...playin in p-town...

Spring? Is that you?

2008-03-09T14:11:00.008-05:00

OK- so even though the weather is definitely not Spring-like outside, I did manage to add a little bit of Spring to our home. On a trip to Lowe's yesterday to buy lighting for the weight room we are finishing in the basement, I came across a display of potted flowers.

I ended up buying some tulips and some hyacinths. It was a complete impulse purchase, but definitely warranted. Not only are they so refreshing to look at, but the Hyacinth's fragrance fills the whole house (although Andy says they smell like nasal spray to him...not sure what that's all about.)

Here are a couple of pictures of my Spring additions. I figured that I better take pictures of them now to preserve their beauty, because there is a good chance they won't survive long in my house!

Also- my in-laws came up this afternoon so we could all go out for lunch to celebrate Matt's and my birthdays. Scot's mom is a scrapbooking and card-making machine. She is so creative and very talented with her cards. I had to take a picture of the card that she made me, although the photo doesn't do it justice. Below is the envelope, yes the envelope. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the circles are 3-dimensional. Also- you'll notice in the corner is my favorite... a dragonfly! I actually think I am going to frame this and put it on my desk at work.

Here is the card. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but my name is spelled out in the flowers. It is just too cute, and totally fits the Spring-fever mood I am in! Thanks, Michele!

Haines Happy Birthdays!

2008-03-07T21:40:00.015-06:00

As you know from my last post, yesterday (Thursday) was Matt's birthday. Since we don't have the boys on Thursday nights, today (Friday) was our first chance to give him his birthday gift. As you can see below, we did something a little different for his birthday this year.

Here is Matt posing with what he thinks are his birthday gifts (and of course, you can see that Harli thinks everything is always for her.)

However, before he had a chance to open any of them, we informed him that he had to pick half of the gifts and give them to his brother. Andy, who had previously been sitting and half-heartedly watching, all of a sudden became fully engaged in what was going on. We explained to them that they are both getting the same thing for their birthdays this year (Andy's birthday is next month). So in order to not ruin the surprise for Andy, he gets to share in the gift opening process. Matt, being the thinker that he is, took a nice long time to strategically decide which gifts to unload on his brother.

Andy grew quite impatient with his brother's dawdling. After much pleading from Andy, Matt finally finished allocating the boxes.

Then they got the green light to start opening the boxes. You can see from Matt's face in the picture below that he was quite confused about what he discovered after opening the first box.

What was in the box? 2 little Scrabble tiles!

That's right... every box contained 2 or 3 tiles each, for a total of 14.

So now it was on to the next phase. Trying to put the pieces together to figure out what their birthday gift was!

They begged and begged for hints, but Scot and I told them they had to work for it. They seemed to have a much better knack of spelling out inappropriate words, like "topless," than figuring out what the right answer was. But what do you expect with two teenage boys?

Finally, after about 10 minutes of deliberation, they figured it out!

Andy spelled out "Vegas" as a joke, but then Matt quickly put the rest of the words together. I'm not sure what they were more excited about- the fact that they were going to Vegas or that they finally finished indulging in my birthday torture puzzle! Here they are opening their own travel itineraries showing them the official details of their gift.

This is actually a birthday gift for all of us. Since all of our birthdays are relatively close to each other (Matt's was yesterday, mine was today, Scot's is the 27th, and Andy's is April 20th), we decided to do something different this year and do a big combined gift for all. So after the boys get out of school this summer, we will be heading out to my dad's house in Las Vegas for a week!

We purchased the tickets for the trip so long ago, and we've had to keep it a secret from the boys. It's been killing me! Even though today was MY birthday, I was most excited about getting home to give them THEIR birthday gifts and see their reactions. My mom said that means I am officially old. :) I am just really looking forward to us taking this vacation together. I know some of you may think Vegas is an odd place for a family vacation, but there is SO much to see and do in Vegas besides gambling. (Actually, Scot and I don't even gamble when we're there on our own.) Plus, as I mentioned before, I have family there, including my dad (although he's actually in Tulsa for work right now, but hopefully he can come back to LV while we're there), my step-mom, three of my brothers, and a niece and nephew. So I think this will definitely be a great birthday trip for all of us!

Breaking News...

2008-03-06T21:36:00.002-06:00

Matt turned 16 today, and he successfully passed his driving test. He is officially official! (Well, at least until 10:00pm on weekdays/ 11:00pm on weekends.) That is the legal driving curfew in Illinois until you are 18. Not that this is a lot earlier than my parental curfew was, but thank goodness we didn't have these legal time restrictions on our driving when we were growing up. Although I am fully supportive of the law now. Guess that means I'm officially old. Wait, that's tomorrow...

Happy birthday, Matt...and congratulations!!!

Just what the doctor ordered...Part 2

2008-03-03T20:02:00.010-06:00

Sunday was a happy day for Scot! It was an unseasonably warm 70 degrees in Peoria, which meant that enough of the snow melted for him to go on his first bike ride of the year.

He met up with his friend, "Mountain Man" Mike, (see previous post) to go out for a "quick" ride. I put "quick" in quotes because Scot said he would probably be gone for no more than a couple of hours. Well, almost five hours, 120 miles, (and I'm sure a couple of beers) later, Scot pulled back into the driveway. I can't really blame him for not being in any hurry to get home considering the gorgeous weather.

When he finally did return to the homestead, we took Harli out for a nice walk around the neighborhood. While on our walk, I asked Scot how his bike ride was. He said, and I quote, "Just what the doctor ordered." I thought this was quite funny and ironic as that was exactly what I had titled the blog entry that I wrote while he was out riding!

Just what the doctor ordered...

2008-03-02T15:21:00.018-06:00

First off, as a follow-up to my last post, I am feeling much better. Secondly, I apologize for the lack of posts recently. I had to travel to Mississippi for work a couple of weeks ago, and then last week was filled with all-day meetings at work. That means my evenings had to be spent working on my regular daily work at night from home. The last couple of weeks really have been pretty crappy. Thank God I have such a great husband. He has been cooking dinner in the evenings and taking care of most of the household duties since my work schedule has been so hectic.

So I figured this weekend would be another regular weekend- getting caught up on laundry, trying to get caught up on some projects at work, etc. Well, little did I know that Scot had something else in mind. And boy, was it just what the doctor ordered!

Here's the story: We went out to dinner on Friday night, and then came home to relax on the couch. I had 2 glasses of wine at dinner so I was feeling relaxed. After trying to fight the "sleepies" for 30 minutes or so, I decided to embrace it. I ended up stretching out across the couch (and Scot) and falling asleep around 9:30 while we were watching TV. I dozed in and out and assumed Scot had also fallen asleep. I was in a much-needed deep sleep when Harli let out a loud bark. I sat up, gasping for breath, as I was completely startled and disoriented. A split-second later, the doorbell rang. My heart was still racing from being woken up so abruptly, so this freaked me out even more. Not to mention that Harli was barking her fool-head off. I looked at the clock- 11:00pm. I said to Scot, "Who the hell is ringing our doorbell at 11:00 at night!?!"

Scot got up to answer the door. I figured it was probably someone at the wrong house, or a prankster, or something, so I laid back down on the couch. A few seconds later, I hear a group of people saying, "Happy early birthday, Kimmy Kay!" Still half asleep, I looked up to see my best friends standing in my living room! Heather, Sherry, and Charley had driven up from Columbia, MO to surprise me for an early birthday weekend! (My birthday's not until this Friday.) They even had birthday cake for me! I was completely shocked but excited! Turns out, Scot had been planning this surprise for me for weeks. He knows I LOVE surprises, but that I am also next to impossible to surprise. Well, mark another one down for Scot! I had NO clue!

So on Saturday night, along with our good friends from here in Peoria, we all went out for my birthday celebration evening. It was just what I needed after the past few weeks of being sick and being sick of work! We started out for dinner at a great Irish pub down on the riverfront.

Here is the group (sans me as I was the photographer.)

My best girls from back home, Heather and Sherry. It was so good to see them!

Our good friends, Rhonda and Denise. Scot has been best friends with their husbands since childhood.

One of the aforementioned childhood best friends, Mike (aka Mountain Man Mike), displaying a very rare moment of shyness.

After dinner, we headed to another bar for Karaoke. Our group got a little smaller, but we still had a blast. Here is a picture of the group posing with their glasses of Cherry Coke. :)

Not sure what to call this pose. Either "Fishy-face" or "Trying-to-look-thinner-than-you-really-are" pose.

Dennis and Heather

Sherry and her husband, Charley, displaying the fine art of "Skull face." Don't ask. It's a long story. However, this pose has become a tradition for us.

Kim and Scot taking their turn at "Skull face." Not our best effort. I look like I am in pain. By the way- thanks to Sherry for the bunny ears.

Much better with the happy faces. :)

Karaoke time!

Legends in our own minds.

The Master showing how it is really done. Charley is a great Karaoke-er. That's a word, right?

Heather, Sherry, and Charley left this morning to head back to Columbia. Although I'm exhausted and still have work and laundry left to do, I am so grateful to them and Scot for putting such effort into surprising me with such a great weekend for my birthday. It was a much needed break and distraction for me. Thanks to all that came out to help me ring in the big

3-1 (albeit a week early.) I am so blessed to have such great people in my life!

Animal Instinct

2008-02-13T21:22:00.002-06:00

Do you think the animals can sense that their mommy is ill?

Memories...

2008-02-10T18:15:00.001-06:00

This afternoon we have been watching the NFL Pro Bowl, which is being played in Honolulu. It reminded me that we never did finish posting the rest of our pics from our trip to Hawaii last fall! My work schedule got out of hand shortly after we returned, and my blogging went on hiatus for a period of time. Well, as I sit here battling a head cold/sinus infection/whatever it is, I thought it would be a great time to reminisce about our last two days on the island of Kauai.

Here is Scot on the morning of Day 7. We were on our way to breakfast and stopped to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery at the resort.

These swans were in a pond just outside the main entrance of the resort. I had never seen black swans before, so, of course, I had to stop to take their picture. They were so beautiful!

We drove to a small town a few miles from our resort for breakfast. The food prices in Hawaii are expensive to begin with so the prices at the hotel were especially outrageous. Therefore, we tried to eat outside of the resort whenever possible. We stopped at Tomkats for breakfast, a great little "Mom and Pop" type of establishment. They had great food and the locals were very nice.

