hours of studying and 6 hours of test taking later...
Casey has successfully passed his first CFA exam!!!!! Great Job Casey!!! Henry and I are very proud of you.
For those of you like me out there that don't know a whole lot about financial stuff, CFA is a designation that stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. To get this designation you have to pass 3 REALLY hard tests (typically only 40% of the people pass). So now that Casey has successfully completed the first one he will probably be moving on to the next.
Just wanted to share the good news!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
MMMM Bone!
It's only been a day and Henry has learned so much! He plays fetch now (he even runs back with the ball...after pouncing on it) and he learned how to run up and down the stairs --- looks like a gate is in order. He also got this super sweet bone. Thanks Lynden and Britta! It is definitely his favorite.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
O Henry!
The Plante household has a new member - Henry! Henry is a lab/Australian shepherd mix, and has been having tons of fun at the Plante house. Here's a few of his favorite things to do:
Being a puppy, he loves to sleep. Usually it's in two hour increments. Sometimes he just lays down where he's playing and falls asleep. Here Megan is taking advantage of his warmth as she takes a nap herself (she ran the Securian 5k this morning - nice job!). He also likes to lay on the couch to take a nap - here's a not so normal position:
His favorite places to play are usually under furniture - the couch is fun, but so is the bed. If he's downstairs, his favorite place is under the coffee table:
He's had lots of new experiences - it's been a packed first two days. Megan and I picked him up from the Humane Society of Barron County, Wisconsin on Friday afternoon. He sat very peacefully in Megan's lap the whole ride home and got a good nap in. He's found a couple fun chew toys to play with - being a puppy, he likes to nip with his very sharp puppy teeth - he also likes to try to herd us around the house - very bossy! If you've been to our house, you know that our bedroom closets have mirrors on them - which sure makes it seem like there is another puppy in the house - at least to Henry. His first experience with Henry 2 was to give him a big, tackling hug! Even though there has been rain the last couple of days, Henry has had lots of fun in the snow. Being a 10 pound puppy, he can dive into the snow and have a great time.
He's doing pretty well with learning that puppies should go to the bathroom outside. I'd say we're at 75%. He sleeps in his crate at night, and his first night was a successful one - only once did he whine, which was for a bathroom break.
That's all for now! We'll leave you with one last cute picture and video - no one can resist his studly looks!
Being a puppy, he loves to sleep. Usually it's in two hour increments. Sometimes he just lays down where he's playing and falls asleep. Here Megan is taking advantage of his warmth as she takes a nap herself (she ran the Securian 5k this morning - nice job!). He also likes to lay on the couch to take a nap - here's a not so normal position:
His favorite places to play are usually under furniture - the couch is fun, but so is the bed. If he's downstairs, his favorite place is under the coffee table:
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He's had lots of new experiences - it's been a packed first two days. Megan and I picked him up from the Humane Society of Barron County, Wisconsin on Friday afternoon. He sat very peacefully in Megan's lap the whole ride home and got a good nap in. He's found a couple fun chew toys to play with - being a puppy, he likes to nip with his very sharp puppy teeth - he also likes to try to herd us around the house - very bossy! If you've been to our house, you know that our bedroom closets have mirrors on them - which sure makes it seem like there is another puppy in the house - at least to Henry. His first experience with Henry 2 was to give him a big, tackling hug! Even though there has been rain the last couple of days, Henry has had lots of fun in the snow. Being a 10 pound puppy, he can dive into the snow and have a great time.
He's doing pretty well with learning that puppies should go to the bathroom outside. I'd say we're at 75%. He sleeps in his crate at night, and his first night was a successful one - only once did he whine, which was for a bathroom break.
That's all for now! We'll leave you with one last cute picture and video - no one can resist his studly looks!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thanksgibbin Weekend
Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday of the year. You get to spend time with the family without the stress that can sometimes be associated with all of the activities of celebrating Christmas. I was very happy to finally be back state-side for Thanksgiving after taking a two year sabbatical of sorts. (I celebrated in Italy with my good friends Sarah and Tim 2007, and celebrated with my girlfriends Jenny, Rachel and Betsy over a bowl of Irish stew in Ireland 2008). This Thanksgiving weekend was jammed full of fun times and good memories.
1st Annual Sherplante Turkey Trot
This year Thanksgiving started out continuing a tradition of running with my brother Matt in the morning. We typically would brave the coldest temperatures to run in the Minneapolis Turkey Trot 5K. This year we opted to make our own 5K-ish run from their house. We say it's a 5Kish run so that we have the flexibility of making the run shorter if we want :) - this year our 5Kish run was 1.5 miles. We had a fairly good audience on our run, and I think we were able to burn off just enough calories to compensate for our breakfast of cinnamon toast!
Later that day we spent up at Casey's parent's house. I think there were about 14 of us there to eat together. I had fun hearing some good stories about Casey's mom and her sisters. Like I said at the beginning of the post the afternoon was full of good times and good memories.
