Congratulations Kimmy Kay!

Our lives continue to be incredibly blessed! Kim and her girlfriends planned a Vegas trip for this weekend a couple months ago. Who knew they'd be celebrating? Kim accepted a promotion to Business Unit/Regional Manager with Volt! She will be over units in Boonville, Missouri; Corinth, Mississippi; and Morton, Mossville, and Peoria, Illinois. Congratulations baby!

Now it wouldn't be a Sunday without a football report. Andy's team won again this week, 21-7. Andy did a great job blocking again! No pictures of the huge kids he was blocking this week (Kim has the camera in Vegas). The boy really needs to grow!

Time for the Bear game! Cross your fingers for Good Rex to show up this week!

The girls will be back from Vegas late Monday night, so look for the full report later this week!

Come on in!

Since we live quite a distance from so many of our friends and family, I have had multiple requests to post pictures of our new home. OK- so we've been here for almost 5 months now, but it still feels like new to us! We really love our new home. Keep in mind how small our other house was- if we ordered a large pizza, we had to go outside to eat it! OK, so that's a bit of an exaggeration. But our new home is almost 3x the size, not even including the basement. We can actually move around in this house without running into each other- what a concept! :) I kind of got carried away with taking pics, so this post is kind of long...

"Before" picture of the entry way

"After" picture of the entry way. Check out our demon robot laser cats! They protect us from all intruders. :)



Here is a picture of our living room before we moved in. Lots of white walls!

And here is a picture of the living room now, looking down from the staircase. What a difference a little paint can do!

Another picture of the living room. Rob and Nancy- that is the painting I got in Rome when I visited you in Italy a few years ago.

One of the things we loved most about this house was the high ceilings. We quickly changed our opinion when we started painting! That's why we decided to have someone else paint the living room and entry way. We did the rest of the painting ourselves, though.

Here is a picture of the kitchen before we moved in. This was one of two rooms that the builders had already painted.

Here is our kitchen now. I plan to eventually change the wall color in here by doing some faux finishes, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Here is our dining room area. The house has a formal dining room, but, as you'll see below, we decided to use it for other purposes. The eat-in area in the kitchen was large enough to accommodate our full dining room set, so it worked out well. As you can see from the before picture, Scot switched the light fixture in this room with the one that was originally in the formal dining room.

Here is the sexy 1/2 bath off the kitchen.

Here is the before picture of the formal dining room. Very stuffy.

We decided to turn the room into an entertaining area with a bar. We had a lot of fun decorating this room, although we still haven't been able to find the right curtains for the area.

Another view of the bar room.

Here is our Master Bedroom. I don't have any "before" pictures, so just imagine a big, white box. We haven't finished decorating this room yet, so the walls are still pretty bare. Those spots are from the camera, not on the walls.

The walls look pretty red in these pictures, but they're actually more of a terra cotta. I like bold colors!

Another thing that we really loved about the house was the size of the Master Bathroom. No kidding- our bathroom is bigger than our bedroom was in the old house! This was the other room that the builders had already painted before we looked at the house. I plan to change the color in here and paint the whole room at some point. Here is our jacuzzi tub that we rarely take the time to use.

Here is the shower area. A little note- behind that half wall is the "throne." When we bought the house, that wall was not there. They seriously had this little toilet sitting by itself on that wall out in the open in this big room. It was the first thing you saw when you walked in and it looked ridiculous! I would never have been able to go to the bathroom in there! So we had the builders turn the toilet 90 degrees to face the shower and build us a half wall. I now feel like I have a little more privacy. :) I have issues, I know...

Vanity area

I'm not posting any pictures from the upstairs because we haven't gotten around to much up there. There is the boys' room, the guest room, the game room, and another bathroom. Those are all on our "to-do" list for the fall/winter months. Also, not much going on in the basement either as it is unfinished. We plan to finish it at some point, but we are in NO hurry for that. Right now we have one corner utilized for Scot's weight room. I take that back, OUR weight room. Scot got me started lifting weights almost three months ago, and I'm still sticking with it! Yay, me!