Back at the hotel after breakfast. This was taken in the lobby- you can see how it looks out over the ocean in the background.

We then headed out to the beach. Scot was very disappointed that he couldn't swim in the water at our hotel due to the undertow and rocky surf. The resort had pools and lagoons, including a large sandy-bottom pool, so he quickly got over his disappointment. Swimming or not, the beach was still beautiful.

Kim posing along the waves. Man, I wish I was there now instead of here in Peoria where it is 3 degrees outside!

Scot paying his dues by posing on the rocks.

A close-up of some of the beautiful orchids...

We did end up eating lunch at one of the restaurants at the resort. It was such a beautiful view. We are standing right next to our table in this picture. The beautiful view almost made up for the outrageous lunch bill... We had 2 appetizers and 4 Mai Tais (they were small, I promise). Grand total? $75.00 Ouch!

One of my favorite pictures from the trip- I think it looks like it could be a poster or greeting card or something. This, too, was at the restaurant we ate at for lunch.

That night we attended the Luau at the hotel. It was such a neat event. Included in the price was dinner and all-you-can-drink Mai Tais. This picture was taken of Scot and me at the beginning of the event.

I ended up taking TONS of pictures of the Luau (blame the Mai Tais.) Here are just a couple of the better ones... This guy was cool (and a little scary) with his Tribal tattoos.

Some of the lovely Luau ladies...

DAY 8: This was our final day in Hawaii. We had most of the day to do some more sight-seeing before flying out that evening. A final picture of the black swan as we were leaving the resort.

It is tradition to leave your lei on the pohaku stone when you are leaving as a remembrance of your trip.

After checking out of our resort, we headed to another quaint establishment for breakfast. Here is Scot about to devour his Macadamia Nut and Banana Pancakes. He was smiling ear-to-ear in anticipation. He said they were every bit as good as he hoped they would be!

After breakfast, we drove to the West part of the island to go to Waimea Canyon. This is the largest canyon in the Pacific and is referred to as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." It was truly breathtaking. There is a 40-mile scenic road that you can take to see all of the scenic stops. Unfortunately it is a very windy road. I ended up feeling quite queasy from all of the twists and turns. As a result, we ended up stopping at every possible stop so I could get some fresh air. Here are some pictures at the numerous stops...

Yes- that's us in the middle...

I'm not a flower expert, so I'm not sure what kind of flower this is. I just thought it was really pretty..

This is a picture of the final stop on the road- the Na'pali Coast. It was amazing. This is as close as you can get to the coast unless you go by boat or air.

A final picture of us in Hawaii...

You can see the waterfalls in this picture...

The dirt in Hawaii is this vibrant Red color. I loved this picture of the waterfall along the red dirt. This was taken as we were leaving Waimea Canyon.

After Waimea Canyon, it was time to head to the airport. We left Kauai in the evening and flew all night. Here is a picture of us at one of the airports that we had a connection at the next day. I don't think I knew where we were at the time, so I definitely don't remember now! As you can tell, we were quite exhausted, but it was well worth it!

Happy Birthday, crazy little dog!

2008-01-30T17:57:00.000-06:00

Yes, in honor of Harli's 2nd birthday (does that mean that she's a teenager now in dog years?), I thought I would post the following video to show how disturbed our little baby truly is.

This video was filmed a couple of weeks ago, but I just haven't had the chance to post it. As you can see from this video, Harli is EXTREMELY jealous of our two cats, Alley and Sammy. Back story: Scot had picked up my prescription refill earlier in the day, and I simply picked it up off of the coffee table. Normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but the cats were sitting on the other side of me. Harli didn't necessarily know what the bottle of pills was, but all she knew was that she didn't want the cats to have it. She started doing her normal freak-out.

She is on her back because Scot put her in "time out" so she could calm down. Did I mention she hates being on her back (it's the whole submission thing.) OK- so I didn't help matters by shaking the bottle and saying the cats' names. However, I was trying to capture one of her freak-outs on film. I would never do that normally. :)

Continuing with the "Harli" themed post... Scot and I were sitting on the couch Monday night enjoying a glass of wine after dinner. Scot got up to answer the phone, and knocked his almost full glass over onto the floor. Thankfully we don't drink Red wine!! He quickly went to get towels to blot it up. He got as much as he could, but the floor was still damp. Well, Harli would NOT stop licking the carpet! We kept pulling her away, but every time we stopped paying attention to her she would sneak back to the spot! She loved her some wine! Perhaps Scot and I are bad influences on her.

You, alright! I learned it by watching you!

Happy Birthday, Harli... you little wino...

While the weather outside may be frightful...

2008-01-20T08:02:00.000-06:00

The grill smelled so delightful! Yep, last week we decided that we weren't going to let a little cold weather stop us from grilling up some yummy New York Strip Steaks for dinner. Despite the 18 degree weather (which would be considered warm after this weekend's ridiculously cold temps), Scot headed outside to get down to business. I know that it doesn't look that cold since Scot is wearing shorts outside, but...

...here's proof that it was quite frigid. There is no grill under this grill cover. It was actually frozen when he removed it, so it retained the shape of the grill!

My Grill-Master at work.

I would like to recommend a cool website: http://www.charcoalbob.com/. It has a "Cookout Calculator" that is pretty slick. You put in the details of what you're cooking: type of meat, desired doneness, type of grill, even the outside temperature (which I guess can play a factor- especially if you're silly enough to grill when it's 18 degrees.) You can enter several different types of meat with varying degrees of doneness. This is great if you are having a big cookout to accommodate a lot of different people/tastes (or if you are like Scot and I and one of you prefers your steak Medium Rare and the other Medium Well.) It then gives you a detailed timeline of when you should start the grill, put each piece of meat on, flip each piece of meat, etc. I expected it to respond to our request with something like, "Um, it's 18 degrees out? Check back in the Spring, Dumba$$." Luckily it didn't, and our New York Strips turned out perfectly! Thank you, Charcoal Bob and Gassy Scot!

Merry Christmas?!

2008-01-13T09:09:00.000-06:00

I know this posting is a little untimely since Christmas has come and gone. However, I have several pictures from our holiday that I wanted to post to share. Since the boys spend Christmas Eve with us and Christmas Day at their mom's, we celebrate our traditional Christmas morning on Christmas Eve each year. This was our first Christmas in our new house and as husband and wife, so it was definitely a special year for many reasons.

Wake up! It's time to see if Santa came!

But first, we enjoyed a yummy (but certainly not healthy) breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls! Having homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning has been one of my family's tradition for years. I wanted to continue this tradition with Scot and the boys. This was the second year I have made these on my own, and I must say that they were a success! I think the guys agreed since they seemed to gobble them up pretty quickly. Maybe they were just anxious to open their presents, though?

"Are all of these for me? See, I told you I wasn't a bad dog!"

"Wait- I think I just found mine!"

Notice the candy cane shaped bone hanging out of Harli's stocking. She became fixated on it and just sat there whimpering.

"Oh, my gosh, Oh, my gosh...this is not a drill."

I loved this picture because if you look closely you can see her little tongue sticking out in anticipation of her treats to come.

"Decisions, decisions!"

We layed out her presents and made her sit and wait to choose one. She was just shaking with excitement.

And the winner was... her new bone! She is an addict for these things, and didn't hestitate to grab it and run. We didn't see much of her for the rest of the morning as we opened our presents (which was why we opened her presents first!)

Don't worry. Santa Paws didn't forget about the cats. They received a new feather stick, and, as you can see here, it was a big hit with Allie. (Sammy doesn't come out much when the boys are here, so he decided to wait to play with his gift.)

After we finished with the silliness of the animals' presents, we moved on to the Main Event. The boys started by opening their stockings.

Here they are posing with their Stewart's Cream Sodas. This is another family tradition of Scot's.

Another tradition that my family has always had was that everyone got a new Christmas ornament each year. Even on the years that I wasn't at my dad's house for Christmas, they would still get me an ornament. When I became an "adult" and got my own place, I acquired all of my past ornaments- back to the year I was born. Hanging all of them on the tree is one of my favorite parts of Christmas- each ornament is labeled with the year it was from. This is another tradition that I want to continue with my family. Here are Matt and Andy finding a place to hang their new ornaments for the year. Andy got a snowman wearing Tampa Bay Buccanneers gear (his favorite team) and Matt got a classic Corvette (so he could say he got a car for Christmas.)

Scot with his new Hawaii WAC Championship T-shirt, courtesy of my brother and his family who live in Hawaii.

My dad had sent gift cards for the boys. Scot and I bought some of those gift card holders that look like stuffed animals. These had the velcro pockets in them so you can't really see the gift card unless you're really looking for them. We told them that they had gifts on the tree, but they had to find them. They finally found them, but were a little confused- thinking that my dad had sent them stuffed animals. Matt saw the pocket and thought it was a puppet! He put his hand in it and then he goes, "Oh!" They quickly discovered the gift cards, and I think they were quite happy to see that was their gift and not puppets. Not that they wouldn't have been appreciative of puppets, but I think Best Buy gift cards are a little more on target for 13 and 15 year olds. ;)

Matt's big gift was a new photo printer for his camera. (He recently spent an ungodly amount of money- his own money- but still a lot of money for a fancy new digital camera.) So we thought he would get good use out of a portable printer that he can hook his camera directly to without the need of a computer to print his own photos. It's pretty slick and he seemed to enjoy it.

Andy's main gift was Guitar Hero III. He has been talking about this game non-stop and was pretty stoked to get it. (I must admit that I've tried my hands at it a couple of times when he hasn't been here.) It's a neat game and I can see why it can become addicting.

After our Christmas (Eve) morning, we headed down to Scot's mom's house in Springfield, IL. When it comes to opening presents, Scot's mom, Michele, is as bad as a little kid. So it is always funny to see her at Christmas time. When my family has gotten together in the past, we have always had our meal, relaxed, and then opened presents. Not when you go to Michele's house! If she had it her way, we would be opening presents before we even get our coats off! It's kind of fun to torture her because of this. We wrapped all of her presents this year in paper that read, "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER 25TH," knowing full well that we would be there on the 24th. As you can probably guess, she didn't let that stop her one bit.