Tool-Time
Friday after was not spent shopping like some do but just getting stuff done around the house. I also chose to use my time to check something off of the "House-Project" list- installing a garbage disposer. I'm not too handy of a person but I love puzzles so this project was sort of right up my alley and was fun too! I got to try my hand at some basic electrical work and plumbing. After 7 trips to Home Depot all is done and it purrs like a kitten. Below on the left is a picture right after I got Casey's help putting the disposer in the sink. On the right is the finished product. Pretty cool huh?
O Christmas Tree!
Another first this year for me was actually going to a tree farm and cutting down our own Christmas Tree. On Saturday, we drove out to a tree farm by Katie's house and I got to try my hand at cutting down our first tree. It took us awhile to find the right one but the one we found looks perfect in our house. (And smells good too!)
Happy Holidays!
1st Annual Sherplante Turkey Trot
This year Thanksgiving started out continuing a tradition of running with my brother Matt in the morning. We typically would brave the coldest temperatures to run in the Minneapolis Turkey Trot 5K. This year we opted to make our own 5K-ish run from their house. We say it's a 5Kish run so that we have the flexibility of making the run shorter if we want :) - this year our 5Kish run was 1.5 miles. We had a fairly good audience on our run, and I think we were able to burn off just enough calories to compensate for our breakfast of cinnamon toast!
Later that day we spent up at Casey's parent's house. I think there were about 14 of us there to eat together. I had fun hearing some good stories about Casey's mom and her sisters. Like I said at the beginning of the post the afternoon was full of good times and good memories.
Tool-Time
Friday after was not spent shopping like some do but just getting stuff done around the house. I also chose to use my time to check something off of the "House-Project" list- installing a garbage disposer. I'm not too handy of a person but I love puzzles so this project was sort of right up my alley and was fun too! I got to try my hand at some basic electrical work and plumbing. After 7 trips to Home Depot all is done and it purrs like a kitten. Below on the left is a picture right after I got Casey's help putting the disposer in the sink. On the right is the finished product. Pretty cool huh?
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O Christmas Tree!
Another first this year for me was actually going to a tree farm and cutting down our own Christmas Tree. On Saturday, we drove out to a tree farm by Katie's house and I got to try my hand at cutting down our first tree. It took us awhile to find the right one but the one we found looks perfect in our house. (And smells good too!)
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Happy Holidays!
November 7th 2009
As most of you know, November 7th was a pretty big day at the Sherplante household. Thanks to everyone that could come help us celebrate in our marriage! Everyone asks what the best part of your wedding day was. For me, I think, besides the obvious (getting married to the person I love most) was the opportunity to spend the day surrounded by the friends and family that we love. We had a lot of fun catching up with family that we don't see very often as well as tearing up the dance floor with our friends (Scott- you had both of our families entertained with your awesome dance moves). I could probably write a book on every little thing that happened at the wedding but I don't think something like that would do the day justice.
Just remember - Keep tightening that weave!!!
Love to you all,
The new Mrs. Plante
Robocop the Pumpkin
This year we were able to enjoy Halloween 'old-school style' - we actually carved our first pumpkin and had tons of trick-or-treaters. I was a little more generous in my candy portions than Casey (I would give a small handful, about 3-4 pieces, and he would give just one tiny piece to each) but we had a fun time seeing all of the costumes the kids came up with! We rounded out the night with a good scary movie - Aliens. Above is a picture of us carving our pumpkin named Robocop. Isn't he handsome!
I also took the time to sort through all of the squishy muck to roast the seeds. It was my first time doing it. It was delicious.
Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
Directions
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).
- Combine the margarine, salt, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce and pumpkin seeds. Mix thoroughly and place in shallow baking dish.
- Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Catching up - way up
So... as has been pointed out to us, we have not updated the blog since "A day at the zoo", which has been quite a while. A few things have happened since then. Nothing all that exciting. We'll catch up with a few entries. This one will cover the rest of the summer.
A visit from Sadie
Lynden and Britta left for a vacation for a week, and Sadie needed a place to stay, so she came and spent the week with us. Boy, did she have a good time! She had a walk every morning (it was in the summer, so it was nice out and there was sunlight - not sure it would have been as exciting in the winter). We played lots of tug o war. In the picture above we are playing fetch with one of the new toys she got while staying at our house (one is still here just in case she comes over again). We also became the most popular people on our street - at least to the kids. They all came over when Sadie was in the back yard. We have not seen the kids since (except to take Halloween candy from us). Overall, Sadie had a great time. We heard she was a little depressed at home for the first couple of days, but that's understandable when you don't get to hang around with us anymore.
State Fair
Megan and I made our annual trip to the State Fair in September. It was a beautiful day out. We ate more than we could handle. We also met up with Katie and Annie. We visited lots of fun stuff. We saw lots of animals, and went down the giant slide (Annie squealed on the way down - she went twice). Annie was passing out by the end of the day. We also met up with Britta and Lynden towards the end of our day (they were just starting theirs).
Babysitting Leah
We also had a chance to babysit Leah for the first time. As long as we were moving around, Leah was having a great time. We had a great time the whole time. Overall, I think it was a successful job as babysitters; she did get a little upset after dinner (it may have gotten her a little gassy), but after that, she passed out and didn't wake up until mom and dad were home (picture of her sleeping above).
That's all for the summer!
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