#80 when life throws a big "life pie" in your face...

Go to sammy's and eat a whole days worth of calories in the form of pie shakes and sweet potato fries.

#79 If Moms all over the World Held a Mom Convention

I think they would probably decide to give my mom an award.

What an amazing woman.

Happy Belated 30th Birthday mom!

We Love you!

#72 Dear Dad,

I may or may not already miss you...

I'm just too cool to tell you.

Love,

Catherine

#65 Road Trippin

Step 1: Teach Katie how to get in the car

#60 The Last of the Brohams

I hope none of you were worried that I forgot about My brother Christian.

Did you know that I have a tender spot in my heart for that brother o' mine?

Christian and I used to get in all sorts of trouble when we were little. Usually I would do something annoying, and he would tease me, and I would cry, and mom would use her discipline words, and Christian would get in trouble. I know, but don't feel too bad for me.

Christian and I became best of friends the summer before he left for college. He would let me follow him everywhere. To the library, to the store, to the library again. He let me steal all of his music. He came to a few of my tennis matches. He bragged about my ability to make cookies which always made me feel like a bajillion bucks. Let's just cut to the chase, this kid was awesome.

Besides brothering, Christian has many other awesome superpowers. He is a stellar photographer. A stupendous actor and director and drama teacher (or will be when he graduates). He is the jokester of the family. And last but not least, he can grow a facelump with the best of 'em.

Oh how I love this kid.

#56 Bob's Barbeque

Last Saturday a friend of mine had some Barbeque, and for the rest of the weekend he couldn't seem to stop bringing it up.

So of course we had to try it. We hopped in the car and sped down the road to Bob's Barbeque in the small town of Elgin Minnesota. Little did we know that Bob's Barbeque was also awarded the best barbeque in all of Minnesota. We were so Naive.

We all got the ribs. They were finger lickin good. Let me repeat, finger lickin good. And the meat practically fell off the bone. Smother that with the most deliciously smoky sweet sauce possible and you have created heaven on a piece of red checked wrapper.

Here we are smelling our fingers. Why you ask? Well try eating some ribs with the most heavenly sauce known to man and then not smelling your fingers. Try it. I dare you.

#54 Terms of Endearment

**Me and the older of the pooper scoopers

About a year ago, my brother came to me with a great concern. He was worried that our siblingship was not quite up to snuff when compared to another siblingship that he had witnessed.

Poppycock says you? Challenge says I.

So when he told me he was concerned because we didn't have cutesy nicknames for each other I was so on it. My other brother Christian caught right on, and soon enough, our siblingship communication went to a whole new level. We were unstoppable, inserting nicknames into everyday conversations so smoothly. It was all about timing. Soon, I was using terms of endearment in my regular conversations with friends and strangers alike. And so I give you, the top 15 terms of endearment, which, if well placed in conversations at home, with family, with friends, or in the workplace, can strengthen relationships and brighten your communication abilities. I guarantee it.

15. Puddin

14. Brosef/broham/broman

13. Sweet thang

12. Hotcakes

11. Loverbuns

10. Sugar

9. Gurrfriend/ G-friend (to be said with attitude)

8. Handsome

7. Babycakes

6. Shorty/Shawdy

5. Good Lookin

4. Poopy/pooper/pooper scooper

3. Pooh Bear

2. Pooky

1. Shnookums

#47 Is my dad's favorite number

"I'm glad you don't have some sort of social disorder from being raised by me"

- The Wise Brian Cragun

#48 Nathan Cragun

***(Picture courtesy of Christian Cragun)

This is my brother Nathan. Yes, He colored that Candle himself. Oh he's good. He's real good.

Nathan and I have always been good pals. And by always I mean ever since I grew out of my whiny preteen stage and he grew out of his "destroy Catherine's barbies by tying them behind my bike to see if they can fly" stage.

But seriously. I love this kid.

Let's be honest, who wouldn't? He's majoring in counting, and when it comes to crayola crayons, the kid has as much talent and passion as picasso. And boy, can you say vision?

Anyways. Nathan fell into the "everyone move to California for fun (and possibly to have a successful future)" trap, and boy do I miss that kid, which doesn't make sense because we weren't even living in the same state anyways, but it's the principle of the thing.

Nathan makes most people laugh. Usually with him, not at him. But mostly he makes me laugh. A lot. We could sit in his kitchen and laugh about a dumb joke about bacon for hours.

Also, Nathan takes brothering seriously. And he is pretty good at it too. He let's me call him frequently and babble on and on about the happenings in my boring life, down to the boringest of detail. He even occasionally throws in a courtesy laugh for good measure.