I liked this picture because of the confused look on Matt's face as he was trying to figure out what his gift might be. Michele is an absolute whiz at scrap-booking and card making. She is very talented and creative at this (of which I am completely jealous.) She made the boys some cool calendars- each month having pictures of them from different events over the past year.

Whatcha got Scot?

Hmmm...a drill doctor! That will come in handy with our basement projects that we have planned!

Harli helps her mommy open her gifts. "Are there any more bones in there?"

Andy opens his Terranator remote control car- it's supposed to go over any type of terrain. A 13 year-old's dream.

Matt with his aforementioned fancy camera.

"Any more presents to open?"

After our festivities on Christmas Eve, Michele and Rob graciously drove the boys back to Peoria to their mom's house so Scot and I could continue our journey onto Missouri. We got to my mom's house late on Christmas Eve, and had our family celebration on Christmas Day. I didn't take as many pictures at my mom's house as I thought I had, which was kind of disappointing. I think this was party due to the fact that I was in a near coma after the meal my mom cooked, including her nearly world famous turkey and dumplings. I love Christmas, but thank God it only comes once a year or else I would be twice my size!

Here is a picture of my mom opening her gift from Harli. In case you can't read it, it says, "Min Pin Grandma."

Yay! A new drill! This was put to good use on Scot's New Year's Day project (see previous post.)

Once again, we had a very blessed and fortunate Christmas with our families. The only thing I would have wished differently would have been to be able to see all of our family during the Christmas season. But as my family is so spread out geographically, this just isn't a possibility. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and we hope to see everyone again soon!

Happy New Year, Happy Anniversary!

2008-01-07T19:18:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay in postings recently. We have been busy with various holiday events and celebrations over the last few weeks- as I'm sure most of you have, as well. Although we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, we are kind of relieved to have it behind us. Now we are ready for Spring (especially considering the freakish 68 degree weather we had today!) I plan to post some pictures from the holidays in the next few posts.

But first- I will start with our New Year's Eve! As most of you know, this day also designated our one-year anniversary! The debate was whether to celebrate the evening on our own with the more traditional anniversary plans or to throw a party to celebrate the New Year. I was very indecisive on the subject, so Scot said he would take care of the plans and surprise me (he knows I love surprises!) We ended up celebrating the occasions with just each other, but it was a good blend of traditional anniversary plans and a New Year's celebration, as well.

Unfortunately, Scot had to work on New Year's Eve, but it was a holiday for me. I found out that Scot made me an appointment for a spa pedicure that morning. What a great start to the day! While my toes and I were enjoying the R&R, one of the attendants at the spa hand delivered to me the card that Scot had dropped off at the salon a few days earlier. All of the people there were oohing and aahing about how sweet that was. Of course, I had to agree.

I spent the rest of the afternoon hitting the Christmas Clearance sales. I can't remember the last time I went leisure shopping on my own. I found a few good sales, but nothing crazy. For dinner, Scot had made us reservations at a restaurant that both of us had been wanting to try. It is down on the Riverfront and it is an old train station that has been converted into a swanky restaurant. Our dinner was fabulous, and then we headed to the Martini bar next door to listen to some live music. Here is a picture of us at Martini's.

Turns out that Scot went to college with the owner of the Martini bar! This resulted in a free bottle of wine for us, which is always a plus. :)

After listening to the live band for a while, we headed home. We wanted to make sure that we got home before midnight so we weren't out on the road due to the snowy weather and drunk drivers. I'm not sure if that means we're smart or just old. Actually, I'm afraid I know exactly what that means. :) We got home around 11:30, and pulled out the top tier of our wedding cake that had been thawing. Not quite as pretty as it was on the big day, but one-year is a long time in cake-years!

We rang in the New Year with pieces of wedding cake and a Prosecco toast! We were quite amazed at how yummy the cake was! In fact, Scot continued to snack on it for the last week.

We've had this bottle of Prosecco for several months now. We bought it with a gift certificate we got for a wedding present from my co-workers. When we bought it, we had no idea what Prosecco was or if we would like it. I bought it purely because I loved the label. Not only do I love dragonflies, but this particular dragonfly looks almost identical to my tattoo!

The next day was back to work. Not normal work, but Scot and Kim house work. Kim spent the entire day taking down the Christmas decorations. Scot spent the day converting a long hall of our basement into a great storage area. He put in the wiring, installed the lighting, hung the drywall, and built the shelves. It was finished just in time to put all of decorations away! My weekend warrior never ceases to amaze me!

We hope you all had a wonderful New Year, as well, and wish you all the best for a great 2008!

Full House

2007-12-22T11:48:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we hosted the family Christmas for my mom's side of the family. Despite the snow storm that came through on Saturday, everyone still managed to travel to our home safely. It had been a year since I had seen most of my aunts and uncles, and even two years for one aunt and uncle. So it was really great to see everyone and have us all together for our early White Christmas. Below are some pictures from the weekend...

My mom was a lifesaver in the kitchen. She worked really hard to prepare a feast for us, including our traditional Turkey and Dumplings... mmmm....

My step-dad, Greg, relaxing in the living room.

As always, Harli was especially nice to anyone who had food. Here she is cozying up to Aunt Shirley and her cookie.

Scot's mom, Michele, helping in the kitchen.

My step-son, Matt, graciously served as our photographer for the day.

Greg, Uncle Melvin, and Aunt Shirley watching the football games while the feast is prepared.

My youngest cousin, Claire, posing for the camera.

Aunt Cheri also posing for the camera. :)

Uncle Barry and his daughter, Claire.

My step-son, Andy, hanging out with Allie on the stairs. Andy was under the weather last weekend (and still is), so he wasn't feeling overly sociable.

Harli and her new best girlfriend, Scarlett, posing under the Christmas tree. Scarlett is my Uncle Ed and Aunt Cheri's little pup. I wasn't sure how Harli would do having another dog in her home (she can be very territorial.) However, Scarlett and Harli had a lot of fun together and loved taking turns chasing each other around the house.

Aunt Glenda and her daughter, Claire.

Scot's mom, Michele, and her "man," Rob. :)

The Hanstein Clan.

All of the Hansteins stayed the night at our house on Saturday, and then we all went for an enjoyable brunch on Sunday morning. By then the roads had cleared enough for everyone to have safe travels home. It was a great weekend, and we really enjoyed seeing everyone. Hope to see everyone again soon!

Oh, Christmas Tree(s)

2007-12-20T07:16:00.000-06:00

I have been a little neglectful (busy) lately so I apologize for the lack of postings. Since Christmas is only 5, count 'em, 5 days away, I thought I would post some pictures that are Christmas in nature. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we put up 3, count 'em 3, Christmas trees this year. So here are some pictures of our forest...

Here is the newest addition to our family. We splurged and bought a new tree for the living room this year. Since the ceilings are so high in our living room, our old trees would have looked like dwarf trees! The best part about the tree? It's pre-lit! I know they have been around for quite a while, but this is the first pre-lit tree we've ever had. Boy, was it great not to have to mess with the lights!

Here is the tree in the kitchen/dining room area. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it has (fake) sugared-fruits and grape bunches on it.

And here is the "girly glam" tree in the bar room. I got the idea from a Christmas tree I saw at a silent auction a few months ago (yes, the one that the lady cheated and outbid me after the time was up.) It is done in all purple, silver, and black. Not your traditional Christmas tree, but I love it (and as you can see, so does Harli!)

It has dragonfly ornaments. Most of you know that I love dragonflies, and that I always keep one very close to me. :)

And there are little black heels...

And sassy sparkly heels... These remind me of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, but in purple!

Merry Christmas to you all!

2007-12-19T07:15:00.000-06:00

A little more holiday fun...

http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/rnUljSqgDznH0EgcPI7dJTFi

We've been elfed!

2007-12-17T07:47:00.000-06:00

I've had a few other friends "elf" themselves, so I thought I would give it a try, too!

Click on the link below for a little holiday fun!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1483256416

All Aboard!

2007-12-02T08:23:00.000-06:00

In my last entry, I mentioned that Scot and I (and Andy) were banished to our bedroom last night (watching the depressing Mizzou loss). So I felt that I should provide some additional explanation of our banishment.

Well, Matt's girlfriend, Jenny, recently had a birthday. Since Matt cannot drive yet, they've never been able to go to dinner just the two of them. Therefore, for her birthday gift we planned out a fun little date night for just the two of them last night. The theme: A Night on the Orient Express. So Matt and I made up something to look like a train ticket. It had the Orient Express insignia, her name, the departure date and time (last night, 6:30), the name of the terminal (her street name), the track (her house number), and the train, car, and seat numbers (the month, date, and year of their anniversary). It turned out really cute. So Matt gave this to Jenny at her birthday party last weekend, but wouldn't tell her what it was for.

So we/the train picked Jenny up last night (the train arrived closer to 6:40 due to the ice storm we got yesterday). We then dropped Matt and Jenny off at Kobe's Japanese Steakhouse so they could have dinner on their own. This is one of those restaurants where you sit around the grill and the chef prepares your meal in front of you. It's very interactive, and they said they really liked it. Meanwhile, Scot, Andy, and I went to Old Chicago for our dinner and to watch the first part of the Missouri game. Matt texted us when they were finished, and we went to pick them up. Oh yeah- at dinner he gave her a necklace. It was the Chinese symbol for Love. OK- so our theme had a few inconsistencies- Japanese restaurant, Chinese symbol. Get over it. :)

After dinner, we all returned back to our house so they could watch the classic movie, Murder on the Orient Express. We let them watch it in the living room on the big TV, which brings us back to why Scot, Andy, and I were banished to our bedroom. Their opinions were mixed about the Orient Express movie, but overall they said they really enjoyed the evening. Matt did good to keep everything a surprise, so Jenny didn't know what was going on until it happened. This allowed us to have some fun with her. On the way home from dinner we were teasing about the next part of the night- anywhere from watching the Japanese version of Godzilla to a subtitled Kung-Fu movie.

There was another "fun," but unplanned part of the evening. Due to the aforementioned ice storm, our driveway was a sheet of ice (the roads were fine, but the driveway hadn't melted yet.) So when we pulled into the driveway after dinner, our car stopped about halfway up and then started turning and sliding backwards. We ended up turning 90 degrees across the driveway, and then slid back down. It was a little scary, for fear that we were going to go forward into our ditch. However, Scot maneuvered it beautifully, and we just ended up turning a complete 180 degrees and drove back out of our driveway. So we drove once more around the street (we live on a circle), and then pulled back into our driveway and successfully made it into our garage! We joked and said it was a planned part of the theme of the night. Ever heard of the movie, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift"...