Well, that is our home in Peoria. We welcome visitors at any time, so come see us!

Did you do something different with your hair?

From the front, Sam looks like his normal fluffy, blonde self...

However, after this...

You can see that Sam is trying out a new "do" for the fall... and doesn't he look happy about it? It's kind of like a reverse kitty mullet... party in the front, business in the back!

Here the other pets stare and mock him. He is not a human being.... He is an AN-I-MAL!

Seriously, though...we did shave the cat. You may ask why. Well, Sam has very long hair, and it gets matted very easily. Don't worry- it grows back just fine. After his trim, Sam said he felt a lot better- kind of like a "Rock Star!"

Fall = Football!

After a work filled Saturday and Sunday, we finally reached my favorite part of every fall weekend...football! The Bears played at the same time Andy did again this week, so we had to play the "tape the Bears and talk to no one" game again. Andy's team, Metamora, played in Pekin this week. To give a little background, it's very tough to come out of Pekin with a win as they have a pretty good program (for the players and the officials). Knowing it was going to be a tough one, we called in reinforcements. Grandma Haines made the trip up from Springfield to catch the action. Metamora jumped out to a 20-8 lead, but Pekin tied the game after a controversial pass interference call on fourth down late in the fourth quarter. Metamora pulled out the win in overtime despite additional officiating controversy and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on our coaches. Andy saw his first action on defense this year and made a tackle.

Here's a picture that Grandma took of Andy (#34 on the left) playing defensive tackle. You might notice the size difference between Andy and the other lineman. Andy looks like a midget out there, but he's actually 5'3" and 140+ pounds.

Grandma took this picture of Andy blocking on offense. Check out the size of the kid he's blocking here! Not sure what's in the water here, but we really need to get Andy some of it!

After the big win, we headed home for more of Kim's favorite thing! Kim was more excited about making dinner than watching the Bear game if that gives you any clue of how much football she can stand at a time. Despite another week of Bad Rex, it was great to see a Bear win!

I'm sure Kim will post the other events of the weekend. Be sure to check back for pix from our Saturday morning fun.

I love weddings!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we travelled to Oregon, MO over the Labor Day weekend. This was a seven hour drive from Peoria, but we are very glad that we ended up making the trip. The "mission" of the trip was to see my beautiful cousin, Sarah, get married to her sweetie, Jed. It was a beautiful wedding and reception, and it was great to see so many Stephensons! It was an outdoor reception, and the weather was gorgeous that evening. It was kind of a rustic setting with an old barn that had been converted for party-venues. Overall, we had a great time! Here are some pics from the weekend...

Kim and her Daddy.

The beautiful bride, Sarah, and her little sister, Rachel.

My baby and I

Grandpa Bob doing his picture duties, with Uncle Mark looking on.

Grandma showing off her beautiful smile!

The happy mother of the bride, my Aunt Joy, with her fiance, Dave. They are getting married next weekend!

Sisters of the bride, my cousins, Kayt and Rachel.

My cousin, Lindsey, and her fiance, Josh. Such a good-looking couple!

To split up the driving, we stopped in Mexico, MO for the night on the way there and back. It is rare that I get to spend time with both my mom and my dad in the same day. The weekend was really a blessing to get to see so much family. Here is a picture of Harli with her Grandma Miller during our visit to her and Grandpa Greg's house.

Help me! Help me!

This is a little game that Harli likes to play. If Scot or I are in the bedroom and not giving her attention, she will crawl under the dresser or nightstand. She then pokes her little head out and proceeds to whimper, whine, and scream like she is stuck and can't get out. Obviously, she is not stuck since she got under there just fine.

Once we leave the room, she screams and then miraculously escapes from her self-inflicted jail. Such a drama queen!

Where did the weekend go?!

