Monday, December 29, 2008

fun in o-hi-yer

of course you can't be in Cleve*land without a visit to the Q... to see the Lake Erie Monsters


And of course we need a bowling birthday:



which is never complete, btw, without white Russians, a la Big Lebowski



and of course, birthday boy Bill in drag. ;)

Then, we must celebrate New Years, and of course we celebrate on the 27th at 9:00 p.m.

But you can't just celebrate New Years, it needs to have a totally unrelated theme.
Like the Olympics.

(or "wearing stuff from your collegiate years." We're not picky.)

We dress up as athletes from assorted countries (Germany, France, and Germany again)

Sweden (please note our medals. it was a big year for Sweden)

Doesn't everyone make a fake ball drop at 9:00,

then run to the end of the street to see how many cars you can stop by pressing the crosswalk button?

And it's totally normal to cap off the night by posing for a family picture with the panda
(since the Olympics were in China)

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!


Saturday, December 20, 2008

fun with gingerbread

it all started with a harmless request to make gingerbread houses...

constructing and icing...



girls working hard

A wasn't so thrilled with how hers came out, so she decided to go a little crazy...


Here's Ju's. Check out that slam dunk!

K and her house
Mine (sort of an odd angle)

eating our hard work
what a fun family we have! I have no idea why we were wearing hats, it just happened. ;)

Friday, December 19, 2008

feels like Christmas!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!



a new way of decorating cookies... I'm now obsessed with pastry bags and tips. Just the first step in my dream: becoming the next Duff.

Friday, December 12, 2008

I love my sister

So this week has kind of sucked (I am THRILLED that it is FRIDAY!!!), and my sweet sister sent an email, procrastinating during finals, that immediately lifted my spirits! I've seen this before (and even did it last year), but it was never this funny before:

CHECK IT OUT

...something about seeing your parents and brother (for some reason M and I aren't so funny to me...) disco dance is HILARIOUS!!!

Thanks, sis. I needed that!

Friday, December 5, 2008

oh yeah, and...

... I went to see Twilight with Miss Mary, K and Sarah and became mildly obsessed with the books-- I saw the movie opening weekend (Saturday), only going for some girl time, and by that following Wednesday, I was almost done with the third book. I've had to slow down a bit, but just finished the fourth book tonight. FAN. FREAKING. TASTIC.

I know they're for 12 year old girls, but 12 year old girls don't make books hit the top of the best-seller lists. They're awesome. Read them! But consider yourself warned-- if you start, you won't be able to stop!!!!!

:)

for my momma

Hi.

Yep, I'm back. :) It's been a little busy lately. And I love blogging, but the crap-ass laptop I currently have makes it take a good hour and a half to post. And when I get to use J's desktop (technically it's "ours"), I have pressing things to accomplish before he steals it back. Something about "papers" and "grading papers" and "doing well in school," or something like that. The nerve. ;) (really, he offers it up all the time, but I don't want to keep him from that stuff.)

All 2 of you can thank my mother for saying at Thanksgiving: "Why don't you update your blog anymore? I keep going to read it and there's nothing. I really liked reading it!" Leave it to good old mom-guilt. ;)

So, here's the bullet rundown of our life since, oh, like September or so (save the one election post):

  • lots of school. J's doing great-- presented at a couple of conferences this fall, and we have REALLY REALLY exciting conferences to go to next year. THRILLED.
  • still loving my new(er) job. (It's been 6 months, so not so new anymore.) a little scared about the economy, but my company has never had layoffs before. let's pray now isn't when they decide to start. for now, all is very very well.
  • Rosie gets in trouble every 5 minutes, but we love her and couldn't imagine life without her. She recently got spayed and scared the crap out of all of us when she ate a starfish. She's doing okay now, though, so no harm no foul. That girl sure knows how to get into trouble, but she's equally good at being a sweet little lump of love. It's hard to stay mad at her for long.
  • Bailey is great, loving having a sister, still getting lots of love without her jumping in his face. He's such a sweetie.
  • I traveled all over in October and November: the lake to shop with mom + sis, Chicago for J's conference and spend time with the sibs, Chicago for an IKEA run! with the ine/ene/eens, to the west coast for work, to OH-IO for turkey day weekend (after actual turkey day with my family). That was a whole lot of running.
  • J turned 29. pictures will follow. he hates that I like to remind him he's in his 30th year. :)
  • tree is up, lights going up this weekend, planning an all-day shopping blitz to start/finish our shopping tomorrow.
  • Thrilled about all-day shopping tomorrow b/c after the lake + downtown Chicago shopping + IKEA... well. Any of you that know me can guess that was a bit much. So I've been shopping free for about a month. I'm ready to go all-out tomorrow, all for other people. :) SO FUN!!!
That's all I've got for now... I'll try to do a big picture post soon to catch up...
J

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

VOTE! (and randomness...)

long time, no update. I know I owe like 16 posts... I'll get to it, I swear... :)

We voted today... did you? If not, get your butt out there!