So except for the Missouri loss, the evening seemed to be a success!

Happy December!

2007-12-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

I know, you must be thinking... Wow, that was one hell of a long 6th day in Hawaii! Sorry, I've been out of the blogosphere for almost a month. This past month has been very hectic, and somehow updating the blog never made it to the top of my "to-do" list. I'll try to do better...I promise! Scot and I are banished to our bedroom tonight (more on that in another entry), so I thought it would be a good time to type up an entry. As I type, Scot, Andy, and I are sitting on our bed watching the Mizzou/Oklahoma game. Go Mizzou!

So, what "excuses" do I have for being so neglectful to my blogging duties? During the last month, I had to do some traveling to Mississippi for work. Taking the time to get ready to leave town, then being out of town, really put me behind on my normal tasks in life. Then, on top of that, I've been super busy at work when I've been in town, too. As most of you know, I received a promotion in October. Well, that's the "good news." I put "good" in quotes, because I accepted the position under the pretense that they would be hiring someone to take over my old position. Well, basically that has been put on hold until at least the first of the year. Not to mention that it will take a minimum of three months to get someone trained and functional once they are even hired. So, I've not only been trying to keep up with all of the responsibilities from my old position, but I've also been thrust into the responsibilities of my new position, including travel. And who doesn't love doing two jobs for an extended period of time with no definite end in sight? Well, I'll answer that question, "Not me!" Sorry to sound so disgruntled. But the truth is, I am! But I'll stay positive, and hope that things will get better soon before I'm 100% burned out.

We've also been in full-on Christmas mode. I say "we" as this means "me," but Scot has been willingly dragged along for the ride! This holiday season we've done two things we've never done before:

1) We put up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving this year. This has always been a no-no in our opinions. Well, due to our schedule, it was the only practical time to do it. On top of that, we also put up 3 trees this year! I love it! We bought a new tree for the living room since we have such high ceilings in there. Then we put up the two trees that he and I each had, one in the kitchen and one in the bar room. Scot and the boys have given me a hard time for having so much "Christmas cheer" all over the house, but I know they secretly love it! There is one place by the kitchen table where you have a line of sight to all three trees. Scot will stand there and say he feels like he's in a forest. :) Maybe I'll post pictures of our "forest" soon.

2) We also went shopping the day after Thanksgiving this year. This is something I had never done and said I would never do. However, we happened to be back at my mom's in Mexico, so Scot and I decided to drive over to Columbia to get ahead on our Christmas shopping. No, we didn't do the doorbusters at 4am. We went for the afternoonbusters around 1pm. OK- so I think I just made that term up. Either way, we still got really good deals, and the crowds were no where near what I was expecting. Toys R Us was the most crowded place. And, I'm happy to report that except for finishing up Matt and Andy's shopping, we are ALL finished with our Christmas shopping. AND everything is wrapped and under the tree! Woo-hoo! Go me!

Well, those are the "hi-lights" of the past month's craziness. I have to travel for work again this week. The "fortunate" part, however, is that it is to Boonville, MO. So at least I can see family and friends in Mexico and Columbia while I'm there.

Wow- I just noticed I have an excessive amount of "quotes" in this entry. :)

Back to Hawaii: Day 6

2007-11-04T20:19:00.000-06:00

Now that the weather is starting to cool off, I thought it would be a good time to finish posting pictures from our Hawaii trip... Ahh, the memories...

On Wednesday morning we headed to the airport early to catch our flight to Kauai. We sadly said goodbye to my brother and his family. They were such gracious hosts and tour-guides. It had been over two years since I had seen my brother and his family, so it was great to have five days to visit with them. However, I always hate saying goodbye as I never know how long it will be until our next visit.

One last picture of the mountains on Oahu. Kind of looks like Jurassic Park, don't you think?

After a quick 37 minute flight, we were off to explore Kauai!

Since we couldn't check into our hotel until later in the afternoon, we decided to drive to the north part of the island. Our first stop was in the small town of Hanalei. After some shopping, we stopped at this quaint little place called the Gourmet Deli for some lunch (and pina coladas!)

After lunch, we continued driving along the shoreline to Lumaha'i Beach. It was very secluded with only a couple other people there. It was absolutely beautiful. Here's Kim "striking a pose."

The waves crashing at Lumaha'i Beach... Looks like one of those motivational posters. :) By the way, this beach was the backdrop for the movie, South Pacific.

A few miles further to Wainiha Bay...

The entire drive around the north part of the island was on windy, rural roads. There were several one-lane bridges along the way.

There is not a road that goes entirely around the island. Once you get to the Na'pali Coast on the West side, the terrain is too mountainous for roads. You can only view that part of the island by water or air or hiking. Therefore, we had to "retrace" our route back. On the return trip through Hanalei, we took a picture of this beautiful church- the Wai'oli Hui'ia Church. I absolutely love the architecture of this building, as well as the colors.

Just outside of Hanalei was this National Wildlife Refuge.

These wetlands serve as a sanctuary for endangered Hawaiian waterbirds. From above, it looks like a field of assorted crops. However, those are all swampy areas filled with lily pads, etc to serve as a home for the waterbirds.

After our day of driving, shopping, and beach walking along the north shore, we headed to our resort to get checked in. The place was breath-taking! We were glad that we had seen so many sights that day, because after we got to the resort we didn't want to leave! Here is a picture of the main lobby.

The entire place had lagoons, small pools, and rivers going through it. After getting checked in, we headed to one of the bars for a cocktail. This was the view from our table. You can see all of the small swimming pools and hot tubs throughout the grounds. In the distance is the ocean. It was by far the most beautiful place either of us had ever been to. We were also pleasantly surprised by how uncrowded the place was. I'm not sure if it was due to the time of year or what. However, we never had any problem finding an empty swimming pool or hot tub. This was nice in comparison to some places we've been to in the past that were filled with screaming kids splashing around. Don't get me wrong- I love kids. However, there are definitely some places and times that it's nice to have some solitude.

Scot posing on one of the bridges at the hotel.

We ended the day going to dinner in a nearby town. The food was really good, but compared to the bill- nothing could taste that good! We had been spoiled by eating dinner at my brother's house for the rest of the trip. Everything is just so outrageously expensive in Hawaii. Scot and I had to suppress the tight-wads in both of us to just splurge and enjoy the experience. Afterall, who knows if we'll ever make it back to Hawaii again.

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T07:01:00.000-05:00

What was on the menu for dinner? Why, witch hands, green witch brains, and blood sauce, of course! :)

Andy was invited to a boy/girl party on Halloween night, so for some reason he opted to go there instead of hanging out with Scot and me. So we let Matt invite his girlfriend over for dinner. She lives out in the country, so they don't get trick-or-treaters. She was happy to come help pass out candy at our house. Here they are humoring me and enjoying their creepy dinner.

If you can't tell from dinner, I got a little more into Halloween than I normally do. It has been a couple of years since I've had trick-or-treaters, so I was looking forward to it this year. Scot helped me to get the house decorated, too. We turned our plant bed into a little graveyard and our walk-way lights into pumpkin luminaries.

Here's a shot of the front door. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but there is "blood" coming out of the glass in the door, and there are spiderwebs all over. The neighborhood kids really seemed to enjoy the decorations. Well, all except for one little girl who wouldn't come to the door because she was scared of the spider hanging from the light!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Quick catch-up

2007-10-29T20:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay between blog entries. We have been busy the last couple of weekends, and last week I had events for work during several of the evenings. I still have pictures from Hawaii to post, but thought I would do a quick catch-up of what has been going on with us here in Peoria.

Two weekends ago, my dad was able to come stay a few nights with us. He has been doing some work in the Pennsylvania/New York area since May. His project wrapped up, and he was heading back to Las Vegas by way of Peoria. We were glad he was able to come spend some time with us. As you can see, Harli and him turned out to be good buddies on this trip, too!

Scot and I had a black tie event on Saturday night. It was a charity event for a local hospital. It was our weekend to have the boys, so Dad took them to dinner and the movies. They all seemed to have a good time. Here is a picture of Scot and me. This was Scot's first chance to wear his new tuxedo. He looked so handsome!

There was a silent auction as part of the fundraising events. During the first group of auction items, I set my sights on a goal. It was a Christmas tree with the theme "Out on the Town." It was fully decorated with the coolest ornaments- mini high heel shoes, little evening gowns, etc plus it had gift certificates for restaurants, spas, etc. It was decorated in purple and silver, and it would have gone perfectly in our bar room. After a strategically timed bid, the bell rang and I was the winning bidder! Well, until some trashy lady walked up well after the bell rang and outbid me! Needless to say, I was a little "peeved." Thanks to some liquid encouragement, I was all ready to give her a piece of my mind or to call the "auction cops" on her. However, Scot helped me to calm down. I remembered that it all goes to a good cause, and we moved on to the next room of bidding. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and decided that I just saved some money and got some cool ideas for Christmas tree decorating!

I did have a little more luck in the next room of bidding. Here I am with our "winnings" below. I would love to say that I immediately fell in love with it and feverishly bid until it was mine. The truth is, however, that it was really the only thing on the bidding tables that we could afford! Oh well, I still do really like it, and it matches our bar room perfectly. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it's amber/yellow in the center and purple around the outside.

This past weekend Scot and I attended a neighbor's Halloween party. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the event. Nothing too exciting. We decided to go with outfits that we could make out of stuff we already had... Voila! Rabbit and the Rabbit Hunter. I've had a bunny costume from years past, and Scot just wore his hunting gear. We thought about adding some blood to my rabbit costume to make it a little more "Halloweenish." However, I overruled it for fear of offending someone- like me!

Andy had his last football game of the season on Sunday. He had recently missed out on playing three games in a row due to a rib injury. They won their last game of the year 36-8, and finished with a 5-3 record. On a side note- they were 5-0 when Andy played. Coincidence? Scot certainly doesn't think so! :)

Scot's mom, Michele, was able to come to the game on Sunday. It had been awhile since we had seen her so it was great to visit with her. Here is Andy with Grandma Haines. Looks like Andy already has a few inches on her! :)

That's about it for the last couple of weeks. I have a couple more postings from Hawaii still. I hope to get those out soon as I think we still have the most beautiful pictures left to post.

