Appreciate The Simple Things

Moving! (again)

2009-03-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

I am moving the blog again - this time to a different site altogether. Hopefully this will eliminate all the problems I've been having with comments and backgrounds and whatnot. Here's the new blog address: www.appreciatethesimplethings.wordpress.com I'll catch ya on the flip side!!!

Mardi Gras 2009

2009-02-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

It's Mardi Gras time!

2009-02-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard, there is a dog parade each year down in Soulard that kind of kicks off Mardi Gras week. Last year was the first year Lenny or I had ever gone to the dog parade, and since we didn't really know what to expect, we didn't bring Jax. This year we dressed Jax up in his dragon costume and headed down to meet up with some friends. I think Jax thought he was all that! He pranced around all day like a little stud muffin. That's my boy! :) Overall we had a blast. I can't believe some of the costumes people come up with for their dogs! They are great! I'm thinkin the dog parade is going to become a yearly tradition for us. Here are a few pics from the parade.

Here's Jax getting ready

Jax meeting Trinity

Trinity, Dharma, Squirrel, and Jax

Donnie, Jen, and Steve with Dharm, Trin, and Squizzy

Brian and Mark with Obi, Leia, and Lil Bit (AKA Fat Bit)

Us with J-dogg

This was probably my fave costume I saw...I mean really? Who comes UP with this stuff? Too cute.

This monster of a dog must have gotten scared - he was backin it up onto the bench by his Mommy. haha

The Magic House

2009-02-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

I've been a horrible blogger lately. My bad! Please accept my apologies. :) Just wanted to post a few quick pics from several weeks ago on one of our Bella weekends. We took her to the Magic House one snowy Sunday afternoon and I don't know who had more fun, us or Bella!!! lol There is SOOOOO much stuff to do there! I could spend hours in that place. They still have all the old school stuff from when we were little (the mirror maze, the seats with pulleys, the static ball, the big twisty slide, the shadow wall, etc) and now they've added so many new things that it's like sensory overload when you go there- but in a good way. We will definitely have to go back again sometime soon! Here are a few pics from when we were there. Ha ha, check out Bella's hair on the static ball! I mean, really? What IS that hair? I am still cracking up about that one....

Time for tea!!!

Seriously?

I'm diggin the new job!

2009-02-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

I started my new job last week and so far I am loving it! It's so different from what I was doing in CBA, and I've already learned quite a bit about our company this week. A big part of my responsibilities as an Associate Proposal Writer is to produce the binders we send to the prospective clients which contain the RFPs (request for proposals). It's neat to print out all the materials that go in the RFPs and very satisfying knowing I helped make that finished product. So far so good!

I am going to go search for some old college photos now. A couple of my friends who will remain nameless have been posting old pics of all of us on Facebook, and I need to pay them back. I'm confident that I can find some oh so cute pics of them somewhere... Muwahahaha!!!

The blog has a new residence

2009-01-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of months, I have somehow managed to mess up the layout of my blog. I tried to go back to the default settings, but nothing I was doing seemed to work. I got really frustrated with it (hence the reason I haven't posted anything in a couple weeks) so I finally decided to just start over from scratch and create a new blog. My new blog address is http://appreciatethesimplethings.blogspot.com/ . See you there!

A visit from the Wisconsin clan

2009-01-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

Last week we had the pleasure of having my aunts Jane and Linda and my cousin Leah from Wisconsin stay with us. We had so much fun while they were here! I think they seriously need to consider moving down here. :) We come from a big family, so if it's not chaotic in the house, then something must be wrong. Keeping with this tradition, we had my mom, dad, Dean, Stacey, Carson, Jason, Janine, and Kendall all come over one night while they were here and gave Lenny a taste of what our little family get togethers are like. I think he was a little overwhelmed. lol Just wait til he sees the ENTIRE family together! I think it's best if we break him in slowly... Little Miss Kendall was the star of the night though. Everyone was fawning over her and taking their turns holding her the entire time she was here. I don't think she was put down since the moment they walked in the door! Anyway, we had a great visit with everyone and we were sad to see them go. They are always very gracious and offer to let us stay with them every time we go to Wisconsin, so it's nice to be able to return the favor for once. Hope you guys had a good time, and we'll be looking forward to having you again soon! Here are some pics from their visit.

Welcome to the new blog!

2009-01-23T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hi, thanks for taking the time to check out my new blog!

Lenny and Bella toast each other

2009-01-11T07:24:00.000-08:00

Not really, but I thought it was a cute title for this post since they are eating toast together. :)

Aaaaaand the camera's back.

2009-01-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

Yeah so Lenny had the camera in his coat pocket the whole time. Guess I freaked out for no reason. I'm glad he had it!

We had a nice relaxing weekend. Saturday we spent the day taking down the Christmas tree and all the holiday decor. In the evening we went and saw the movie Marley & Me with Jason and Janine. It was so cute! I don't want to give anything away, but if you plan on seeing it, it's not ALL happy. And that is all I have to say about that. After the movie we went to dinner then went back to Jason and Janine's to play Wii. Seems like that was the gift everyone got this Christmas!!! I was more interested in playing with Kendall. :) Here are a few recent pics of that little cutie patootie.

Janine always calls Kendall a Chunky Monkey and I didn't know why...that is until I witnessed the double chin. lol How come it's so cute on her, but not on me???

A pic of the proud mama and baby

Wardrobe change! (don't ask why)

She's working the "surprised" look here.

Kendall and her favorite auntie Gretch! Notice where her hand is. Ummm......sorry but I can't help ya out there sister!

Dude, where's my camera?

2009-01-02T06:14:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post a few pics from Christmas, but somehow over the course of the last few days, I seem to have lost my camera. What IS it with me and cameras lately? First I drop my camera in the Illinois river when we went to Pere Marquette in October and now here it is just a couple months later and I seem to have lost Lenny's camera too. I'm hoping it will turn up in the next few days...and until then you are going to have to put up with my posts sans pictures. :(

Christmas Carol Answers

2008-12-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

Here are the answers to the Christmas Carols below:

1. Jingle Bells
2. Walking in a Winter Wonderland
3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
4. Joy to the World
5. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
6. O'Come All Ye Faithful
7. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas
8. Oh, Christmas Tree
9. What Child is This?
10. We Three Kings
11. Deck the Halls
12. I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In
13. O' Holy Night
14. Noel
15. Away In a Manger
16. The Twelve Days of Christmas
17. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
18. All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
19. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
20. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
21. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!
22. Silent Night
23. O'Little Town of Bethlehem
24. Silver Bells

How many did you get right???

A Christmas tradition

2008-12-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

Saturday evening, Lenny and I headed out to Dean and Stacey's for our annual cookie decorating night. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, and Christmas would not be complete without it! Stacey's angel cookie won the most votes for best cookie this year. Here are a few pics from the evening.

Just for fun

2008-12-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a Christmas Carol quiz I found online. See how many titles you can get right without cheating! I will post the answers in a couple days.

PS. If you want to enlarge the pictures to see them a little better, just click on one of the pics.

Christmas is right around the corner!