I stood in line for 2 hrs this morning... and J went at 10:30 and it took 20 minutes. :P

My wonderful husband knows how much I love election day, so this is what was waiting for me when I got home:


good man, huh?

off to watch election coverage... GOOOOO OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

dog update:

Yesterday Rosie and Bailey snuggled for the first time! And by snuggled, I of course mean that while Bailey was laying down, Rosie decided to rest her head on his hip, and they didn't fight. They actually stayed like that for a good 10 minutes. Progress, people! That's what I'm talking about!!

wild and crazy saturday

In an effort to be more adventurous, J and I have started trying to go out at least once a weekend to a new restaurant that is local and somewhere fun in our city. Last night, we tried a local "gastropub" in... well... on a block that is going through some revitalization.

I didn't think to break out my camera while we were there, but here are some pics, pilfered from the internet:


The interior of the joint, and what you can't see are the big screens.

What I had for dinner, though mine looked a little more appetizing (less greasy) than this...

The menu is pretty simple, with only a few choices, but good. Not a "WOW" in our book, but the rockin' beer selection and fact that they had the Mizzou game (on pay-per-view) on were good enough for us! :)

Our plans only included dinner, but on the way, we took a slight detour to drive past the the EMHE house happening near us. Because the streets were packed, and there was no close parking, we gave up, but I'm looking for an update from you, Mo! :)

On the way back, we happened to pass a local brewery where there was an event going on. After dinner, we figured why not check it out! Surprizingly, it was a free event. We grabbed a couple of beers and perused the creations showcased in the parking lot. (Please note, yet again, craptastic cell phone camera...)

The event may be free, but the beer sure isn't!

J, enjoying his first sip of Oktoberfest

Artwork in my favorite tent

The artist worked in mixed medium, and had these funny little pieces. This one cracked me up.
It says: "Aunt Marla from Milwaukee always sent the best gifts."

After we finished our beers and saw what there was to see (including some amazing, but spendy, handmade jewelery), we decided to go inside and check out the Schl*fly Shop for fun.

We didn't plan on buying anything, but when J saw this t-shirt, he had to have it.
the front...
...and the back, complete with an "unofficial" cardinal, letting you know where Schl*fly products are sold
at Busch Stadium! :)

Since it's the end of the season, we also couldn't leave without a six pack of my favorite beer, the Raspberry Hefewiezen. MMMMMMM!
It's a summer brew, and reminds me of our wedding because it was on-tap when we had our awesome rehearsal dinner at the Tap Room (Schl*fly's other location downtown).

We hope to do things like this more often. What a great Saturday night!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

okay, one more.

Thanks to the wonderful Kelly, we do have a picture from Saturday night, and for all you puppy-crazies, they're in it too:


MIZZOU-RAH!!

3lbs, 14oz

That's how big Rosie is now. Since the last time we were at the vet (three weeks ago) she's gained a pound! She's still tiny as can be, but we're glad to see her gaining some weight. I shouldn't be surprised, with the amount of food she eats, but she's so LITTLE! :) We may have another 6-pounder on our hands. ;)

Monday, September 1, 2008

cuteness.

So I know why I write this blog. But I know why the three of you read this blog. And they're not the same reason.



It's not for the house pictures (or lack thereof). It's not because our lives are fascinating enough to keep you coming back for more.



It's the puppies. Admit it. They're the real draw.



So for all of you drooling for more puppy pictures, I now present Bailey and Rosie, A Sunday Evening. (Please note I did not mean to favor a certain dog, but one of them kept making a "for real, mom? Knock it off with the camera already and get my sister away from me" face...)



Under the Table and Chewing

I'll get you!

Don't forget me!! I'm cute too!!

That's right. You WILL rub my tummy. You can't resist my fat-tummied puppy charm!

I'm so damn adorable. Check out my ponytail.

A rare moment of kissing (not biting!) her brother. Bailey still doesn't love it.

(We have to hold them to get them to be this close together.)



So there you go. Your weekly dose of cuteness. Happy now? ;)

happy houseaversary.