Did I mention he is also a pro ultimate frisbee player, and hot dog eater. And boy can that kid grow a beard.

What's not to love?

#40 Dear California,

Quit stealing all my favorite people.

You're cool. We get it.

Love, Catherine

#38 Daddy-o, Or the Father's Day Post that was hiding on here

I gotta love that dad of mine.

Seriously.

Did you know he is an artist?

Did you know you can see his art here?

Did you know that he has been married to the cutest woman on the planet for almost 30 years?

Did you know that he is a pretty lucky guy?

Did you know he is a comedian?

Did you know he can make his belly button talk?

Just a few reasons why I love that guy!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad I know!

#35 Matthew Cragun

*Matthew and I on his wedding day.

Recently I overheard a conversation between two siblings that went a little something like this

sibling 1: I need help with my homework

sibling 2: no, I'm sick of helping you with homework.

Ok so that's not word for word, but thats the basics of it. Anyways, as I was overhearing this conversation I took a trip down memory lane to my Junior year of high school when I took Physics from a guy named Mr. S. Bless his heart the man tried his best to teach me the ways of gravity and acceleration and all the things in between, but for the life of me I didn't get it. Luckily I had a brother who is super smart and understands things like physics, cars, chemistry, the meaning of life... etc. So once a week or so, (usually the night before my physics homework was due because that's the way I roll) I would call up Matthew, and he would coach me through problem after problem and formula after formula, and even when I would pretend I had no more problems left because I felt bad for being an annoying time consuming little sister, he would ask if we could try one more problem just to make sure I got it.

So it was no surprise to me when I called Matthew late the other night to ask him a car question, and he was more than happy to help. I'm so grateful for a brother who is practically a car whisperer.

And it doesn't surprise me either when I talk to Matthew and he seems to know exactly what advice I need to be given. I am eternally thankful for the mountains of advice that I get from this kid.

I'm a lucky little sister.

#34 Ask the Audience

This photo has nothing to do with the following post. I just found it, and it made me smile and also, I needed something to motivate you to comment.

Ok so the past few days (and by days I mean all of June) have been rainy and icky and no fun. Many of my fellow Minnesotans (me included) have been mumbling and grumbling about the icky weather, but something magical happened today, The sun came out! Which means it's time to stop all this dooming and glooming! Therefore, it's time for a list!

Here are the top 5 things that made my day just wonderful.

5. A letter from my good pal Elder Bolton

4. A wonderful day at work with a wonderful coworker

3. Peanut butter banana smoothies with chocolate chips

2. Nupa (blog post to come) followed by loud car singing with some pals

1. Laying out in the sunshine with My bff oh life miss Kathryn

And now guess what! It's your turn! I want to hear the top 5 things of the day, or the week, or the month for that matter! It's time for you (and I mean YOU) to spread some love! Leave a comment with your top 5! I can't wait to hear from everyone (and I mean EVERYONE)!

#33 Sista-Friend

Here's a game for you. Sisters? Not sisters?

It's tough, I know.

P.S. I love this girl.

#32 I miss them

Good News is we all love eachother.

Bad new is we have to spend the summer apart.

Cheesy... I know.

*Warning, there are about a million pictures in this post... Sorry.

#29, Having a Cute-as-a-button Mom

You know how most girls have their weddings planned out from age... like... birth? Well I was never much into that. However, there are three things that I have decided will happen at my wedding. ( which wont be for about 10-30 years, so no getting ideas) (that means you mom)

1. Stevie wonder will play at the reception (Dear Stevie, I hope in the future we can be better friends so that it's not awkward when I ask you to play at my wedding... for free. Love, Catherine)

2. There will be ice cream

3. There will be peonies

So when I got home after a long day of work, I was delightfully surprised to find a vase of giant fluffy beautiful pink peonies and some roses, fresh out of my mom's beautifully tended garden. What a good mom I have.

#28 A Memorable Memorial day

It started out with the breakfast of champions. Which included a parfait, and smiley toast. After that my dad sent me on a mission to the hardware store to pick up something that had to do with something hardwarey. (special thanks to the lady at Menards for knowing exactly what I was looking for)

My dad forgot to take into account that the fabric store is right next to the hardware store, and I had a hankering for a good project. I picked up some fun fabric, and a few patterns, and I was on my way.

After starting a project, and doing a little cleaning, I met my friends for some grilling, laughter, and of course, an "intense" game of Boys against girls (and Craig) volleyball.

