We've been Simpsonized!

Scot and Kim if we lived about an hour away in Springfield with the Simpsons!

Way to go, baby!

We received some exciting news about a week ago. Some of you have already heard, but Scot was recently promoted to Vice President at the credit union! He will now be the Regional Manager over the Peoria area, so he will oversee 13 branches and the contact center. He has been with the company for 18 years now, so he has definitely worked hard for this.

His current boss retires at the end of the year, and he will be offically assuming his new role October 1st. I am so proud of him for this accomplishment, and I know he will be great at it! He has been told that we will have to participate in a lot of community events (it has also been suggested that he invest in a tuxedo as it will be cheaper than renting one multiple times). Scot is not so excited about this, but I am looking forward to it as it will give me an opportunity to meet more people in the area (plus I love to get dressed up!)

Way to go, Scot!

Shout out...

Happy 24th Anniversary today to Dad and Susan!

Shout out...

Happy 17th Anniversary today to Mom and Greg!

Talking dog

Proof that our dog, Harli, is a crazy little critter! Prior to starting to tape her, she had been in the bedroom doing this for about 45 minutes on her own. Plus- she had done the same thing for about an hour the night before! Talk about stubborn! In case you can't tell, there is a dryer sheet in the laundry basket that she was obsessed with!

Excuse the poor quality of the tape. I should have turned the light on in the room, so it's a little dark. Also, this happened when Scot was out of town with the digital camera, so I had to film it with the 8mm video camera. I don't have the proper cable to transfer those videos to the computer, so I played the video on the TV and aimed the digital camera at the TV to record it. It reminded me of when I was a kid, and I used to put the tape player by the radio to record my favorite song! :)

So what do you think she was saying?

August

Wow- I'm finally caught up to the current month in my much abridged recap of the last six months! In some of my previous posts, I mentioned that Scot was out of town last weekend. That's because him and some of his buddies went on a motorcycle trip. The original plan was to go to West Virginia, camp out, and spend a couple of days riding through the mountains in the area. However, he ended up calling me Saturday night from the Atlantic Ocean! I'll let him post some of his pictures/stories from the trip in a separate entry. However, here are some pics of him getting ready for the bike ride. Scot got a new tent for his birthday, so he wanted to do a "trial run" to make sure he could set it with no problems before they left. Here are some pics of him and the boys "camping out" in our living room the weekend before his trip.

Scot and Matt taking inventory and laying everything out.

Matt helping to put the rods together. Doesn't he look like he's 7 ft tall in this picture?

Mission completed! Note Scot's cheesy grin- this is what happens when you ask someone to pose against their will!

Matt, Andy, and Harli taking a tour of the inside.

July

Free time in July was again mainly spent outside working on house projects. We did get away at the end of July to take the boys to Six Flags in St. Louis. It was a hot day (go figure), but we had a great time! It had been years since I had been to Six Flags in the summer (the last several times had been in the fall for Fright Nights- the Halloween theme is fun, plus it's a lot cooler!). We went on a Friday so the lines weren't out of control. We were able to make our rounds through the park and hit all the major rides. Here's a picture of the boys and me getting ready to take flight on "The Boss." (I won't show you the "after" picture when we returned to the dock!) You might notice that there is someone obviously missing from this picture. Scot decided not to partake in the joys of this roller coaster. I guess the last time he rode the Boss, he felt the effects in his head for the rest of the day. (Cough...wuss!) :) Although, I will admit that I definitely felt pretty banged up after this ride so I can respect his decision. I guess I'm officially getting old!

Scot and Kim on Thunder River (and no, I wasn't naked, despite what the picture looks like!)

After riding all of the major rides, we headed over to the water park, Hurricane Harbor, later in the afternoon. We all got changed into our swimsuits and quickly hurried off to our first water slide. Then we headed off to our second slide- which was the tallest in the park. We climbed all the way to the top of the tower and then, yep, lightning. Of course, the park immediately shut down. So there we were, soaking wet and we only got to go on one slide. Since it was late in the afternoon, most people immediately left the water park. We found a table under an awning, and we decided to wait it out a bit to see if they would reopen. The good news was that after about 45 minutes of waiting, they did reopen the park. The bad news was that it was about 15 minutes before the water park's closing time. We quickly got two more slides in (there were zero people in line at this point), but we felt a little more sense of accomplishment.