Hawaii: Day 5

2007-10-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was pretty uneventful in terms of the rest of the vacation. The kids returned to school after the Columbus Day holiday, and my brother returned to work. My sister-in-law spent the morning volunteering at the kids' school. It was pretty overcast, so it wasn't necessarily a good "beach-going" day. It was our last day on Oahu, so Scot and I spent most of the morning relaxing and then packing up our bags for our early morning flight to Kauai the next day.

After Nancy returned home, the three of us went out for some Mexican food for lunch, (yummm...), and then we did some shopping around their town. It was another successful shopping excursion (or unsuccessful from the pocket book's perspective!)

Before dinner, Scot and I went for an early evening walk through another part of the neighborhood to another beach. Here are some pics from our walk to Lanikai beach. It was a cloudy day and the sun was starting to set, but you can still see what a beautiful area it was.

There were some AMAZING houses along the beach and up in the hills. Check out the big white house set in the mountains in the left side of the picture. Every house seem to be bigger and more beautiful than the last. I'm sure Scot and I probably looked silly walking around with our mouths wide open.

Another view of the Lanikai beach coastline and its high-dollar real estate.

Here is Scot at the overlook that divides Kailua beach and Lanikai beach. That is "Flat Island" in the background, which serves as a bird sanctuary.

On the way back to Rob and Nancy's, we caught some glimpses of a beautiful sunset behind the mountains. This was taken as we were walking up their street. Except for the powerlines, I think it's a pretty cool picture.

Since we don't have too many pictures or stories to share from Day 5, I thought I would include a picture of Matt (Scot's oldest son) and his girlfriend, Jenny. Their homecoming dance was the weekend we arrived in Hawaii, so we missed out on the whole "pre-dance parent picture taking" event. Nonetheless, we were able to snag some pictures of the event, so here is the cute couple.

Hawaii: Day 4, Part 2

2007-10-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

After spending the first part of the day at Pearl Harbor, we headed to get some lunch. We went to a great local chain called LoCo MoCo. It has traditional Hawaiian plate lunches, and it was quite yummy!

Here are some cheesy pics of Scot and me looking very entertained by our sodas from LoCo MoCo. :)

Here is my brother, Rob, and his four kids at LoCo MoCo. From left: John, Jack, Elizabeth, Ellen, and, of course, Rob.

After lunch, we headed to the North Shore of Oahu. In contrast to Waikiki and Honolulu, the North Shore is more rural. Along the way, you drive by lots of pineapple plantations, sugar cane fields, and coffee bean fields. The North Shore is known for its beaches, and is a popular destination for a lot of surfers. We stopped by several beaches along the way, but I apologize that I don't remember the names of which towns and beaches go with each picture.

The first stop- notice the surfer in the water.

Thanks to Rob for serving as our private photographer! :)

This was a second beach. I loved the scenery here and the lava rocks in the surf.

This rock was in Waimea Bay, and as you can see, it serves as a popular place for cliff diving. No thank you!

Waimea Bay- talk about a house with a view!

The North Shore was truly amazing. The water is the prettiest blue, and the waves are hypnotic. I can see why everyone comes here to surf. Also along the way were lots of little quaint shops and restaurants. Of course we had to take some time to do some souvenir shopping here, and I'm happy to say that our trip was a success!

Hawaii: Day 4, Part 1

2007-10-16T20:23:00.001-05:00

Monday was a very busy day for us. We left the house early to head to Pearl Harbor as the line forms very quickly for the tours. The tours are given on a first come, first served basis, and some days as many as 1,500 people have to be turned away. We got there around 9:30am, and the line was already out the building and down the side walk. Fortunately, it moved very quickly. Initially, Scot and I weren't overly excited about going to Pearl Harbor. However, it ended up being a moving experience, and we are glad that we did.

This is one of the memorial exhibits that lists all of the people, military and civilian, who died as a result of the attack on 12.7.1941. That is Pearl Harbor in the background.

Here is a close-up of the plaque that gives a quick overview of the events that transpired on that day. If you click on the picture it should enlarge so you can read the details.

They had several displays around the park. Here is Kim testing out some of the artillery...

Here is Scot with the USS Bowfin in the background. This submarine was launched on the 1-year anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack and was known as the "Pearl Harbor Avenger." It now sits in the harbor to serve as a museum and memorial to the submarines and their crew that were lost in WWII.

This is the anchor from the USS Arizona. I know most of you probably know this from History class (or you saw the Ben Affleck movie), but here are some historic details in case you are a little fuzzy on the topic (like I was.) During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the majority of the 2,390 total causalities occurred when the USS Arizona blew up. The ship sank in less than nine minutes. The ship still lies on the floor of the harbor and serves as a memorial and tomb for the 1,177 people that went down with her.

This is the actual USS Arizona Memorial. You have to take a ferry to reach it. It is built over the ship, which lies beneath, like a bridge. It does not touch the ship at all. They remind you frequently that this is, in fact, a cemetery as the crew from the Arizona are still entombed below. Everyone is asked to remain silent while at the Memorial. The mood was very respectful, but somewhat eerie.

This is the shrine at the far end of the memorial that lists the 1,177 victims of the USS Arizona. As the survivors of the attack pass away, they are also remembered here.

I think it's human nature to do a scan of names to see if there is anyone that shares your surname. There was one "Stephenson" and one "Haines." We had to make a special note of the R.W. Haines, however, because this is Scot's brother's initials/last name. It was kind of eerie to see this, as well.

The flag above the memorial. It was very windy out there. Because of the silent mood, about the only sounds you could hear were the waves and the flag whipping in the wind.

Here is the USS Arizona submerged beneath the memorial.

The gun turret of the submerged USS Arizona.

Almost 66 years after she sank, the Arizona still leaks oil, as you can see below. This amazed me. They are called the "Black Tears" of the Arizona. They are said to be the tears of the victims, and some people say that the Arizona will continue to "cry" as long as there are survivors still living.

A view of the USS Missouri as seen from the USS Arizona Memorial.

They also have Pearl Harbor survivors that volunteer their time at the park. However, we didn't get a chance to talk to any as the lines were very long. They are becoming more and more "rare" as the survivors age and pass away. According to the National Park Service, which operates the USS Arizona Memorial, more than 1,000 WWII Survivors die each day.

Scot and I were glad that we ended up taking the time to visit this part of our American History. I wasn't sure what to expect before we got there, but it was a very moving experience. I hope you enjoyed my "mini-tour", but if you ever have a chance to visit, I would encourage you to do so.

Hawaii: Day 3

2007-10-15T20:29:00.000-05:00

Sunday we headed into Waikiki for the day. Along the way we stopped at a cool look-out spot known as the "blow-hole." It is a natural ocean geyser formed when the breaking surf is forced through a lava tube. The surf wasn't very high when we visited, so I wasn't able to capture the "blow-hole" on film. We did enjoy the beautiful view nonetheless.

Another view of the "peering place"...

Another shot with us in the frame. It was very windy and sunny!

Once we arrived in Waikiki, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called, "The Yard House." Much to Scot's delight, they claim to have the world's largest selection of draft beers. Whether this is true or not, they at least lived up to the "Yard" in their name as you can see from the glass in the picture below.

The kids' menus at the Yard House had several games to keep the kids entertained. As you can see from the picture below, my youngest nephew, John, learned a new word at school recently. While we do not condone such behavior, we did laugh our "asses" off when we discovered this!

After lunch, we enjoyed a walk along the beach in Waikiki. It was pretty crowded, but really beautiful. We stopped at the Hale Koa hotel resort, which is reserved exclusively for military. Apparently it is known for their Mai Tais. They definitely were strong- so strong that I couldn't even finish one! Rob took the kids to swim in the pool, while my sister-in-law, Nancy, Scot, and I enjoyed some adult quiet time. Here's a pic of Scot and Nancy.

Kim and Scot (and the powerful Mai Tai!)

Here are Scot and I along the Waikiki boardwalk. That is Diamondhead in the background- supposedly the world's most famous volcanic crater. Awesome.

I enjoyed a short nap on the way home thanks to the sunshine and Mai Tai's. After another Prime Rib dinner courtesy of my brother, Scot helped Rob and the kids hang up Halloween decorations. It was really cute to watch them collaborate together on this.

Hanging lights on the basketball goal...

That's about it for Day 3. Stay tuned for Day 4 when we traveled to Pearl Harbor and the North Shore- lots of great pictures from that trip.

Hawaii: Days 1 & 2

2007-10-14T20:00:00.000-05:00

OK- So my last blog entry was a little on the negative side. However, I'm happy to report that we made it safely to Hawaii and back (along with our luggage). Except for some airsickness on the last leg of our flight to Hawaii, our travels went very well. I have never been airsick before, but my sinus infection caused me to have ear troubles with the changes in cabin pressure. My ears finally popped about 2 days into the trip, and I felt much better from there on out.

In the following days, I plan to share a photo journal of our trip. Hawaii has some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. It was an amazing experience, and we took some breathtaking photos.

Day 1:
After a long day of travel, we arrived into Honolulu around 9:00pm Friday night (2am CST). My brother, Rob, his wife, Nancy, and their four kids, Elizabeth, Jack, John, and Ellen, all greeted us at the airport. My oldest niece, Elizabeth, greeted us with fresh flower leis when we arrived. The leis were beautiful, and it was a wonderful start to our trip. I can't remember what kind of flowers Nancy said mine was made of, but Scot's was made of Kukui Nuts, leaves, and seashells.

Day 2:

Saturday was our first full day in Hawaii. It was a pretty laid back day as we were still recuperating from our travels. The three older kids had soccer games throughout the day. Scot and I went to watch the first game of the day- Elizabeth's. It was fun to see her in action, and her team won.

After E's soccer game, Scot and I headed for the beach. Rob and Nancy live about 2 blocks from the beach in their town of Kailua. Here are some pics from the Kailua beach. It was a little overcast that day, but it was still beautiful.

The island you see here is where Rob's Navy base is.

After napping on the beach for awhile, Scot and I decided to stroll along the edge of the water. Towards the end of the beach we saw the following and decided it was a good sign to head back to the house!

Here is a really cool tree in the middle of the Kailua Beach Park.