2008-12-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

Everyone close to me knows that I work a ton of overtime in December. This is our busy time of year because we are setting up benefits for a lot of new clients that will be effective Jan 1st and also updating plans for our existing clients. After working a few weeks of 10+ hour days, it starts to get old and it's very easy to get burned out. I feel like I am at work more than I'm at home! A lot of times I find myself becoming a bah humbug at this time of year, because all I want to do is relax or sleep when I get home and I really have no desire to do any shopping or baking or anything fun and Christmasy. I am happy to announce that this will be my last year of being a scrooge, because I got the Associate Proposal Writer job that I had applied for, and this is their slow season. Yay!!! :) I will be starting my new position Jan 5th hopefully (still need to work that out with my current manager) and I'm looking forward to the new direction in my career path.

Despite being a bit of a scrooge, we have done several things over the past few days that have helped to get me in the Christmas spirit. Thursday after work, Lenny, Bella, and I went to the Journey to Bethlehem at one of the local churches with my mom, dad, and Carson. This has become quite the production over the past few years. Basically, it's a play following the journey that Joseph and Mary took to get to Bethlehem where they had the baby Jesus. You walk about 1/2 a mile through the church grounds and they have all kinds of people dressed up telling you that Joseph and Mary were just there a day or so before, and they are about to have a baby! They have stables set up with lots of live animals throughout the whole thing too. It's really cool! Towards the end you see Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus and everybody worshipping their newborn king. And then you go into the gym and have hot chocolate and cookies, just like Joseph and Mary did after Jesus was born. :)

Friday night we had our little work Christmas party/happy hour. Lenny of course stayed home with Bella, but I had fun hanging out with all my work buddies and seeing everyone's true personalities outside of work. We found that we've got some real karaoke fanatics in da house...and I am SO not one of them. Ha! Wish I could carry a tune a little better. I'm gonna miss everyone so much when I move to my new department! The good thing is, several of them are my really good friends, so I know we will keep in touch and still do things together even after I am at the new job.

Saturday afternoon, we had the privilege of seeing the Ambassadors of Harmony Christmas show at the Touhill performing arts center. This is an all men's acappella choir, and they are amazing! This was by far the best show I have seen to date. Lenny seemed to enjoy the first half of the show most, because they did some really funny skits in addition to the singing. The premis of the show was that Santa had been vacationing in Jamaica and got detained, so one of the elves was going to fill in for him this year. The head elf that was to fill in was hilarious! There was one part where Mrs Claus came in wearing a skimpy outfit and singing "Santa Baby," not knowing that it was an imposter and not the real Santa, and it was so funny how the elf was trying to make himself look like Santa so that he could smooch her! The second half of the show was more concert-y where the focus was on the sound. They always close the show by singing "Silent Night" by candlelight. They come out into the aisles of the auditorium on that one and it's so neat to hear all the different harmonies as they walk by. If you've never seen the show before, I would highly recommend it - it's incredible! Later that evening, we had Lenny's work Christmas party at Favazza's on the hill. It was okay, but nothing terribly exciting. The best part was that each table got to play the game LCR, and whoever won got a $50 gift card. It was fun playing that game- great ice breaker- but unfortunately neither of us won. Oh well. It was nice to finally meet everyone he works with. Now I will know who he's referring to when he tells me a story about someone from work.

We rounded the weekend out with me working yesterday (surprise surprise), but only for a few hours. We went to dinner at Talayna's in old St Charles, then went over to visit my new pal Kendall Elizabeth (baby Orf has a name!) and see how her and the new mama were doing. They were a little tired yesterday, I guess everything is starting to catch up with them. Apparently Kendall has her days and nights mixed up right now, and she is awake more during the night and then sleeps during the day. Hopefully for Jason and Janine's sake, Kendall will figure out day vs night soon so they can get some rest. She is a beautiful baby though and looks so precious all bundled up in her blankey like a little papoose! The whole childbirth process is so amazing to me, and seeing my best friend go through it all just makes me want to experience it all that much more. My clock is a'tickin, that's for sure!!! One of these days....

Introducing Baby Orf (name to be determined)

2008-12-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Precious little bundle

No no! Don't take my covers off Daddy! It's c-c-c-cold in here!I'm gonna cry if you don't wrap me back up!!!
Awww, whatsa matter Bunky? Don't cry. Mama's here.

Aaaaaaand she's back asleep. Janine's a pro at this! :)
Now wait a minute Daddy...Mommy just got me settled down. Don't get me started again.

Okay, there. Got my Mommy and my Daddy here and I'm all snuggled up. I'm good to go again!

HELLO WORLD!!!

The time has come!

2008-12-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

They ended up inducing Janine yesterday. AAAAH! She had a dr's appointment in the afternoon and her blood pressure was pretty high, so the dr sent her right over to the hospital to get the ball rolling. They broke her water last night around 8:30, but still no baby yet. I can't stop thinking about her and wondering how she is doing! I know it has to be so scary going through that for the first time (or any other time for that matter!), but at least she has Jason there by her side to coach her along, and I know he will be such a great support for her. I can't wait to find out if it's a girl or a boy! I am planning on going up to visit them after I get off work today, so expect to get bombarded with baby pics soon... :)

Yawwwwwwn....

2008-12-09T04:47:00.000-08:00

Well here it is- 6:30 in the morning and I am here at work. This is the 2nd day in a row I have been here this early. Yesterday I stopped on my way in and got Starbucks which helped wake me up a bit, but this morning I skipped the Bux and I feel like I'm about to pass out! lol How do people DO this every day??? I'm sure there are at least 2 other people awake at this ungodly hour, and that would be Nikki and Aidan. ; ) Well if you guys are bored, shoot me and email and wake me up or somethin would ya???

A new look

2008-12-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

I was playing around on the internet this morning and found this background. I thought it was appropriate for the season so I updated the look of my blog. It's nice to change things up a bit every once in a while, right?

Jason and Janine came over last night for game night. It's weird to think that is probably the last time they'll come over before she has the baby!!! They are going to be a real family next time they are here! AHHHH! We had a nice time visiting up in the kitchen while the boys were downstairs watching tv. It's so fun to have my best friend pregnant, cuz she lets me feel her belly (although that stinker of a baby has never once kicked so that I can feel it. I miss it by a milisecond every time), shows me her sticky-outtie belly button, and doesn't even get mad when I laugh at her puffy legs and feet. We were cracking up comparing our legs side by side last night! Poor thing, the skin on her feet/legs is soooo tight right now. I asked her if she's afriad her feet will pop when she walks on them. Ha We both decided she timed this juuuuuust right- cuz if she was pregnant like this in the summer I bet the swelling would be 10 times worse. Anyway, she has only a few more weeks to go - her due date is 12/31. I'm predicting she's going to have the baby a little early. We shall see! I can't wait to meet this little guy! (or girl)

Auntie Gretch signing off now...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T10:53:00.000-08:00

Check this out!

2008-11-24T19:17:00.000-08:00

Nikki did a maternity photo shoot with Jason and Janine over the weekend and the pictures turned out soooo good! I'm amazed every time I look at her work - she is so very talented! You can see the sneak peek on her blog - http://nicolewelch.wordpress.com/ . I cannot wait to see the rest of them.