Then we met at my pal lauren's house for some swimming fun and hot tubbin.

There's nothing better than a wonderful day with some wonderful friends! I hope your memorial day was just as swell!

P.S. I'm not sure why my computer thought it would be funny to underline 3/4 of this post. So we'll just pretend it was a stylistic choice.

# 27 Lazy Sunday

Today was a lazy Sunday. My mom was out of town, and while I had some precious alone time at the house I ran downstairs to play some piano. Afterwards my dad got home and insisted we do something fun for the night. So we got out the scrabble board. You should know that my dad is an intense scrabble player. He thinks of words that Webster himself hasn't even thought of yet. He always wins. Always. It has been my lifelong goal to beat him (and by lifelong I mean since this fall). After a lively game of scrabble and a skype-date with my brother and his wife, we went on a short walk outside, where my dad told me about his childhood. It was fun to hear all the stories. He told me lot's of interesting things, like about the time that he lived in Europe and the most exciting thing he ate was French Fries (I'm just kidding) (Kind of). And the time he ate pizza in Italy. And the time his brother made up a song to tease him about a girl. (Dear Uncle Crawford, Thank you for doing your best to tease my dad! It's good to know that someone took responsibility for that before I came along.) All in all, it was a nice night!

Also Last night I made some dinner for the Pops and I. We had Chili Lime Grilled Chicken with mango salsa. And on the side we had grilled squash. If you like yellow squash or zucchini, then you have to try these. Here is the recipe

Grilled Squash for 2

1 yellow squash or zucchini

1 T Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Using a cheese slicer, or veggie peeler, or just cutting super thin (Like a long potato Chip but slightly thicker). Slice up long strips of squash

toss in the olive oil. Salt and Pepper Liberally (and I mean liberally) and toss again. Place on hot well oiled grill. Flip when you start to see grill marks. Take off and enjoy. Try your best not to eat them before they get to the table.

# 26 Haley Amanda Johnson

Yesterday my beautiful friend/basically older sister Haley got married. She was the prettiest bride. (don't you agree?)

Here are some of my favorite things/memories of Haley.

- One time we had a surprise party for her, and boy was she surprised, in fact we scared her so bad she forgot how to go down stairs. Surprise Haley, we got you some fresh bruises!

- When my parents had their 25th anniversary they for some reason felt the need to go on a vacation to England... Without me! I mean come on, how rude! That aside, they did let me stay with Haley for those 2 weeks. It was a fun filled week. I ate wonderful Cajun food (Haley's mom is the best Cajun cook in the U.S.) I got to share clothes for the first time in my life (all brothers= no clothes sharing). I went and saw the midnight showing for a Harry Potter movie. And I basically got no sleep because let's be honest, it was merely and extended sleepover. Best two weeks ever!

- Haley was basically my older sister. Having all older brothers most of my growing up life, Haley introduced me to a lot of the "girl" world. (I.E. Make up, boys, nail polish, etc.)

- This girl always has the best advice, is always ready for a laugh, is simply amazing at being a friend, and is just one of those people who is incredibly refreshing to talk to.

Thanks Haley for being such a wonderful, patient, fun friend! I'm so proud of you! And I'm so happy for you and Mike!

(Isn't Mike just the luckiest guy?)

#23 Eric Cragun

If you were to ask me about my favorite memory of my brother Eric, I probably wouldn't be completely honest with you. I have lots of memories of Eric, but my favorite one might seem completely insignificant. If you asked for my favorite memory, I might tell you about the time that he told me (to my horror) that my dog J.D.'s lack of tail was directly related to the hot dog I just ate and I cried in my room while he begged to come in so he could apologize. I might tell you about the letters I got from Eric while he was on his mission all the way in Korea. I might tell you about the time I went to visit Eric in D.C. and he patiently listened to Michael Jackson's "Don't stop til you get enough" over and over again by my request (if I were being pun-ny I would say, we didn't stop til we got enough) . I might tell you about the time on Christmas eve when Eric dressed in his Elf costume and spread Christmas cheer to basically everyone in Southern Minnesota.

Anyway, if we ever have this conversation and I tell you one of those stories, or any others for that matter, don't believe me, I am lying. Because if I were telling the truth, I would tell you of this memory:

I am standing on the step that divides our kitchen from our living room, and Eric is standing a few feet away from me, and I can't quite remember but he is either dancing in some ridiculous way or serenading me with "Have I told you lately that I love you" by Rod Stewart.

And that my friends, is my brother Eric.

Oh boy do I love that kid!