We met the rest of the family back at the house after Jack and John's soccer games (their teams won, too, by the way). We then headed over to the military base to take a tour of the planes that Rob flies (P3's), and to see where he works. Here's a picture of my big bro' and me in his office.

Saturday evening, Rob made us an awesome Prime Rib dinner. Ellen's birthday was the week before we came to visit, so she had her birthday present from Aunt Kim and Uncle Scot to open. We had it on good authority that she likes to play dress-up, so we got her an assortment of accessories. Here is my adorable niece all dressed-up.

Check out the hair extensions!

Ellen striking a pose!

Afterwards, the kids thought it would be fun to dress Aunt Kim up. I was too tired to put up a fight...plus it was fun to play with my nieces and nephews!

Jack and John were obsessed with Uncle Scot's smooth head. They kept feeling it whenever they had a chance. They thought it felt "so weird!"

Well, there is the summary of our first two days. Stay tuned for more pics of our trip!

Northwest sucks!

2007-10-05T06:50:00.000-05:00

As I type this it is almost 7am, and I'm NOT sitting on a 6am flight headed to Honolulu by way of Minneapolis!

Yep, at exactly 2:09am this morning we received a nice little wake-up call from some cheerful automated woman to tell us that our flight had been canceled. I have worried about this for the last couple of months due to all the bad press Northwest Airlines has been receiving regarding their statistics of canceling flights. However, I've heard that they typically cancel flights towards the end of the month. October 5th? I thought we might be OK. Obviously not!

They rescheduled us so we don't leave Peoria until 11:00 this morning. Unfortunately, we won't get to Honolulu until 8:30pm vs. 2:30pm as originally scheduled. That means we just lost 1/2 a day of vacation. Also, we now have an extra transfer, we're flying 3 different airlines, and we only have an hour layover in LA! Considering these factors, I'll consider ourselves lucky to be in Hawaii by 8:30pm...with our luggage!

Oh, well- I just need to look at the big picture and pray that we'll make it there safely. Still very frustrating to have everything planned out only to have it changed at the last minute. Not to mention that poor Harli could have stayed an extra night at home with us!

Please pray for our safe travels. We know we'll need it as we're booked on Northwest Airlines for our return flight home, too. Although being stuck in Hawaii has got to be better than being stuck in Peoria! :)

On a short hiatus..

2007-10-04T21:44:00.000-05:00

Well, we are turning in to bed early tonight because we have to leave for the airport at 4:30am. We are off to Hawaii to visit my brother, Rob, and his family on Oahu for 5 nights, and then to Kauai on our own for 2 more nights. Unfortunately, I've come down with a nasty sinus infection this week, so I'm hoping the drugs I got from the doc yesterday will kick it out of my system.

So it will be awhile before our next blog entry, but we're sure to have lots of good pics! Here's a quick pic until we return. This is Harli and me watching the Biggest Loser on TV the other night. Yes, she is sound asleep like that! She cracks us up! Now I'm sad because she is at her little pet "hotel" by her lonesome for the next week. I miss her already!

Aloha!

Love is in the air...

2007-10-03T22:02:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, Scot and I went back to Columbia, MO for my cousin, Mac’s, wedding. I hadn’t seen Mac in quite a while, so it was great to see him and his bride, Mindy. The wedding was beautiful, and it was great to be back to Columbia. We hadn’t been there since Easter weekend!

After the wedding ceremony, we had about an hour and a half to spare until the reception started. Scot was already getting hungry (go figure!), so we decided to stop somewhere for a drink and an appetizer. Since we were downtown, we headed to one of my favorite stops, Tellers. Why is it one of my favorite places? Besides the cool artwork and great windows for people watching, they have sweet potato chips! Mmmm… I have not been able to find sweet potato chips in Peoria, so I have been craving them for quite some time. As you can see, they didn’t stand a chance against Scot and me!

After getting our fix at Tellers we headed to the Columbia Country Club for the wedding reception. Here are some quick pics of the bride, groom, and family from the event…

The beautiful bride and groom. Doesn’t Mac kind of look like Tom Cruise?

Mac and Grandma (and part of Grandpa peeking in!)

Grandma and all of Grandpa

Uncle Mark and Aunt Holly

Uncle Brian and Aunt Shawna

Scot and I

The sister of the groom, Miranda, dancing with her dad, Bill

Viva Las Vegas!

2007-10-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Scot for keeping this blog active for the last couple of weeks! I have been out of town for the last two weekends, and very busy during the weeks in-between.

As he mentioned, I went on a girls' trip to Las Vegas two weekends ago. While I won't go into a lot of detail (add Vegas cliche here), I will say that we had a lot of fun! Here are some quick pics to give you the run-down of our trip.

My girlfriends from Columbia, Missouri drove up to Peoria Friday night after work. Peoria has cheap direct flights to Vegas, so this is usually the route we go. Did I mention that I purchased my flight to Vegas on 7/7/07 for $7? The return flight was $77, but still a cheap trip nonetheless! Here are Heather and Sherry at the airport early Saturday morning as we wait for our flight...

We usually stay at my dad's house in Vegas. We still did, however my dad is in Pennsylvania for a few months for work. I wished we could have had some time to visit with him, but we did have good visits with my lil' bro, Keith, and my step-mom, Susan!

We arrived Saturday morning and spent most of the day by the pool. After a short nap (yes, you're officially old when you have to take naps to keep up with Vegas), we headed out for the night. Keep in mind, this picture was taken as we were leaving the house around 10:00pm, which is midnight back home. So I would say that a nap was justified! :)

My brother, Keith (aka Jeeves), served as our gracious chauffeur during our stay. He did a great job taking us downtown in the evenings and picking us up in the mornings! Thanks, Keith!

The first night we headed to Tao at the Venetian. This is a frequent celebrity hot-spot dance club, but we saw no celebs that night. Here we are on the balcony at Tao that overlooks the Strip.

As you can see from the pics below, the place was packed! Surely there had to be some celebrities in there somewhere!?!

Another view of the dance floor. Note the girls in the bathtub with "strategically placed" flower petals. Nothing like Vegas!

Here is a picture of the three amigos at 5:30am after about 6 hours of dancing. Still all smiles as we wait for our "chauffeur!" :)

The next day, Sunday, we headed to our traditional Vegas lunch at In-N-Out burger. No trip to Vegas is complete without a meal here!

After our Sunday evening naps, we got ready to go out again. Here we are as we're leaving the house. My camera was doing the random spots thing again, and it seemed to land on Sherry's shirt this time! :)

In the past, we've found that Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel is the best place to go on Sundays in Vegas. So we headed there for some more dancing. Group shot in the car!

Check this guy out. He was at Body English, and we got quite a kick out of him. He was all done up like an 80's flashback. Check out the phone! You can't see his hair very well in this picture, but he has a hi-top with all sorts of designs shaved in the side of his head. He was hilarious!

After two long nights of dancing, our dogs were barking!

We headed back home on Monday. After a short delay in our flight, here we are on the plane. We had fun, but we were ready for a good night's sleep!

Here is a picture of Heather enjoying our lovely view of the engine.

This was our shortest trip to Vegas thus far (only two nights), but we found it to be the perfect length. Two nights in a row in Vegas is about all we can handle anymore! :) Heather and Sherry stayed the night with us in Peoria on Monday night before heading back to Columbia Tuesday morning. We always have so much fun together, and I'm glad they were willing to make the trip with me. Looking forward to next time (once my feet heal!)

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

2007-10-01T19:37:00.001-05:00

After a long drive back from Columbia, MO, I rushed to Andy's JFL game. Andy's team was playing the team that he used to play for a couple years ago. It was a beautiful, sunny day and all seemed right in the football world upon my arrival. Devin Hester had just returned a kickoff for a touchdown for my Bears and they were actually winning! Thankfully, I didn't have to witness the meltdown that solidified my Beloved Bears hold on last place!

I was holding out hope that Andy would play despite a rib injury in practice Thursday. His ribs were x-rayed Saturday night and didn't show a break, but he was too sore to play. Unfortunately, the rest of his team didn't play the first quarter either. They were down 13-0 very quickly. The rest of the game was very good, but Andy's team lost for the first time this season 19-16. Andy was very disappointed that he didn't get to play against his former teammates.

Hopefully I'll have better news next week - at least for Andy's team. I'm not looking forward to the beating that Brett Favre and his merry band of cheeseheads puts on my Bears!

Congratulations Kimmy Kay!

2007-09-23T19:13:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-19T09:41:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-09-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-17T19:36:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-16T09:30:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-11T20:30:00.000-05:00

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?!

2007-09-09T20:19:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-06T18:08:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-09-05T19:35:00.000-05:00

...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

2007-09-04T17:59:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

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!"

We've been Simpsonized!

2007-08-29T14:26:00.000-05:00

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

Way to go, baby!

2007-08-26T07:48:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-08-26T07:40:00.000-05:00

Happy 24th Anniversary today to Dad and Susan!

Shout out...

2007-08-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

Happy 17th Anniversary today to Mom and Greg!

Talking dog

2007-08-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-22T07:27:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-21T07:15:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-20T20:27:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-19T12:59:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-17T12:54:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-08-17T12:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-17T11:56:00.001-05:00

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...

2007-08-17T11:09:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-17T10:12:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-08-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

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!

Da Bears!

2007-02-04T11:26:00.000-06:00

In honor of today's Superbowl, a little bit of humor...

Quarterback Brett Farve, after living a full life, died.

When he got to heaven, God started showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded Packers' flag in the window.

"This house is yours for eternity, Brett," said God. "This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here. "

Brett felt special, indeed, and walked up to his house. On his way up to the porch, he noticed another house just around the corner. It was a three-story mansion with a blue and orange sidewalk, 50-foot tall flagpole with an enormous Bears logo flag, and in every window, a Blue helmet with a "C" on it.

Brett looked at God and said, "God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a question. I was an All-Pro Quarterback, I won a Super Bowl, and I even went to The Hall of Fame."

God said, "So what do you want to know, Brett?"

Brett replied, "Well, why does Walter Payton get a better house than me?"

God chuckled and said, "Brett, that's not Walter Payton's house, it's Mine! Go Bears!!!!"

Touchdown!!

2007-02-03T09:11:00.000-06:00

OK- Going by the title of this blog, you might think that this entry is about the Bears and the upcoming Superbowl tomorrow (Go Bears!) But actually it is about our dining out experience last night. I'll explain...