We had quite the busy weekend! Knowing that we only have a couple more weekends that we would be free before being out of town for 4 weekends in a row, we decided that we needed to make the most of our time. Fortunately, it was an absolutely gorgeous weekend here in P-town. Here's a quick run-down of our weekend...

We decided to spend the day Saturday working on some more outdoor projects. Scot worked on the second culvert retaining wall. This one was a little more challenging than the first one, because Kim insisted that the walls be the same distance from the driveway on both sides. That meant he had to dig out a lot of earth, and cut off about 5 feet of culvert pipe. Here Scot and Matt work on the digging. After lots of frustration, and some assistance from Scot's friend, Mike, they eventually got the culvert pipe completely cut-off.


Sunday morning, Scot got a good start putting the bricks in. We only had a little time for outdoor projects on Sunday, because (as you'll read below) Sunday= football day.




My project for Saturday was to install the landscape lights. I put some along the walk-way, as well as several spot-lights in the plant areas. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the finished product!




It was good while it lasted, but football season has officially reared its ugly face again. (I kid, I kid.) Therefore, as I mentioned above, Sunday was all about the football. Andy had his first game of the season today. I'm slowly learning more and more about football, so the games are getting a little more interesting for me. Here the proud football dad and proud football step-mom cheer on their number "34!"




Here's Andy in action (#34). He normally plays center.


And here is "Intense Football Scot." For those of you that know Scot, you know that he rarely cusses and is typically very laid back. Well, let's just say that on game day, that mild-mannered Scot has a tendency to take the day off.

And here is a tired Andy after the game with Coach Monty. It was a really great game today! They got on the scoreboard first, but then fell behind for most of the game. However, at the end they were able to comeback for a 25-22 win with only seconds left on the clock! It was very exciting!

Since Andy's first game was at the same time as the Chicago Bears' first game, Scot recorded the game to watch when we got home. That, of course, meant that we had to avoid speaking with anyone that was listening to the game, and we couldn't listen to the radio on the way home for fear that they may give a score update. Scot watched the game when we returned home, and his joy from Andy's win was quickly replaced with disappointment from the Bears game (Chargers beat the Bears 14-3). I got tired of listening to his attempts to communicate with Rex Grossman through the TV, so I went outside to finish up some things on the landscape lighting. Well, I have learned not to keep the windows open when Scot is watching the Bears! I could hear him "coaching" Rex all the way outside (and I'm sure the neighbors could, as well!)

That's about it for the weekend. We're both resting on the coach now, watching the MTV Video Music Awards. I was anxious to see Britney Spears' trainweck/comeback performance. For those of you who missed it, you really didn't miss it. Sad, really.

Oh, we ordered a new chair for the living room a couple of months ago. It finally came in so we picked it up this weekend, too. As you can see, Sammy approves of it!

Cows!

Over the Labor Day weekend we drove to Oregon, MO for a family wedding. In case you're wondering, "Where the hell is Oregon, MO?," (that's OK, we did the same thing), it is near St. Joseph, MO which is near the Kansas City area.

I'll post more pictures from our trip to Oregon soon, but in the meantime here is a video of Harli in the car. I bet you didn't know that cows and miniature pinschers were natural enemies!

I know it's not nice for me to torment the dog like this, but hey, after fourteen hours of driving you have to do something to entertain yourself!

Be Afraid...

...be very afraid.

Matt officially received his driver's permit today! Here is a picture of the happy new driver posing with his permit behind the wheel.

Note: Scot made Matt move to the back seat immediately after this picture was taken so we could take Andy to football practice. Scot wasn't quite ready to turn him loose behind the wheel just yet. Looks like there are going to be lots of parking lot practice laps this weekend!

(Less than) Extreme Home Makeover

326 landscaping blocks
+12 tons of dirt
+ 50 plants and shrubs
2 very tired people!


Although tired, we are very happy to have the bulk of our landscaping projects completed (for this year, at least.) Here is the "before" picture of our house when we first bought it...