Yes I'm still alive....

2008-11-24T18:07:00.000-08:00

...I've just been slackin for the last 3 weeks!

You haven't missed too much though. The most exciting thing that has happened in the past few weeks was that I interviewed for a new job! I'd still be with Express Scripts, just in a different department. I applied for an Associate Proposal Writer position in the Sales & Strategic Support department. If I get the job, I would be putting materials together and answering questions for RFP's from prospective clients. It sounds like a really interesting job, and I would learn a lot about our company by working on the RFP's. I didn't feel like I did all that great during the interview, but the director of the department said he was going to get in contact with HR to schedule a second interview, so I guess that's a good sign! I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck!

Lenny and I both took Monday and Tuesday off last week to celebrate his birthday and to spend some extra time with Bella . We woke up Tuesday and went to one of his favorite restaurants, First Watch, for breakfast. I ordered a chocolate chip pancake for Bella, but she didn't want anything to do with it and instead just ate Lenny's French Toast, which amused him b/c he said we should order the French Toast for her from the very beginning but I insisted she'd like the chocolate chip pancake better. Well what do I know??? lol After breakfast, we went to the Science Center for the afternoon. We had so much fun! Bella showed us a bit of her daredevil side that day. If you've ever been to the Science Center, you know they have the covered bridge that goes from one side of Hwy 40 to the other. In this bridge, there are 3 "windows" in the floor where you can see the cars whizzing by underneath you. Most people walk AROUND these windows for fear the windows will cave in if they step on them (which you know would never happen), but lil Bella went right up to the windows, stood on top of them, and started jumping up and down as hard as she could as if she was TRYING to fall through to the highway. Seriously? Next thing we know, she'll be asking to go skydiving.

Pere Marquette

2008-11-09T07:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of our boat trip the other day.

Feeling...cough cough...so...cough...sick!

2008-11-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

I played hookey this week and it felt SOOOO good! :)

Tuesday night I went over to mom and dad's for dinner and then we sat out by the fire pit to enjoy the crisp cool evening. As we were sitting there, we were talking about the weather and knew that Wednesday would be the last nice day we had for a while, because a cold front was coming thru and they were predicting the temp to drop drastically on Thurs, not to mention the fact that it was supposed to rain as well. We started talking about how neat it would be to take one last boat ride up the river to look at all the pretty fall leaves, and then decided to make it happen. I woke up bright and early on Wednesday to be sure that I called before my boss got there (sneaky I know) and left her a message saying I would not be in that day, then I headed over to mom and dad's. We had such an awesome day! We went up the river to Pere Marquette Lodge, sat out on the patio overlooking the river, then had lunch. After lunch we hiked through the woods up the big hill to the scenic overlook. This was probably my favorite part of the day. I can't describe how beautiful it was walking through the woods with such pretty colors all around us! I'm so thankful that my parents are still healthy and able to do things like that. I really enjoyed spending the day with them. Love you guys :)

I will try to post some pics later - for some reason the pics are not working right now.

Cake and....quiche?

2008-11-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the big shower! And although I did have my moments of stress over the past few weeks, I wouldn't change it for anything. I mean it's not every day that you get to throw a baby shower for your best friend - it's kind of a one-time deal - and I was happy to do it for my Nee Nee :) I could not have done it alone, so I have to throw a shout out to my mom, Corinne, Kirsten, and Debbie for all their help with everything. Also, thank you to Janet for making the fruit salad and your famous cole slaw, and thanks to Nikki for the chocolate dipped strawberries and the delicious quiche! Funny story about that quiche... Nikki arrived at the shower a bit late because she got held up at a meet and greet with Barney at the Galleria (yes, the "I love you, you love me" Barney). Well anywho, we all were done eating at the shower and Janine had already started opening her gifts when in comes Nikki with these two trays of quiche she had made. We of COURSE couldn't let them go to waste, so we warmed up the oven and threw them in to heat them up for a few min, and then when we served cake, we made everyone take a mini quiche along with their cake. What a combo!!! They were awesome though. A perfect compliment to the sweet sugary cake! :) Here are a few pics from the shower. Hope you had a good time Janine!

A pic of the "Welcome" onsies we hung up outside the clubhouse

The CAKE! (we did a sweet pea theme if you can't tell)

Before Janine started opening her gifts, Kirstie stood up and read a poem she had written about how much she looks up to Janine as a sister. SO sweet!

Gifts galore!!!

We surprised Janine by having Amy fly in from Cleveland for the shower. Here's Amy, Janine, Nikki, and me

Gretchie and the mama to be

Someone Needs a Vacation

2008-10-30T06:10:00.000-07:00

Okay I have to vent today. Everyone knows that whenever you have people over at your house for any kind of get together, it's stressful to do the preparation, right? Well take the stress from getting everything together for the pumpkin carving party at my place last weekend and add that to coordinating everything for Janine's baby shower this weekend, throw in some anxiety about Lenny officially moving in this week, to having a huge implementation project I was working on at work for the past week or so, and you've got yourself a recipe for disaster! Umm yeah, who got so overwhelmed at work the other day that I started bawling? That would be me. I just feel so frazzled right now! It's like I have 10 gazillion things going on and not nearly enough time to do them all. I feel like a chicken running around in circles with my head cut off! Hopefully after the shower this weekend, I will be able to just sit down and breathe for a minute.

4th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

2008-10-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

For the last 3 years, Jason and Janine have hosted a pumpkin carving party at their house the weekend before Halloween. They invite both of their families over (somehow I got included in the mix too) for food, fun, and best of all, pumpkin carving! It is a lot of work to get everything together for the party, and with her being pregnant this year she thought it would be too much stress so she wasn't planning on doing it. I felt like this was unconstitutional seeing as though everyone always has so much fun and looks forward to the party each fall, so I finally convinced her to still have the party only I would host it this year with her help. Keeping up with the Orf tradition, we had chili, hot dogs, apple cider, caramel apple dip, and various other snacks and as soon as we were done eating, we headed outside to carve our punkins. It's so fun to see all the different designs everyone does, and with each punkin party the carvings are getting more and more intricate. I'm one of the non creative ones that uses a pattern from a book each year. ha Maybe one of these times I will actually try to come up with something on my own...then again maybe not. :) Here are a few pics from this year's party. Enjoy!

Hard at work

Sandra did Mike from Monster's Inc!

Jen is one of the creative ones - drew this by hand. It looked awesome lit up!

Lenny, me, mom, and dad

Janine, Corinne, Debbie, Kirstie, Louie, and Marshall

Nikki, Aidan, and Carol

Check out Janine's homemade "I swallowed a pumpkin" shirt. Isn't that the cutest thing ever?

This is my pumpkin. Planning on putting a green glow stick in it instead of a candle.