Last night, Scot and I went out for Mexican. For those of you that know us, you know that this is NOT a rare occurrence for us. In fact, a typical week has us going out for Mexican at least twice. So last night we were at our new favorite Mexican restaurant, Vallarta's. After we had finished our meals (yum!), we were sitting at the table enjoying the rest of our margaritas and just talking. There were some pieces of shredded lettuce left on the table, and something possessed me to try to blow them across the table to Scot. Scot then playfully started doing the same thing, so the lettuce was at a stand still. Then, I had the brilliant idea to make a game out of it. In preparation for the Superbowl, I told Scot to make his hands into a field goal, (like if you were playing with the little paper triangle footballs.) I then attempted to make a field goal by flicking the lettuce. Well, not surprisingly, it fell considerably short of the goal. I never was much of an athlete.

So then it was Scot's turn. I returned the favor by making my hands into a field goal. Well, the competitive sports fan in Scot then showed its face. Scot geared up, took aim, and flicked the lettuce for his field goal. Well, he flicked the lettuce so hard that it went over my shoulder and hit the person in the booth behind me right in the back! Luckily, we don't think the person felt it. Nonetheless, we were laughing so hard! After a long week at work, it was a good release of laughter. We felt like little kids in junior high having a food fight.

Happy Birthday, Harli!

2007-01-30T14:40:00.000-06:00

Yes, today is Ms. Harli's 1st birthday! Our little girl is growing up so fast! :)

From a small pup, barely registering on the scales...

...to the "big girl" she is today, busting the scales at nearly 10 lbs!

It's official! She's a "Rock Star"... see- she even has the T-shirt to prove it!

Happy Birthday to Harli! Don't worry- although we love our little pup, we're not the kind of people who do crazy things like throw birthday parties for their pets. (We just blog about their birthdays!) :)

Punta Cana...Part Tres

2007-01-21T22:55:00.000-06:00

One of our most favorite parts of the trip was an excursion we took on our fifth day in Punta Cana. It was an all-day "safari" type of trip that allowed us to see the countryside and how residents of the Dominican live. We traveled in an open-air bus, which was great (except for the 10-minutes of rain we had to drive through!) :) Here we are on the bus in the countryside...

One of the things that made the trip so fantastic was our tour guide, Nacho (yes, like the cheese.) He was very entertaining, and you could tell that he loved his job! He was college-educated and spoke six languages. Since tourism is such a major source of income for the country, being a tour guide is one of the better employment options available. Nacho spent the entire tour hanging off the back of the bus. As if this wasn't dangerous enough, he was also making us drinks while doing so! His main specialty? Rum and Coke! He had a cooler full of old-fashioned, glass bottles of soda. He would toss the bottle over his shoulder in order to pour out the top portion of soda. Then he would refill the bottle to the top with rum... and voila- Instant Rum and Coke! The photo below shows Nacho's bartending skills in action, as he is pouring the soda out over his shoulder.

As part of our tour, we travelled through several small towns. As you might expect, there were many impoverished areas. Life there seemed very simple and slow-paced. However, there were still many glimpses of modern technology, with a "Dominican twist." For example, we saw some houses with TV antennas on the roof, however they were on poles made of bamboo!

Below is a picture of an actual "gas station" in one of the small villages in the country. If you think that our gas prices are outrageous, gas in the Dominican costs the equivalent of $5 US! As a result, motorcycles and scooters are their major modes of transportation. The gas station below allows them to pull their motorcycle right up and filler-up!

As we drove further into the countryside, it was amazing to see how lush the landscape was. It looked like something straight out of Jurassic Park! In the picture below, you can see the overall scenery- we eventually drove up into the mountains in the background.

Once up into the mountains, we stopped in a small community. There we were able to see how they process several of their main exports- coffee, vanilla, cocoa, and sugar. We also had the opportunity to sample these commodities in their freshest forms. Here are pics of us enjoying fresh-cut sugar cane.

After our time in the mountains, we headed to one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It was very secluded, and I felt like we were on our own little private island! It was perfect!

They also had boogie boards available for us to use. Here is Scot heading out into the waves to give it a try...

And here is his bald head riding on a wave. I didn't get the picture snapped quick enough to catch him higher on the wave!

All things considered, it was a perfect day trip for us. And on a snowy day like today, it makes me really appreciate how great it was!

Punta Cana...Part Dos

2007-01-16T20:10:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, we did experience some excursions outside of our resort while vacationing in Punta Cana. As wonderful and luxurious as a resort can be, I still like getting out and seeing the "real world," so to speak. Our first excursion was the KonTiki snorkeling cruise. Some people might refer to this as a "Booze Cruise" as there is music, dancing, and an open bar on the boat for the entire trip. While we did enjoy the music and the occassional beverage, our main goal for the trip was the snorkeling. We were, however, a little disappointed with the quality of the snorkeling we experienced. The water wasn't very clear that day, and the fish and coral weren't as brightly colored as they have been on previous snorkeling trips we had each been on. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed getting out in the open water. We took some pictures with an underwater camera, but I'm not sure how well they are going to turn out. Here our some other pictures from our "Day at Sea"...

Here was our guide. We cannot remember his real name because Scot and I affectionately nicknamed him "Crabman." For those of you who watch "My Name Is Earl," then you know what we're talking about. For those of you who don't, well you're missing a really funny show!

Here is picture of us as we were cruising out to the spot for snorkeling. As you can see from my "comb-over" hair do, it was a little windy on the top deck of the boat!

Here is a good view of looking back at the beachfront while we were out in the water. The beaches here had the most beautiful, white sand, and the water was a brilliant turquoise in color.

And here we are after our snorkeling experience, enjoying the drinks and music on the main deck of the boat.

You can't really see it in the picture above, but there were actually several baby strollers behind us! We were amazed that there were a few people that brought small children on this excursion. I mean, what part of "Booze Cruise" makes you think it would be a good family outing? Plus, in order to get onto the main boat, you had to wade out into the water and get into smaller fishing boats first. It was quite entertaining to see the dads trying to carry their strollers out into the ocean and then get them into the boats! It was also funny to see how many of them went straight for the bar when they finally got onto the main boat! :)

All in all, it made for a great day. I will post pics from our other excursions in the next day or so. But now I have to finish up some other things before American Idol comes on! :)

Punta Cana... Part One

2007-01-15T23:50:00.000-06:00

Wow! It has been forever since I've added any postings to this blog. However, life has been a little hectic for the last couple of months. Planning a wedding can occupy one's time enough. But when you are also doing this during the holiday season, it leaves very little time for blogging.

ANYWAY... Scot and I rang in the New Year with a small, intimate wedding in Mexico (Missouri.) Everything went as planned and we had a great time! We returned back from our honeymoon a few days ago, and are now settling into married life. We went to Punta Cana in the Dominican for our honeymoon, and we had a remarkably good time. Most people have not heard of Punta Cana, but we would highly recommend this beautiful island! While there, we took a lot of pictures to help remember our travels. In a futile attempt to portray what a great place Punta Cana is, I will post some of our pics from the trip...

Here is a picture of me at the Iberostar Punta Cana resort. The grounds were so lush and immaculate.

We met a lot of great people there, and everyone was so friendly. One of the most important people we got acquainted with was Marcello, one of the resort bartenders. He was always singing and dancing, and overall very entertaining. Plus, he was one hell of a drink-maker! :) In addition, he thought Scot was "Bullseye" from the Ben Affleck movie, "Daredevil." Funny enough, this wasn't the first time that someone has told Scot this!

For those of you who are not familiar with "Bullseye," I have attached a picture for you to see the comparison. Here's Scot and I during one of our many trips to Marcello's bar...

And here is "Bullseye." I must say that there is a bit of a resemblence...although I have never seen Scot make such a serious face (and then there is the whole bullseye-in-the-middle-of-the-forehead thing.)

This is George, the resident rooster that roams freely around the resort grounds. Although you can't really tell in this picture, he was the biggest (insert joke here) rooster I have ever seen!

We also treated ourselves to massages on the beach. This was the first "real" massage either of us had ever had. While I enjoyed it thoroughly, I was amazed at how it was actually painful at times. However, I was completely relaxed when it was over with. Granted, this could also have to do with the fact that I was on the beach with an unlimited supply of alcohol!

We also took a few excursions while we were there, but since it is getting late in the evening I will save them for another post. I hope to get them posted in the next day or so (not the typical 2 month's time that it has been taking me!)

Blog resurrected

2006-11-18T12:53:00.000-06:00

Wow! I have been quite irresponsible with my blogger duties as of late. But to my defense, I have been a "little" bit busy with some other things going on in life. Nonetheless, I apologize for allowing my blog to become quite stagnant.

Aside from the wedding planning duties (which I know people don't want to read about), nothing too eventful has been going on in P-town.

On my quest to lose some weight before the big day, I had successfully lost about 5 pounds. However, thanks to the wonderful restaurants and bars in downtown Chicago I managed to put 3 of them back on during a recent business trip. Fortunately, I went for a dress fitting yesterday and it still fits! Hopefully it still will after Thanksgiving and Mom's turkey dumplings!

In addition to Thanksgiving this week, I am also highly anticipating a little pre-wedding trip to Vegas in less than two weeks and counting with my good friends, Heather and Sherry. We always manage to find some fun ways to kill time when we're out there. :) One might think that I should have plenty of things to blog about when I return from Sin City, but as everyone knows by now what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

I have some more stories and pics to share, but I figured I better keep this short since I haven't blogged in awhile. Have to ease back into it- don't want to pull something!

2006-10-25T08:25:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to make mention that I have added a link to our wedding website on the left pane of this page. Check it out if you get a chance!

Go Cards!

Happy Sweetest Day! Huh?

2006-10-21T09:18:00.000-05:00

OK- please help me out here…has anyone ever heard of this holiday? Well, in case you’re like me and didn’t have a clue…it is today. I was made aware of this fact in the sweetest way, which I guess is only appropriate…

I awoke this morning to Scot handing me a big box, and the conversation went something like this:
Scot: Happy Sweetest Day!
Kim: What?
Scot: Sweetest Day!
Kim: Sweetie’s Day?
Scot: Sweetest Day!
Kim: What?
Scot: Happy Sweetest Day!
Kim: What are you talking about?