Of course, we were soaked to the bone at this point so we headed back over to the amusement park to dry off before the drive home.

A pic of Andy and Matt while we waited in line (forever) for the Scoobie Doo ride. This was, by far, the longest line of the day! By the time we got through this line, we had all dried off from the water park.

It was getting late in the day, so we decided to head for the car. As we were walking through the parking lot, the sky literally opened up and dumped rain out of nowhere. We were all just as soaked as we had been after the water park! We could do nothing but laugh at that point. We headed to the nearest Steak N Shake for dinner and the guys changed clothes there. All in all, it was a great day, full of lots of silliness-- exemplified by the pic of Andy below on the way home!

June

Any free time in June and July was mostly spent working on our landscaping projects in the front yard (pictures to come soon.) Andy also kept us busy with his baseball practices and games in May and June.

Here is a picture of Andy in his usual position as catcher.

And here is a picture of him swinging for the fences!

Matt suffered a hip injury during track season back in April, but was fortunate to heal quickly (like he normally does.) Therefore, he was able to keep busy and make a few bucks by umpiring baseball games during the early part of the summer. He does such a great job at umping that he had games booked almost every night of the week. I think he really enjoyed getting paid to tell other people what to do!

May

Let's see...having moved into our new home at the end of April, May was pretty much a blur. We worked around the clock (or so it seemed) to unpack and decorate. We painted the master bedroom, laundry room, 1/2 bathroom, guest bathroom, and the bar room. FYI- that's a lot of painting! (FYI#2- we still have a lot of painting left to do!) I realize that now would be a perfect time to post pics of our completed painting projects. Unfortunately, I haven't taken any yet, and Scot won't be back until tomorrow with the camera.

Memorial Day weekend was also a lot of fun, because we had some great friends come visit us from Columbia! My best girls, Heather and Sherry, and Sherry's hubby, Charley, came to spend the weekend with us, and we had a great time. We started out by going to a local winery on Friday afternoon. Nothing too exciting as we were literally the only ones there. OK- so it was 2:00 on a Friday afternoon, but still! We were hoping it would be more like Les Bourgeois in Missouri. Unfortunately, it was, well, nothing like Les Bourgeois. Well, I guess they both do sell wine. Nonetheless, we enjoyed each other's company (and the wine.) We'll have to try out some of the other wineries in the area next time.

Kim, Heather, and Sherry at the winery

After the afternoon at the winery, we headed to a musical festival down on the riverfront. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the riverfront, but it really is a pretty place. Here is a picture I found of the downtown Peoria skyline. This is actually taken on the other side of the river, looking back at where we were.

Scot and Kim at the Riverfront Music Festival

After the festival, we went to a karaoke bar in Bartonville. Bartonville is a suburb outside of Peoria, probably comparable to Mexico, MO. It was quite the experience, to say the least! We had lots of fun, and Heather and Charley were quite the karaoke stars! Get this- the bar was having a "Bartonville Idol" contest the following week. Could you imagine a bigger honor than that? :) Well, the bar owner was so impressed with Heather and Charley's singing talents that he excitedly announced to them- "You're in! You're in Bartonville Idol next week!" Charley tried to explain to him that they live 4 hours away, and that they would not be around to compete. But the bar owner would not take "no" for an answer and kept proclaiming, "No, dude- You're in! You're in!" We got quite the kick out of it and kept referring to them as our celebrity Idols the rest of the week. The paparazzi were everywhere!

On Saturday night, we all headed out for dinner on the riverfront and then out for dancing.

Heather, Kim, and Sherry at dinner

Sunday was spent relaxing, and we had some other friends from Peoria over to the house that evening. The following picture was taken Sunday night when we were winding down from the weekend. As you can see, Harli took quite a liking to Charley and Sherry. The story behind this picture, though, is that Charley has some Bailey's in his glass. Anyone that has been around Harli knows that she is automatically your best friend if you have anything to eat or drink. She kept climbing up on Charley's shoulder so she could be close to the glass when he took a drink. She went crazy for the smell of the Bailey's! She is such a beggar- but they look like a happy little family together!