Our Photo Shoot

2008-10-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, Nikki asked Lenny and I if she could "borrow" us to do some mock engagement type pics. We had so much fun at our photo shoot! We started in the Central West End, took some pictures at several different locations there, then after that headed to Forest Park to finish out the evening. We had a blast doing this, and I think she did an awesome job with the pics! I am going to have a hard time deciding which ones to order because there were so many good ones. You can check them out by clicking HERE. You can also check out some of her other work on her website by clicking Nicole Welch Photography. She is very talented and is the first person I would turn to if I needed a photographer for anything. Keep up the good work Nikki!

You Want Some Cheese With That Wine?

2008-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

I don't think anything can beat a trip to the MO wineries in the fall. Yesterday I went to the Hermannhof winery with a bunch of friends from work and despite the bus being about 45 minutes late to come pick us up on the way there, we had an awesome time. Unfortunately Lenny was not able to come yesterday and I know he was upset that he had to miss out, so maybe we can sneak one more trip in before it starts getting too cold?! I never pass up a winery trip! :)Here are a few of my favorite pics from yesterday.

Fallin In Love

2008-10-15T05:53:00.000-07:00

So I FINALLY got around to putting up my Halloween and fall decor last night. I usually do this at the beginning of October but we've had a lot going on so I just now got around to doing it. The Monster Mash would have been good accompaniment while I was setting everything up!

Over the past few years, I've noticed that fall is starting to become one of my favorite times of the year. I love everything about it! I can't seem to get enough of the stunning colors of the trees, the crunching sound the leaves make when you walk through them, opening the windows and feeling the cool breeze when you sleep, the crisp morning air in your face, that maple-y syrup smell of the leaves, I love it all!!! When the weather starts to cool down and get into the 60's I always get a hankering for a Caramel Apple Spice drink from Starbucks. It's basically apple cider with a yummy caramel kick. If you haven't had one, I highly recommend it! Deeee-lish! And dude - what's up with me promoting Starbucks in my last two posts? They should be paying me or something.

Facebook Shmacebook

2008-10-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

Following the recent suggestion of a couple friends, I finally joined the world o' Facebook. Anybody who knows me knows that I am not the most computer savvy person in the world, but I figured I had the blogging thing down pat for the most part, so Facebook shouldn't be too hard, right? Well then why can I not figure it out for the life of me? I guess I kinda figured it was the exact same thing as myspace, but it looks a lot different than I expected. I just haven't been on it enough to know what I'm doing yet I guess. I need some Facebook tutoring. Anyone want to volunteer? lol
Lenny got our laptop up and running tonight, so now I can go hang out at Starbucks and try to stumble my way through this Facebook thing from time to time. Everything is always better with a Caramel Macchiato in hand :)

Long Time No Write

2008-10-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

I've been slackin on the whole blogging thing lately. My bad! I guess I just feel like I haven't done anything terribly exciting lately so there's nothing really to write about. Although... this past weekend was pretty fun. I got to meet Lenny's extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids) from Michigan over the weekend. The weather was beautiful and we were able to play outside most of the time and even snuck in a trip to Ted Drewe's - a St. Louis tradition when visitors are here from out of town. Saturday we all celebrated Bella's 2nd birthday. She wasn't too impressed with the new jammies that Lenny and I had picked out for her (big surprise there, right?) but she LOVED this stuffed kitten that the aunts and kids gave her. It's got a motion sensor in it so when you walk by or pet it, it starts meowing or purring and blinking it's eyes. It's amazing how realistic it is! She dragged that thing around with her everywhere for the rest of the weekend.

What Not To Wear

2008-09-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

I found a new guilty pleasure on tv last night - a show called What Not to Wear. Each episode features a different person whose friends and/or family have decided that said person needs a wardrobe makeover. The hosts Stacy and Collin first trash the person's entire current wardrobe, then teach them how to dress to accentuate the parts of their body they are more comfortable with, while at the same time de-emphasize parts they don't like as much. They also teach the frumpy people how to shop for clothes that will make them more sophisticated and professional- looking. Not only does the person get $5000 to spend on a new wardrobe, but they also get a makeover as well. I can't believe the transformations some of these people go through! It's amazing how much different they look when they actually wear clothes that fit them properly. I would love to go on a show like that, it would be so cool to have stylists tell you what kind of clothes and styles work best for you personally. One of the coolest things about the episode last night was that they went in the H&M store on 5th Ave in New York to buy the majority of the person's new wardrobe. Umm yeah, we were SO there when we -"we" being me, Soney, Janine, Jane, Gina, Linda, Leah, and Lois- went to NY last year! That makes us all famous by default since we were in a store that they filmed a show in! Woot woot! (SOME of us were already famous prior to the NY trip due to an MTV appearance in college though, so this is kinda old news. Still cool though!) As Jane kept saying in NY, "It's like our stars were aligned or something!" ha ha :)

Sushi Friday!

2008-09-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my dear friends Donnie and Jen...my fellow Sushi Friday attendees. (there - are you happy now Jen? You were featured on my blog!) :)

Tonight was Sushi Friday! Whoo hoo! There was a time when Donnie, Jen, and I were going out for sushi pretty much every other Friday. Each time, we would try to find a new place to go around St. Louis. As you can imagine, this got to be quite expensive after a while so we have really cut back on the Sushi Fridays and to be honest with you, I can't remember when we did it last. Needless to say, the sushi tasted awesome tonight! That's the thing about sushi though-once you have it, you keep craving it and get on these kicks where you just want it all the time. Well, I do anyway. It's like a drug! So who's in for Sushi Saturday tomorrow? Janine??? U know u want it... :)

The Wildlife Sanctuary on Della Dr

2008-09-16T05:28:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I went outside one night to get something from the car and ran into a spider web at the end of the porch. I looked up and saw this HUGE spider, perched right in the middle of the most beautiful web I've ever seen. Now I am not a spider lover by any means, but I was in awe of this web because it was so absolutely perfect, and I stood there looking at it for about 5 minutes. I was amazed how it would sway so gracefully back and forth in the breeze, yet be strong enough to hold it's shape and not get destroyed by the wind. The next morning when I was leaving for work, I checked the porch but did not see the spider or the web, just a couple of silky web threads still hanging off the gutters. To be completely honest with you, I was a little sad when I didn't see the web. I was thinking "Awww, that spider did all that hard work and created that beautiful web, and now it's all gone." Seriously? What is wrong with me? Who gets sad over a spider?? lol Usually I'm glad when they are gone! But if you would have just seen that web.... you'd be amazed too! ANYWAY, I went outside that night and saw that the spider was not gone but in fact was back and had built an even bigger web this time! Yay! That was when I affectionately dubbed her "Charlotte." I have now taken to checking the web several nights a week to see how Charlotte is doing, and I even threw a bug in her web one night to help feed her. :) I told Lenny we should get someone from the Discovery Channel to come out and film her building that web so you could appreciate what she goes through each night. I don't think I'll ever ruin a web again!