The original point of this blog was to share house pictures, which sadly I've gotten away from. I was looking back at old posts, and realized that there's so much more that we've done to the house since the last pictures that I really should do an update post... and I never posted the kitchen. I'll get to it I swear...

Now it's more about keeping track of what's going on with our lives. That's why I write it.

Anyway, we closed on our house a year ago last Saturday, and it's been a good year. No major problems (knock on wood!!!), we're happy and comfy and cozy and have room to spare. We love this little house, and we're very happy with our first home buying experience.

Happy houseaversary, little home. We love you and we hope you continue to love us in the years to come. :)

labor day

Happy Labor Day (aka extra day off work) to all!

We had a great weekend! And even though there wasn't supposed to be much "labor," we worked hard to entertain, but had a great time doing it!

Friday night we went out with Mom, Dad, my sis and her boyfriend to a great pizza place because she was in from school. Saturday we cleaned and ran errands, and had some good friends (some of my sorority sisters and their husbands) over to watch the Mizzou game! We had a great time cheering the Tigers on to a victory! (Take that, Illinois!!) Sunday was a chill day for us; we went and did some shopping for J, and watched a few movies. It was great to have a break to relax. Today, we saw my fam again and had them over for a BBQ and puppy fest. :) Bailey loved seeing Riley, and Rosie loved all the attention.

Sadly, I forgot to bust out my camera at any of the events, so there are no pictures, but we do have a clean house and lots of leftovers to show for it. :)

Hope everyone else had a great Labor Day!!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

gettin' sh*t done!

J and I took the time to make a to-do list a couple of weeks ago because there was too much to do, and it wasn't getting done. The last couple of weekends have been dedicated to crossing things off that list, and it feels GOOD! Here's some of what we've done:

  • weed the front garden
  • remove caulk in back shower; re-caulk both bathrooms
  • severely trim the rosebushes and tree out front
  • clean out the closets in the whole house
  • pull together our large donations pile
  • haircuts and baths for both pups
  • cleaning/organizing/getting rid of junk in the guest room (mostly my stuff that's been with us through too many moves)-- that room looks SO much better!!
  • preparing for J's first week of school/the class I'm teaching this week
  • organizing our mail system
  • taking care of our paper problem in this house (lots of shredding, filing, and recycling going on around here)
There's a lot more to go, but it feels SO good to be so productive. Our goal is to get at least one item checked off our ongoing to-do list each night after work/school, and at least one major item done each weekend. We've got plenty to keep us busy for a while... we'll see how we do with that goal :)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

flashback!

a little something funny for a Tuesday...

me, circa 1960 (when I was -22)

...and again in 1966.
wanna see what you would have looked like?
check it out

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Well, I guess we're stuck.

Yesterday we took a very big step in our relationship.

It only took: two visits to the DMV (during the first one all of the computers for all of the DMVs in our STATE were down), $28, the correct form of proof of address, and 3 years, 8 months, and approximately 19 days of living together.

For the first time, we now have the same address (that we actually live at) on our licenses.

HA!

Great way to celebrate the approaching first anniversary of home ownership, huh? We're really on the ball with this sort of stuff. We've both had our parents' addresses on our licenses for... well pretty much forever, and with all the moving around we did, it just didn't seem worth it to change them. But now that we actually live somewhere that we'll be for more than two years, and that we own (! still giddy about that, even a year later) we figured it was about time.

Nothing says commitment like a shared address in the eyes of the DOR. :)

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

why the horded posts?

Because my laptop sucks, that's why.
I keep thinking about the things I want to blog, but just to get rolling on these posts, it took FORTY-FIVE MINUTES (!!!) to get my laptop up and running and blogger open. I'm tempting fate right now, because I've been at it for an hour and a half (since I turned on the computer) and my computer hasn't frozen yet. (QUICK! knock on wood fast!!)

I could use J's desktop, but he's getting ready for fall classes and has syllabi to write, so I don't want to interrupt that flow.

So, for now you'll have to deal with all the posts that I've thought of for the last week and a half showing up all at once... and lots of time in-between. Google could also help my problem if they'd let me be logged in to my normal account AND my blogger account at the same time. It makes me crazy that I have to sign out and back in (because that usually takes me 15 minutes plus two computer freezes and restarts) in order to post or comment on other blogs. Bleh.

I would really like one of these pretty things:

but unless I win the lottery, it's not happening any time soon. And, it also doesn't help that also on my wish list are:


(not necessarily that exact one, but I need a sewing machine)

and


Not. gonna. happen.

a girl can dream though, right??