April

Our time in April was mostly consumed with moving. We moved into our new home at the end of April, and we absolutely love it. We moved into a small bedroom community outside of Peoria, on the other side of the Illinois river from where we were living. We are now in the same town as Scot's boys, which is wonderful. They are close enough that they can ride their bikes over now. I am still just a 12-15 minute drive from my office in downtown Peoria, though. Scot's commute is about 20 minutes, which isn't bad (but further than the 5 minutes he had before!)

I will post pics of the new house soon. We have been busy painting, decorating, landscaping, etc so I want to post some "before" and "after" pics. Unfortunately, Scot is out of town this weekend and he has the camera. Stay tuned...

Caught in the Act...

Here is a random picture I took a few months back when we were still in the old house (we have since retired this lovely mauve recliner.)

It looks like Sam and Harli are being all lovey-dovey with each other. In reality, though, this picture was snapped as I distracted them long enough to stop fighting and look at the camera. I think Harli really wants to cuddle with the cats, but they don't trust her so they fight her off when she comes near. Ah, unrequited love...

March

March started out with me ringing in my (gulp) 30th birthday. All kidding aside, 30 has been great so far. We celebrated by going back to Columbia to see some close friends. We started the night by going to one of the places I miss most about Columbia- El Maguey! (Insert vision of Kim drooling like Homer Simpson here, "Mmmm...Mexican....)

Of course, no Mexican birthday dinner is complete without being serenaded by a really bad Mariachi band made up of waiters and a free Tequila shot...

Smooth!

After dinner we all went to a Piano Bar in downtown Columbia. The pictures pretty much go downhill from there, so I won't post any to protect the innocent!

So what else happened in March? Well, we also celebrated Scot's birthday later in the month of March, although it was a little more subdued celebration so I don't have any pictures from it.

We also sold our old house and bought a new one. We were very fortunate to be able to sell our home by owner- and we didn't even have to advertise! We put a sign in the front yard, and we had it sold in a week (for more than we expected, too!) We really lucked out.

February, continued...

As for the rest of the month...

We finished our room remodel (see previous post) just in time for Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day was on a Wednesday, which is our weekly night to have the boys. Since two teenage boys can kind of kill the romance, Scot planned to surprise me by celebrating a night early. He was going to come home early from work and have a special dinner and flowers waiting for me when I came home. Unfortunately, Peoria was hit with a huge snow storm that day. My boss told me to just work from home that day, so Scot's plans to surprise me were somewhat derailed.

Although he didn't get to surprise me with the finished result all at once, I was still surprised to hear what he had planned. He knew there was a Chicken and Brocolli casserole that my mom used to make for me when I was in college that I always loved. He had secretly called my mom to get the recipe, then braved the snow after work to get the necessary ingredients along with a bottle of our favorite wine. The food was yummy, and the flowers were beautiful. He is such a sweetie!

(PS- Rob and Nancy- note that we still use the plates you gave me from Italy, and I love them!)

February

After mourning the Super Bowl loss of the Bears, February was mainly spent finishing up the remodeling projects on our old home. For those of you that don't know, we were living in a very small two bedroom home. Scot and his friend, Mike, had previously built a detached two-car garage in the back. Then they worked for several months converting the original attached garage into a new living room, dining room, and laundry room. Scot and Mike did most of the structural work (new rafters, drywall, etc.) Then Scot and I worked on the cosmetic finishes.

I am, however, very proud to say that Scot and I carpeted the room all by ourselves. Despite it being our first time laying carpet, it turned out great. Of course, we did have a little bit of help from Harli, which I'm sure made a world of difference!

Here is a "before" picture of the room (well, it's actually "after" most of the major work, but "before" the finishing touches.)

And here are some "after" pictures of the room (everything but the trim was finished in these shots.)

It really was a cute house, but just way too small. Here is an outside view. You can see the garage Scot built in the back, and the small section on the side of the house is the converted garage.

Still alive and playin in p-town...

OK- So I admit it, 6 months may be a little long to go between blog entries. I had actually declared this blog "dead" at one point and resigned to the fact that I am not meant to be a blogger. However, after a little peer pressure from some family and friends, I decided to give it another shot.

We had about six months worth of pictures on our digital camera, and as you can probably guess the memory card was maxed out. I finally downloaded all of the pictures a couple of days ago and thought I would go back and show you what has been going on in our world lately.

It may take a few entries for me to get caught back up with the "present day." But once I do, I hope to keep posting regularly! Wish me luck!