As if the spider isn't enough, I also discovered while mowing the lawn yesterday that I have some baby bunnies living in my back yard. I don't know what to do - I usually love mowing the lawn (MMM! The scent of fresh cut grass!) but I'm starting to get paranoid because I had an unfortunate incident with a couple of baby bunnies earlier this summer, and almost did it again yesterday. They are so hard to see! And instead of jumping away when the mower is coming, they just try to crouch down and hide. Anyway, I looked down over a section of grass I had just mowed last night and saw one of the bunnies lying there. My heart dropped when I saw it, cuz I was afraid that I had run over it and killed it. I quickly shut the mower off then squatted down to see if I had hit the bunny, but it didn't look like I did. He wasn't cut or anything, so I picked him up with the sleeves of my shirt. He tried to hop out of my hands, so I knew he was okay. Phew! The thing was so tiny, he fit in the palm of my hand. Awww! And he was sooooooo soft! I just wanted to snuggle him all night :) I told Lenny to come outside to see what I found, and as we were standing there petting the bunny we heard this chirping sound (kinda sounded like a baby bird in distress) and looked out in the yard where the mower was to see another baby bunny hopping in the grass. We took bunny #1 over by the other one and discovered a hole in the yard with 4 babies in it. Awwwwwww! They are so durn cute! I picked each one up to make sure they were all okay, and out of the four, I think 3 of them will be fine. The other one looked like it was gasping for breath, and it was not moving it's front legs at all. L thinks I may have run over that one with the wheel of the lawn mower. :( I am seriously paranoid about cutting the grass now. I don't want to hurt any more bunnies! I went out to check on them this morning and saw that the one with the hurt front legs didn't make it. The other 3 were still snuggled up together in their hole. I don't know if they are big enough to survive on their own, or if the mother will come back now that they have been handled by humans. I will have to keep my eye on them...I may be raising a bunny family before too long! I never thought I would be harboring so much wildlife in my yard. At least there are no deer hopping about in my backyard like my parents have.... Sheesh.

A Few More Pics From the Katy Trail

2008-09-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Grandparents Day!

2008-09-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

We headed out to the Katy Trail again today, this time with Paul, Linda, and Bella. We rented one of those buggy things that goes behind the bike and Bella really liked riding in there. I don't know why a kid WOULDN'T like that...I mean it's spacious in there, she had books to look at, she had snacks, she had her sippy cup, what more could a kid want? It's like her own personal little chariot! Since it was Grandparents Day we figured we would give Paul (Papa) the opportunity to spend a little time with his granddaughter, so we let him ride the bike pulling the buggy most of the time. :) (you wouldn't believe how much harder it is to ride a bike pulling that thing...you can definitely feel it in your thighs) Papa didn't seem to mind though, considering he was like 3 miles ahead of the rest of us most of the time. haha At the end of the ride we stopped at our favorite little bike shop along the trail for a slushy. I don't know what it is about them, but we are like addicted to those darn things! Every time we've been to the Katy Trail, we always have to stop and get one. They are so good! Anyway, it was a beautiful day and Bella was happy that she got to share the day with her Nana and Papa. I got a couple good pics of all three of them together, but they are on Lenny's camera so I will have to post them later. In the mean time I'll post a couple pics I had on my camera. In the first couple pics, she was finger painting a picture that went with the card she got them for Grandparents Day. You can ignore the moptop of a hairdo she has goin on in those pics...they were taken in the morning a little while after she woke up. Her hair was done later on. Promise!

Chance of Rain Showers - 75%. Chance of a Baby Shower - 100%

2008-09-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days where you just want to pull the covers over your head and go back to bed when the alarm goes off. It has been raining all night, and is still gray, dreary, and sprinkling outside. Although it's quite nasty out, I do love being snuggled up under the covers with the windows open and the rain pitter-pattering on the roof and on the concrete outside. But alas, here I am at work. What am I doing blogging at work you ask? Well, I am happy to say that we are actually caught up on our work at the moment, and everyone is taking advantage of this little lull in the queue, because I'm sure it will be back to normal and we'll be busy as all get out again in no time. So...while I sit here and wait for requests to come in, I'm trying to come up with some ideas for Janine's baby shower which we'll be having in November. After looking at invitations, games to play, and recipies online, I'm getting really excited about it! I'm kind of having a hard time coming up with a place to host the shower though - does anyone have any suggestions of a place in or around St Charles/St Peters/O'Fallon? Ideally I would like to do it at a neighborhood clubhouse type thing, but most people I know don't have a clubhouse in their neighborhood. If anyone knows of any places like that let a sister know, would ya? Thanks.

Look Who Got a Haircut!

2008-08-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Before...

...and after!

And just for fun...one of my fave commercials...

Rollin On the River...Chapter II

2008-08-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

I was off of work Friday and went boating on the river again with my mom and dad. I thought I would give my dad a break from driving the boat since he drives us around all the time, so as soon as we were on the water, I took the helm. We were on the water for about 10 minutes, still idling our way up the slough to the main channel of the river. My dad was in the process of digging the river map out of the glove box and telling me you've really got to be careful, because there hidden wing dams under the water in a lot of places when CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK! We hit something. He said "Put it in neutral, put it in neutral!" So I throw her in neutral and trim the motor up. I was like "Oh, you mean I should be careful not to hit one of THOSE???" Sheesh. I wish they would mark those things a little better so you would know where they were. We took a minute to survey the damage and it didn't look as bad as I thought - I didn't chew up the prop at all, but did ding the bottom part of the motor a little bit. Even though it didn't look bad, I guess I messed up some rubber ring inside the prop, b/c the boat wouldn't go full speed after that. Luckily we had a spare prop in the boat so after we had lunch at Kinder's restaurant on the water, we found a nice sandy beach and pulled the boat up to change the prop. Good as new, right? Spent the rest of the day cruisin around with no problems (my dad driving of course). Wouldn't ya know it, as soon as I get behind the wheel again and I'm driving for about 5 minutes, I hear a loud steady "Beeeeeeeeeeep!" Some warning alarm is going off in the boat. I promptly put it in neutral and turn the engine off and I'm like "Now what?? What the heck was THAT?" My dad said it's either low on oil, or something else, or something else. (Technichal stuff...girls aren't good at remembering that kind of thing) He checked everything out and said it looked okay, so he started the boat up and after a couple minutes the alarm went off. By this point we decided it would be best to head back towards the marina where we put the boat in. The alarm came one one more time during the 30 minute trip back, but we made it back safely. I am so done with driving the boat - why does everything always have to happen when I'M driving? Seriously. It's like the curse of the Gretch. I have a feeling that next time I volunteer to drive, he's gonna say "Umm, no that's okay. I got it!" lol

A Deeper Respect For the Breakfast Wrap

2008-08-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

I got a breakfast wrap from the cafeteria at work yesterday and after eating 1/2 of it, I was stuffed. I saved the other half, planning on eating it for lunch. However, my stomach promptly rejected that idea and started sending shooting pains out to let me know that I should not eat the remaining half of the wrap. I'm pretty sure I got a touch of food poisoning from it - last night wasn't pretty. I called into work today so I could be in the comfort of my own home should an emergency arise, and I'm glad I made that decision! Aye aye aye. I am already feeling much better than I did yesterday, so hopefully by tomorrow I'll be back to normal. No more breakfast wraps for me for a while...