And here is our home now...

Scot and I built the walls around the planter areas ourselves. And, yes, I do mean "we." I did the majority of the work on the planter area nearest the garage, and Scot did most of the work on the one towards the side of the house. (Yes, Dad, they are both perfectly level, too!) Matt and Andy were huge helps moving the 12 tons of dirt into the plant beds. Isn't child labor great?! :)


We still have to put the mulch in, along with a few more plants, and install the landscaping lighting, but we've made good progress so far!




Scot also built the retaining wall in the culvert (seen in second picture). We still need to replicate it on the other side of the driveway, which is probably a project for this weekend or the next.

You may also notice that the front door has been painted, and there has been a major change to the structure of the garage! When we first looked at this house, we fell in love with everything- except for the garage. We really wanted a 3-stall garage, and felt this garage was too small. It wasn't possible to add another stall, so we made it a condition of our offer that the builders had to expand the garage for us. They took off the front of the garage, expanded it by 4 feet, and then rebuilt the front and added the gable. The best part- we didn't have to pay any additional money to have it done! The garage isn't huge by any means, but there is at least room enough to accomodate both cars and Scot's bike now. Scot liked the extra room; I liked the cosmetic difference it made to the front of the house.

Mild Hogs

As the inspiration for the movie "Wild Hogs," it was only fitting that we embark on the sequel the same week the original movie was released to video. Unfortunately the regular fourth member of our group, my friend Scott's dad (Mike C.), was unable to ride with us this year, so Mike D. and I left Peoria early Friday morning to meet Scott (in Champaign, IL) for our traditional Steak-n-Shake breakfast...well, except for Mike as it seemed he was on a mission to eat nothing but burgers and fries the entire trip! One topic of discussion was which character defined each of us. We were suppose to have a new rider this year, and the only thing we could agree on was our friend, Greg, would have been Dudley had he not dogged us and skipped out on the trip!

Let the ride begin!

We had fantastic weather for the majority of the trip. We camped in Milton, West Virginia Friday night. We found a great bar, Cactus Joe's, and had a fun night with the locals...right up until one of the people we were drinking with was asked to leave the bar and the police were called. Unfortunately, the campground wasn't quite the 'resort' the sign proclaimed it to be (see the picture below). The back of the campground (where our site was) was right on I-64. Needless to say, the traffic noise was not conducive to sleep - even after many adult beverages!



You may also notice a sign for the Springs Tavern in the picture. Being the closest bar to the campground, we naturally stopped there first after setting up our tents. This high class establishment had a buzzer on the door that you had to ring for the bartender to buzz you in. Apparently they weren't intimidated by this motley crew of bikers since they let us in.

Breaking camp in Milton, WV.

This picture is from 'The Scenic Overlook' on I-64 west of Richmond, VA. We rode from Milton to Virginia Beach on Saturday.

Sunday, we started our trek back with a detour on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

An overlook point on Blue Ridge Parkway.

Scott and I thought we should do a little rock climbing for a photo op. Ok...the camera may be embellishing the situation...a lot!

The Mild Hogs (Mike D., me, and Scott) at one of the overlooks on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Damn, these guys are intimidating!

Mike took this picture at 70+ mph on I-64 south of Charleston, WV. I-64 between Beaver, WV and Charleston, WV is the most beautiful stretch of road I have ever ridden! On a side note, Mike and I had a tasty lunch in Beaver! :)

After a wet 200 miles to end our trip, I was greeted at home with a little love from the animals. It wouldn't have been a bike trip without rain. We were fortunate that was the only bad weather for the trip.

Monday evening, me and both my Harley/Harli's were exhausted!

Three and a half days, 2000 miles and the sequel is complete... "Mild Hogs: Mid-life Crisis, 39 and holding." Stay tuned for next August's sequel from the Badlands of South Dakota, "Mild Hogs: 40 and in denial!"