Granted, I was still half asleep. But still, I didn’t believe Scot, and accused him of making it all up. He assured me that this was, indeed, an actual holiday. I finally believed him when I read the card and it was actually printed with, “Happy Sweetest Day!” What a great thing to wake up to on a Saturday morning, although I do feel quite guilty that I didn’t get anything for him. (The gift, incidentally, was some adorable sleeping pants, tank top, and hoodie from Victoria’s Secret.)

So, after I gained consciousness, I decided to look this “Sweetest Day” up to find out more information. This is what I learned…

Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in October. It was started over 60 years ago when a Cleveland man, believing that the city's orphans and shut-ins too often felt forgotten and neglected, conceived the idea of showing them that they were remembered. He did this through the distribution of small gifts. With the help of his friends and neighbors, he distributed these small remembrances on a Saturday in October. During the years that followed, other Clevelanders began to participate in the celebration ceremony, which came to be called "Sweetest Day". In time, the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the underprivileged was broadened to include everyone, and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small remembrance. And soon the idea spread to other cities all over the country.

OK…so does Scot think I’m neglected or underprivileged??

Hopefully not. I continued to read about the tradition, and found out that it is now celebrated as a day to make someone happy. (OK- that seems more appropriate!) It is an occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged, and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.

Sweetest Day is not based on any single group's religious sentiment or on a family relationship. It is a reminder that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning.

Because for many people remembering takes the form of gift-giving, Sweetest Day offers the opportunity to show others that we care, in a tangible way.

So for those of you out there like me that had never heard of this tradition…now you know! Some of you may think this is just another artificial holiday created by Hallmark. Regardless, it made for a great surprise this morning! So mark it on your calendars…I know I will (so I won’t forget a gift for Scot next year!)

The Cardinal(s) Rule

2006-10-20T20:27:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo! The Cardinals are going to the World Series! Did anyone see that coming? I know we didn’t! But we’ll take it!

On a side note: Did you know that Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina began their professional baseball careers right here in Peoria?? Well, neither did I until today! They both played here in P-Town as Peoria Chiefs, our Class A Minor League team.

I couldn’t find a picture of Molina, but here is a copy of Pujols' card from when he was a Peoria Chief. Look how adorable he was!! I don't know if you can see it, but it says, "Top Prospect" in the bottom left corner of the card. Yeah, ya think!?

Please ‘Bear’ with me...

2006-10-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

...Kimmy is the creative one in our relationship. : )

We have been very busy with wedding planning, so I was truly blessed on Monday night. My beloved Bears were on Monday Night Football, and Kim and I were out running wedding errands. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, my future father-in-law, Bob, was kind enough to keep me updated on the first half of the game. Maybe ‘updated’ is the wrong term. Perhaps, ‘taunting calls mocking the poor play of my Bears’ would be more appropriate. As we shopped, I began to cringe each time the phone rang with more cackles from the Cardinal fan. Oddly enough, the phone calls stopped as the third quarter ended. I thought there may have been some type of power outage or phone problem in Vegas. Out of strict concern for my soon-to-be father-in-law, I placed a call to Vegas a little after 11:00 pm central time. (Ironically, the call coincided with the end of the game.) Fortunately, Susan (Kim’s step-mom) answered the phone, so there had been no tragedy. Well, except for the one in Phoenix if you’re a Cardinal fan. Turns out, it is virtually impossible to dial a phone when you’re sobbing uncontrollably as your team displays one of the worst ‘choke jobs’ in the history of the NFL. Needless to say, I slept like a baby with visions of a Super Bowl dancing in my head.

-Scot

Editor’s note: The views in this entry are tainted by the ‘orange and blue kool-aid’ currently being consumed in mass quantities by all long suffering Chicago Bears fans and should not be held against the author.

It's me again...

2006-10-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone for the great comments and well-wishes! I'm sorry for the delay in posting any new entries. As some of you have heard, Scot and I are planning to "tie the knot" on New Year's Eve (of this year!) So, if you do the math, that gives us approximately 74 more days to plan a wedding! Therefore, there hasn't been a lot of time this past week for blogging. However, I am happy to say that it has been a productive (less than) 2 weeks since we have gotten engaged. I'm not sure how, but we have managed to:

Book a venue for the ceremony and reception
Book a photographer
Secure a caterer
Secure an officiant for the ceremony
Start addressing invitations
Find Kim's wedding dress (yeah!)
Book our room for the wedding night
Book our honeymoon trip

In addition to all of this, we also managed a trip to Indianapolis, a trip back to Mexico, MO, Scot spent a day in Springfield, IL putting a new roof on his mom's house, and Kim took a 4-hour driver's course (don't ask- I'll just say that it doesn't pay to speed in Peoria.)

Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! We still have a lot to go, but regardless, we have made great strides in pulling this event off. In addition, I've made a promise to myself to enjoy the process and journey, and not to get stressed by all of the tasks to do. (Wow! I almost typed that with a straight face!) :)

Harli le Pew

2006-10-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

We (and by that I mean mostly Scot) have been doing several remodeling projects on the house lately. We currently are putting up drywall, and we recently learned that puppies and dry wall just don't mix well. I submit the attached picture as Exhibit A. Harli came running in the house, cut the corner a little tight, and side-swiped a wall that was still wet with drywall mud. The result was a "skunkified" puppy, who has now earned the nickname, "Harli Le Pew," (which is also due to the fact that she needs a bath!)

Game day!

2006-10-09T07:14:00.000-05:00

Since moving to Peoria I have become used to Sundays being all about the football. Typically, Andy always has a football game on Sunday that we attend. Also, Scot is a huge Chicago Bears fan, so we always have to (did I say "have to?") watch the Bears play every Sunday. (Which hasn't been all bad since they've been having an awesome season... which I'm sure I just jinxed...oops!) Anyway, this past Sunday was still all about the football, but with a twist...

Andy got to go play football yesterday at the RCA dome- Home of the Indianapolis Colts. Pretty cool for anyone, especially a 12 year-old football fanatic. As part of his JFL league, the team and the parents got to travel to Indianapolis to watch the Colts play (Colts beat the Tennessee Titans 14-13 in what was, I must admit, a really exciting game.) This was my first experience at a NFL game, and it was pretty cool to feel the excitement in the stadium. Following the Colts game, the kids played a game on the field. It was a really neat experience for everyone. Andy's team won, although he was disappointed that he didn't get more playing time. I think the coaches tried to let everyone have equal playing time, considering the situation, which meant less playing time than normal for Andy. Overall, though, it was a great day and an experience he won't soon forget. Here is a pic of the kids on the field (I wish I could say that really was Manning in the foreground, but, alas, it is not), and one of the proud dad with his football star.

On a side note, there was one tragedy of the day. We returned home to find out that the power had gone out 1 hour before the Bears kickoff. I know it sounds like no big deal. However, the end result was that the VCR didn't record the Bears game that Scot had been so anxiously waiting to watch all day. So, if anyone out there has a recorded copy of the 10-8-06 Bears game, I know someone that would be very happy to share it with you!

New Beginnings

2006-10-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I am happy to announce some exciting news....

Scot and I are officially engaged.

I came home last evening after a hectic day at work. It didn't take long for Scot to convince me that we should take advantage of the beautiful weather that day, and take a bottle of wine and go up to Grandview Drive to look at the views of the changing trees. For those of you not familiar with Peoria, Grandview Drive is a beautiful stretch of drive that has breathtaking views of the river and many beautiful historic homes lining it. There are several picnic tables along the way, and it is a perfect place to stop and relax with some wine! :) Here is picture of the view from where we were sitting. We sat up there for awhile observing the scenery, and then, yes, he got down on one knee. I'll spare you the mushy details from there, but, of course, I said "yes."

And to answer the question that everyone has been asking, no, we haven't set a date yet. But I'll keep everyone posted on that...

The Players...

2006-10-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

I wanted to take a moment to introduce the "characters" in my life here in Peoria, so you'll know who I am referring to in my posts:

First off, there are the pets...

This is Harli, our miniature pinscher. She is 8 months old, and tips the scale at almost 8lbs. But, don't let her size fool you. She has the attitude of an 80 lb dog, and rules the roost. She definitely keeps us entertained and on our toes.

Then there are the cats, Allie and Sammy. Although they may not look like it, they are brother and sister. As you can see here, Allie is a bit of a couch potato (which explains her wide rear-view.) She loves to watch TV, and I guess you can say we are "enablers" because we even provide her with her own stool for doing so.

And Sam... Poor, Sweet, Sam. He is a true blond (no offense to anyone out there.) He was the runt of the litter, and has never seemed to catch-up with the rest. He is a lover, not a fighter (something that Harli frequently takes advantage of by kicking his butt whenever she can.) As you can see by the picture below, Harli has been getting Sam in headlocks since she was just a pup.

Then, there are the real animals, Scot's sons, Matt and Andy. Actually, they are really great kids, and we have a lot of fun with them. Matt, 14, is a Freshman this year, and really seems to be loving it. He is our technology guru and one of the most mature 14 year olds that you'll meet. Here he is just before the Homecoming Dance last weekend with his date. We had fun helping him prepare for the dance, including taking him to get his first "real" haircut and shopping for his outfit. I must say, we did a good job, because he looked quite handsome!

Andy, 12, is in 7th grade and he is quite the sportsman! He plays it all- baseball, basketball, and football, but football is definitely his real love. However, he does a good job balancing sports with school as he is also a straight-A student. Here is a picture of Andy (center, #31) in all of his "football glory" following a recent tournament.

And last, but certainly not least, there is Scot. I could go on and on about him, but I’ll just say that he is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. He is not only a great boyfriend, but he is a great friend anyway you look at it. Scot is a branch manager at a local credit union, he loves riding his Harley motorcycle, and he is a great dad and guy.

My first post!

2006-10-04T15:05:00.000-05:00

Well- I have decided to jump on the proverbial band wagon and create a blog of my own. Several of my friends have blogs, and I enjoy checking them regularly to get updates on their lives. I decided that I would start one, as well, in order to try to stay connected with my family and friends that have all become so spread out geographically. As always, I have good intentions to make regular postings, especially since there seems to be a lot going on in my life right now! But then again, I can't make any promises since there seems to be a lot going on in my life right now! :) Either way, I hope you'll stop by periodically to get updates on life in P-town (exciting, I know), and your comments are always welcome and appreciated!

Love,
Kim