Gotta Love the Dollar Store

2008-08-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

To anyone out there who does not have at least one daughter to play dress up with, I highly recommend trying for one...

We took Bella to the dollar store on Saturday afternoon and bought her some dress up clothes - we got some glittery fairy wings, a sparkly tutu, and a fuzzy purse. You will notice in some of the pics that she is also sportin some Strawberry Shortcake sunglasses and pink bracelets ("Pretties" as Bella calls them. That girl sure can accesorize! She's had the sunglasses for a couple months now, and I think she thinks she's all that (and possibly a bag of chips too) when she has them on. I know she's not my kid and all, and maybe I am a little biased, but I think she's absolutely adorable! Love me some Bella :)

Rollin on the River

2008-08-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

In lieu of going to work yesterday, I instead opted to go over to my parents' house, jump in the truck with them, and head out to St Charles for a day of boating on the Missouri River. Gotta love those random days off! With all the flooding we've had this year, I expected there to be a lot of debris and junk floating in the water, but surprisingly it was not bad at all. Although I never felt the need to get in the water because I never got all that hot, I would have done it in a heartbeat without being grossed out. We cruised up the river until we got up near the dam, then turned around and went back until we found a nice sandy beach where we had our picnic lunch and lounged around all afternoon. It was such a relaxing day that I told my parents we should do this every week. lol We will more than likely go again sometime next month, and are also planning on taking a fall boat ride too to look at the leaves when they start changing colors. Skipper Gretchy Gretch signing off now...

A Ride On the Katy

2008-08-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Lenny, my mom and I drove out to Weldon Springs and took a bike ride on the good ol' Katy Trail. You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day - it was in the low eighties with lots of sun, which is pretty much perfect in my book. Not sure exactly how far we rode, but my butt is a little sore now so we must have gone quite a ways. Lenny thought he was all that because he figured out how to ride with no hands, and I couldn't for the life of me do it. Oh well, at least I got up on the wakeboard. And I can't expect to be good at EVERYTHING. haha :) Here are a few pics from today.

Introducing Drew Bailey!

2008-08-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

Our friends Jim and Val gave birth to their first child Wednesday afternoon, and we went and saw them in the hospital last night. Valerie said that Wednesday night the nurses let baby Drew stay in the room with them, and she woke up during the middle of the night and just stared at the baby for 4 hours straight, then finally woke Jim up and said "Can you bring him over here? I just want to hold him." Awwww :) I think they are still in awe of him, which I can totally understand. It's such an amazing process, you can't help but wonder how on earth everything comes together to produce this little miracle. Anyway, little Drew (well, maybe not so little - he was 9lbs 12oz!) is just perfect - he probably has the most beautiful skin of any newborn I've ever seen. And I loved his soft hair too. When we first got there, Jim "styled" Drew's hair into a fauxhawk for us :) Here are a couple pics of the baby and the happy parents. Congrats Jim and Val, and welcome to the world Drew Bailey!!!

On a Day Like Today....

2008-08-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

That is, until I get to work. :)

Float Trip 2008

2008-08-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

We went on the annual float trip with a bunch of friends this past weekend and I have to say that this has been the best float trip to date! Gotta give mad props to my boy Len for that one - he makes everything more fun! :) I think it was a really good crowd of people and pretty much everyone clicked, which is hard to do when you have that big of a group. Unfortunately I did not get any pics, but then again I'm totally fine with that seeing as though I really don't feel like posting swimwear pics all over the internet. Anyway, we had so much fun, we're trying to sneak one more float in before the summer is up. Anyone in???

Cheese n Chocolate

2008-07-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

Janine and I went to one of our all time favorite restaurants tonight - the Melting Pot! If you've never been there you've got to try it! My favorite Melting Pot story happened up in Chicago. They boys had gone to a Chicago Bulls game, so Janine and I decided we'd go have an elegant girly dinner at the Melting Pot. We had no clue where the place was, but knew what street it was on so we asked the concierge at the hotel to point us in the right vicinity and we started walking. When we found the right street, we picked a direction in hopes that our noses would sniff out the fondue and figured if we didn't see the place after a little bit, we'd turn around and go the other direction. As luck would have it, we found it only 30 minutes into the walk or so - just on the verge of being painfully cold (it was winter mind you) but not quite to the frostbite stage yet. First things first, we ordered some cheese fondue but as the waitress was making it, she was going on and on about all the fun places we should go to while we were up there and she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. Janine and I kept looking at the pot of cheese getting bigger and bigger but of course didn't say anything. All of a sudden our waitress stops and says "Oh my gosh, I just made a pot of cheese for 6 people. Oh well, you guys can have it and I'll just charge you for 2." Umm yeah, who ate the ENTIRE pot of cheese for 6, PLUS a chocolate dessert fondue afterwards? That would be Plumpnine and Fatchen! (no offense J9) Needless to say, we waddled outta there that night fully satisfied. We keep hoping each time we go back that we will have a waitress make that same mistake (especially now that J9's prego!) but it hasn't happened yet. I'm keepin my fingers crossed...I just know it's gonna happen again one of these days. I can feel it in my bones.

After the Melting Pot, we went to Babies R Us to browse at baby stuff. I think J9 got a little overwhelmed thinking about all the stuff they are going to need, and I can totally sympathize with that. I can only imagine how scary it is for first time parents - I mean you want everything to be PERFECT for your little baby, but at the same time you feel like you have no clue what you're doing! Everyone learns though. If one thing doesn't work, you'll try another. You'll figure it out. And if not, then Auntie Gretch is here to help :)

Mission Accomplished

2008-07-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

Okay well I've mastered the art of wakeboarding, now what's next? ha (SOOO kidding)It took me a couple tries, but I did get up (and stayed up!) for a while this year. Whoo hoo! I tried going outside the wake, but pretty much wiped out every time I tried it. I still can't believe how different it is than water skiing! I'm pretty much all about wakeboarding now. At least for the moment until they come out with something new anyway... It's so fun trying something you've never done before! Think I'm gonna ask Santa for a wakeboard this year! :)

Overall we had a great time-it is always nice to get away, even if it's just for a few days. Here are a few of my fave pics from the weekend.

Let the Vacation Countdown Begin!

2008-07-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Lenny and I are joining Jason, Janine, and Jason's parents on a road trip down to Table Rock Lake this weekend. We are all working a 1/2 day tomorrow and then splitting, and I'm counting the minutes until we go! I cannot WAIT to get on that boat! I was emailing my dad earlier today and telling him that I'm having boat withdrawals, because we haven't been out on their boat at all this summer. Unconstitutional I tell ya.

It should be interesting with Janine being prego this year, because she won't be able to ride the tubes or waterski or anything. I'm kind of nervous about riding without her because whenever we ride the tube together, the boys always take it easy on us. Now that I will have to ride with the boys I'm sure I'm going to get flung across the lake at 90mph! I...can't...wait.

I am most looking forward to attempting the wakeboard again. Last year was the first time any of us had tried one, and although you think it would be similar to waterskiing (which I can do just fine), it is completely different! We had juuuuust started to get the hang of it last year when our 2 hr time limit was up at the ski shack and we had to return the rented wakeboard. I'm bound and determined to get up (and stay up for more than 30 seconds) this year! I will post pics from the lake when we return. Have a good weekend!

Lucky #7

2008-07-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Carson's 7th birthday Thursday with a picnic at Frontier park. Lenny and I had volleyball so we missed the initial picnic, but luckily they saved us some food so we munched on that while we listened to the community band concert (which Dean and Stacey are in by the way) and played with Carson's new toys. I think his two favorite things were his Webkins stuffed monkey named George, and this contraption I got him that shoots little helicopter disc things about 10 feet in the air. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. I'm thinking of getting one for myself now. hee hee

These are some pics that Stacey sent me. Thanks Stace! Oh, and I forgot to mention that Carson made the cupcakes all by himself! (hence the chef's hat and apron)

3 Doors Down/Staind/Hinder

2008-07-10T06:02:00.000-07:00

Lenny and I went to Riverport last night and saw 3 Doors Down, Staind, and Hinder. It was an awesome concert! I really enjoyed it. It was a perfect night for it too. We ran into Jason's sister Alli and her boyfriend Johnny and ended up sitting with them all night. Good times, good times. Here's a quick pic of us from the concert. Nice that you can't tell we were even AT a concert. lol

Notice Anything Different?

2008-07-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

So I made a slight change in the look of the blog yesterday. I figured this background was way more girly and since I am a girl, well...I thought it was fitting. :)

I have absolutely nothing to do tonight since SOMEBODY didn't want to do dinner with me at my favorite restaurant (not going to mention any names but it rhymes with RAVINE) so I think I'm gonna plop down on the couch and watch some Little House on the Prairie. Boy what an exciting life I live! I bet you are jealous huh? Figured it's better to do that than to go out and spend money on stuff I don't need...especialy considering my car has been acting gay lately and I'm going to have to fork out some serious cash money to get that fixed before too long. (so maybe that RAVINE person is actually doing me a favor - at least this way I'm not spending money tonight!) On the bright side, I've been driving my parents' little Accord the past few days and I just love that lil car! It's fun to drive. Do you think they will notice if I tint the windows and put some chrome wheels on it?

Happy Fourth of July!

2008-07-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

They played this video in church this morning and I thought it was really cool so I wanted to share it.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

2008-06-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was pretty low-key, which was nice for a change. The main event of the weekend was my old neighbor Chris's wedding on Saturday. Some of you will remember Chris, he was one of the twins in the Kuebler clan. I honestly don't think you could ask for better neighbors - we love that family to death! They're great. They always know how to have a good time, that's for sure. Annie looked absolutely stunning in her dress, and these pictures don't do her justice at all. She's beautiful! Anyway, I wish Chris and Annie nothing but the best as they begin their new life together! Photos courtesy of my dad....

PS Yes Jane, the cake was good! ;)

A Few Flood Pics

2008-06-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

Okay maybe the flooding is a little worse than I originally thought...a levy in St. Charles broke this morning and flooded some of the fields out off of Hwy 370 near New Town where we play volleyball. Lenny and I drove out tonight after work and took a few pics.

Flood

2008-06-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

We went for a drive down to Frontier Park in St. Charles last night to check out the flood and it wasn't nearly as high as I thought it would be. I remember the water being all the way up to the street (and half-covering the road signs) back in 1993 when I was just a young whippersnapper. From what I hear, Winfield is getting the worst of it this year. Dean and my dad have been driving up there and helping sandbag several times, and I believe my mom and dad are going this afternoon as well. Hopefully their efforts will help save somebody's home and all their possesions.

TGIF Baby

2008-06-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, my favorite day of the week and I'm kind of "blah" today. Not crabby per se, just kinda wishin I was still layin in bed under the covers...at least for a few more hours. It's so gloomy and rainy today - crazy how much the weather can affect a person's mood, huh?

Anyway, not much has been goin on the past couple days - we went to McGurk's Irish Bar/Grill on Wednesday with Jim and Val and enjoyed the evening out on the patio. I had ordered a salad and it came with gorgonzola cheese in it, which was crazy strong so I kinda pushed it off to the side of my plate. Well Lenny apparently thought it looked like feta cheese, so he proceeds to say "Ya know, smeta really fells bad." I don't know why I find it so funny when people mix up their words like that but OMG I cannot stop laughing about that! STILL! I love when that happens to people! Poor Lenny has had to hear me making fun of him about the "smeta" for the last 2 days now. lol Doesn't take much to entertain me I tell ya.

Rough Night

2008-06-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

How is it that kids can be sick as a dog one day and then completely fine the next? They bounce back so quickly! Sunday we took Bella up to the park by Paul and Linda's house and at some point one of us picked her up and thought she was quite warm so we decided it'd be best to take her back home. She ended up getting pretty sick during the night - she was running 103-104 temp on and off and actually ended up throwing up for the first time...all over me. Boy if that isn't the most helpless feeling ever - I felt horrible for her but there was nothing I could do! I wished I could just take on the fever and stomach bug myself so that she would feel better, the poor thing. After consulting with the doctor, we gave her Tylenol several times and kept a cool rag on her head, and wouldn't you know it, today she was as good as new and it was as if it had never happened. Sheesh.

Here's a little clip from earlier this evening of her "dancing" and being her usual self again. Glad to have the old Bella back!

Just a couple of random pics today

2008-06-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

These pics were taken when I went to the butterfly house with my mom, June, Jane, and Loey when they were here last month. That was the first time I had ever been there. Very cool place!

Breaking News....

2008-06-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

So the time has finally come to share the good news - JANINE IS PREGNANT!!!! Whoo hooo! My lil NeeNee is gonna be a mama! : ) Could I BE any happier? Seriously! Janine has always been such a close friend; she is more like a sister to me so I can't even describe how happy I am for both her and Jason. I have known about the pregnancy for about a month and cannot tell you how hard it has been to hold that in. I wanted to run and tell everyone the second I found out! I kinda unintentionally spilled the beans when I was at Dean and Stacey's the day before the Anniversary Party. I didn't come out and say she was pregnant, but when D and S asked when Jason and Janine were going to start a family I think my face gave it away. I couldn't help it! I had to tell SOMEONE! haha Then when Carson came down with a case of the chicken pox the morning of the party, D and S thought it would be best to tell Carson about Janine being preggers so that he wouldn't go near her too much and possibly give her the chicken pox. They told him it was a secret and he shouldn't tell anyone about it, because at that point they had not even been to the doctor to officially confirm it. Wouldn't ya know it, during the party he sneaks up to Janine and whispers in her ear, "I know you're pregnant!" Janine said her face turned white. lol Guess she was afraid he was going to tell other people. But he did a good job, he kept the secret the whole time! Later in the afternoon she said she went into the house to get something and sees Carson looking at her and snickering. She went up to him and said "What are you laughing at punk?" (okay I may have added the punk) And he asked "Can you feel the baby kicking? You don't look like there's a baby in there." So she explained to him it was pretty early in the pregnancy and she wouldn't get big for a while yet. Should be interesting to hear the things he says when she actually starts showing...

For those of you who are wondering, the due date is December 31st - should make for an exciting New Year's Eve party!!! Congrats again Jason and Janine!

PS-J9 who does this remind you of? lol

For it's 1, 2, 3 strikes you're out at the old ball game

2008-06-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

I filled in for someone at softball last night and believe it or not, I did not strike out at all. Since this is only the second time I have played since I was about 10, I was happy with that. Too bad I had no idea what was going on the entire game! I never knew what inning it was, I never paid attention to how many balls and strikes there were, I didn't know where to throw the ball if it came to me, etc. I just followed everyone else when they ran on or off the field. haha I am actually going to be signing up to play in the fall with some people from work so I'll take all the practice I can get from now until then! I played catcher, and the umpire was super friendly. He's an older guy and must get bored often cuz he kept going on and on about how we had a good pitcher on our team, talked to me about the weather, and asked about my L6 shirt. I tried to be friendly and reply to everything he was saying, but in my head I was kinda thinkin "Mister, can you please SHUT UP now? I need to concentrate on what I'm doing or else I'm going to get hit in the head with a bat!" Oh and just in case you were wondering....we won!

PS - Nice that I called the fields "courts" at the end of the night. I said "They have a lot of courts here!" and couldn't for the life of me understand why everyone was laughing. That right there should tell you how much I know about baseball/softball. Aye aye aye

Summer is FINALLY here!

2008-06-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

My mom and dad are watching Carson this week while Dean and Stacey are on an Alaskan cruise with some friends. Lenny and I decided to give mom and dad a break Saturday morning, so we took Carson and went over to Eckert's Farm in Belleville to pick strawberries. They have a little country store, a restaurant, and an ice cream shop near the main parking lot, and when you are ready to pick strawberries they have a little shuttle that takes you about a mile down the road to the strawberry fields. Well go figure, as soon as we got out there and had like 3 berries in our box, Carson tells me he has to go to the bathroom. I told him he'd have to wait til we got back to the country store but he insisted it was fairly urgent. I looked around but didn't see any trees or anything so I turned to him and said, "Umm.....go tell Lenny!" haha So then Carson hops over a couple of rows of berries to get over where L was and told Lenny he had to go. Being the nice guy that he is, L walked Carson down a ways to some sewer ditch thing and stood guard while Carson did what he had to do. And wouldn't ya know it, as soon as they came back, Carson spotted a Johnny on the Spot up where the bus had dropped us off. Whoopsies!

Swing Around

2008-06-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Guess what we did Thursday? Played mini golf! I can't remember the last time I played, and I have come to the conclusion that umm I pretty much suck at it. Lenny kicked my butt!!! We pretty much had the place to ourselves, so after we played a round the real way, we started over and made up our own rules. Each person had 3 tries to hit a hole in one, and then the person with the most holes in one at the end would win. Yeah....I got a big fat ZERO and Lenny had one stinkin hole in one. Looks like we need some practice....

Bye Bye Ethyl's!!!

2008-06-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

Last night was our final game of volleyball at Ethyl's. I'm so glad to be outta there! We've been playing there for SOOO long now and it's just gotten really old. Don't get me started on the sand there... Now we're on to bigger and better things (i.e. Ruskin O'Brien's in NewTown). I always think it's fun to play at new places and meet new people. Plus as an added bonus, there is an ice cream shop straight across from the courts at Ruskins! I mean come on, how can it get any better than that?

I'm looking forward to Saturday - Lenny and I are going to the Dave Matthews Band concert at Busch Stadium. Apparently his friend Trent has the hookup and got us some really good tickets. I have seen DMB once before in concert and thought they were so so but this is one of L's favorite bands so he's all giddy about it which in turn makes me more excited too. Should be fun! I'll let u know how it is. Hey - going to a concert constitutes getting a new outfit, right??? Yesssss! Looks like I may be doin some shopping in the next couple days. : )

A Trip Down Memory Lane

2008-06-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

Lenny, Linda, and I took Bella to Grant's Farm today. I had forgotten how fun it was to feed those goats! For the life of me, I cannot understand why they act like they never get fed? I mean there were probably about 20 people in the goat yard with bottles of milk, yet those goats still felt the need to come chew on the drawstring of my shorts, tried to eat the wrist strap on my camera, munched on Bella's shirt, jumped up on both Lenny and Linda, etc. It was actually quite funny and totally worth the $1 it costs for a bottle of milk.

Here comes the rain again

2008-05-31T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well that sunshine didn't last too long; we played volleyball Friday in basically a tornado! The wind started blowing pretty hard while we were playing and the sand was swirling around all over the place. Once it started sprinkling and the rain wet the sand down a bit, the playing was a little easier. It was actually kind of fun playing in that weather! We were deemed "Extreme Volleyball Players" since we kept playing through the elements. (too bad we don't have the skills I would think Extreme Volleyball Players should have) ha

Today Lenny and I went to a couples baby shower/BBQ for our friends Jim and Val who are expecting their first child in August. Jane, I'm sure if you were there you would have thought you had died and gone to heaven - they had not one, not two, but THREE cakes!!! A yellow cake with chocolate icing, a red velvet cake, and my personal fave, a carrot cake. I don't know what it was, but that carrot cake was like the best thing I have eaten in a LONG time. I am pretty sure I'm going to go to bed tonight with visions of carrot cake dancing in my head.

Hello Sunshine!

2008-05-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today, low eighties and nothin but sun. After a cold rainy weekend, I couldn't ask for anything more! I have vowed to spend every waking moment outside in the sunshine today. Well...except for the 10 minutes I'm taking to write this. : )

I was off on Tuesday and was so glad that I had requested that one extra day off to recoup from the weekend. My house seemed so lonely after Jane, June, and Loey left. Come back guys!!! I miss you! Soney and I ran some errands in the afternoon and then I talked her into trying sushi with me. I think she had had it once before but it was a looooong time ago. She was totally diggin it! I'm glad she liked it, cuz I am totally addicted to it at the moment. I think I could eat it all the days. Now I have a new person to go get sushi with!

We had volleyball at Ethyl's last night and had fun visiting and hanging with Donnie and Jen after the games. They just got back from St. Maarten and judging from the pics I saw, they had a great time. I can't believe how beautiful the water is there! It's that awesome aqua blue color you always see on post cards. I am sure it was hard for them to come back home and back to reality after being there. Since I didn't go with them, I hope they were cranky when they had to come back home. haha

Busy Weekend

2008-05-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend we celebrated my mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary. Dean, Stacey, Keith and I planned a surprise party for them and invited not only a bunch of their friends from around town, but we also invited our family from Wisconsin to come down and celebrate with us. Boy were my parents surprised!!! They were very honored that everyone made the trip down, and I am honored to have such good role models in my life! With the divorce rate getting higher and higher all the time, I think we should all congratulate those couples that truly do know how to honor their vows and make their marriage work. So here's 3 cheers to my parents for 40 years of loving each other!

Welcome to my blog!

2008-05-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hi! This is my first post. How did I do? lol