Incredibly Blessed

2012-02-08T23:41:00.000-06:00

I just spent a lot of time writing a new post for you with pictures and everything but it is now gone and I don't feel like re-writing it so here are some pictures from the last month.

Me and Hayden Koeltzow (parents: Emily and Paul) who I got to play with twice. He's a sweetie and loved seeing himself in the camera screen. Who doesn't love this feature on the iPhone?

Chocolate chip cookie dough + oreoish cookies + brownie mix = awesome. Thanks Pinterest.

Cauliflower bites that with ketchup tasted like french fries. For real. I was skeptical too until I tried them. Again, thanks Pinterest and Danielle!

Roar and Pounce Bembower are finished (finally!) and ready for little boys.

Note Mizzou beating Kansas in the background.

I will post the pattern for them later when I'm not so irritated with my post vanishing.

More crochet projects: baby hat with ears

Plus a flower in case it's a girl.

I also made a black one with gold ears (Mizzou colors) and Sally wanted to play with the yarn. So I made her model the hat. She was quite pleased as you can see.

Super Bowl was spent at the Niethe's - Dan entertained us with pillow humor during the dull parts. (This is also where I took the Slutty Brownies mentioned earlier.)

Went to Chicago for a day yesterday and was in an exit row by myself - legs crossed with room to spare. Airplane or cruise ship?! LOL

Celebrated Nellie's birthday at Fast Eddie's. I got her the crown and scrap book paper she'd been eyeing at Hobby Lobby.

Love her.

Got to see Tyler while he was in town for some work stuff with the Army. Obviously this picture is not from dinner that evening but whatever.

I've been doing some staying home lately to save money and have therefore read a lot of books this month, gotten some crochet projects done and tried a few Pinterest recipes.

High Hopes

2012-01-11T22:32:00.000-06:00

Since I missed the classic "Goals for the New Year" post during the first days of 2012, I thought I'd share some of my hopes for 2012 and... I don't know, we'll see where this goes. Ok.

Before I get into that, I should mention that this new year's eve was very different from ones in year's past. For one, I drove myself home at 3am and slept in my own bed. Seriously. Everyone at the party I was at did actually. Clearly we are getting old. It was fun though. Ironically we started the night out with quite a bit of liquor and I actually ended up not party hopping partially because I had a decent buzz going around 930 when I would have started thinking about switching locations (due to the mixed drinks and tequilla shots no doubt.) We had a good time hanging out and started watching random music videos on demand at one point and Sarah and I might have talked about vampires for a little while. ;) It was a good night.

Hannah, me and Reagan on New Year's Eve.

I'd fight their Mom for them but she'd win and then where would I be?

PS - I have totally trained them to pose for pictures and to love seeing themselves in the screen. They love to be "recorded" as they call it so they can play the video back. They also love that they can see themselves when we take pictures like this. And have learned that I will rarely turn down a photo request.

Aimee and I - Happy New Year!

The year definitely started out differently than any from recent memory (no hangover and woke up in my own bed by myself. Hello adulthood.) I think the fresh start has given me an optimistic perspective that 2012 is going to be different somehow and that different is good. I can't explain it but I feel like this year is going to be pivotal. If it ends up being the end of the world then I guess that will explain it but I sense changes are coming. I'm interested to see if this feeling lasts and where it takes me. Well, that got philosophical. Anyway.

Instead of setting new year's resolutions I think I'm just going to try to do things that give me better habits. Like I decided to give up french fries for awhile. Probably not forever, but for right now I'm consciously not ordering them. When I did this with soda awhile back it dramatically decreased the amount I was consuming and now I rarely even drink it except when I need the caffeine kick or it's going to be a pain in the ass to get something else (read: mainly at events.) I'm hoping that once I'm out of the habit of eating french fries a similar effect will take place and I'll just naturally ask for veggies with my meals instead. As with soda, this is a huge pain in the butt when eating out because do you know what fries come with?

Everything.

So I almost always have to ask for a substitution or just the sandwich and a water (which sometimes is hard to get people to understand - and why the f*ck is it so hard to get a large water in a drive through?! I'll pay the damn quarter for the cup - just give me water for sh*t sake.) So far this hasn't been too bad so I hope it stays that way.

I'm also trying to be more positive in my thinking and focusing more on things I can do something about. Being bitchy about something is not going to make it get better so I'm really trying to be more positive when I can. If I'm that concerned about something I can do something about it or accept the way things are. I am responsible for my own happiness and need to be more proactive in my attitude at times.

Currently those things are my focus. No french fries and a positive attitude. Poetic, right? Eventually I'm sure I'll focus on getting to the gym more and making sure to see the people who are important to me but baby steps. And speaking of babies, the number of preggo friends is consistently hoovering at 10. As soon as someone gives birth there's another announcement to round the number back out. Another sign of the times I guess.

Have we talked about my love for books about supernatural stuff and esp. vampires? I love those kinds of books. I love lots of kinds off books but I seem to gravitate towards things that transport me to another world or at least another side of the world I live in. I like the idea that there's more than meets the eye kind of thing. So I've been reading the Black Daggar Brotherhood series. It's about vampires. I. Love. Them. I can't believe I didn't know about this sooner. I had to admit my love of vampires to my dentist and his assistant last week when I was in for a crown (there's some waiting involved and it helps to be distracted so I had a book) and they might have judged me a little for it but that's ok. So if you have a thing for the blood suckers too you should check out these books by JR Ward.

Out with the unworn

2011-12-31T11:25:00.003-06:00

How fitting that I'm getting around to posting this on new year's eve - the saying out with the old could not be more appropriate.

This week I cleaned out my drawers and closet. I had to do it in sections due to the large volume of clothing (hence the cleaning out, which was WAY overdue.) I have been putting this off for a while because I really didn't want to do it. In my avoidance, I finished this guy:

Meet Roar.

Side view

Eventually there was no more avoidance. First, I started with the drawers. I didn't count, but the number of t-shirts was a bit obnoxious. I emptied all the drawers on to the bed so I could see what we had going on. I have a queen size bed and it was covered.

That is a lot of t-shirts and whatnot.

A different view of the mountain.

After everything was emptied, I decided to take a shower before I started sorting and trying things on. (I was dirty, ok?) When I came back, this had happened:

What, you didn't put this here for us?

I spent a lot of time chasing Sally out of the clothes during this whole process. She likes to sleep on piles of clean laundry, as my clean baskets of clothes with cat hair on them when I go to wear stuff can attest to.

Did you know that I am emotionally attached to my clothing? Because I am and it was almost like disowning a child getting rid of some of this stuff. It was hard. I had to have a little self therapy session and kept repeating over and over in my head "you're not throwing it away, you're giving it to someone who will actually wear it." It was weird to find stuff that I previously wore to work all the time - when I was working at Philip Morris I only saw people once or twice a month so I had a bunch of colored polo shirts in a rainbow of colors that I wore a lot. They still fit and all, but they had seen better days and when you're in an office you can't really wear the same outfit everyday in different colors without people noticing. So I kept one and let the rest go. Especially painful were some of the t-shirts from places I've been or stuff I've done. I still had a few from high school and a lot from college and trips. I limited myself to 1 drawer of t-shirts that I would wear all day and half a drawer of stuff that I maybe wouldn't wear out but do wear to work out (the other half was workout pants, etc.) I may have to try to go through those again because there's still prob. too much but I didn't anticipate them being that difficult to part with. Who knew? Anyway, I got through it all and put it all away.

That was Wednesday. Friday evening I tackled the closet. This involved a lot more trying on and was easier because 1) it was mostly work clothes and I'm apparently not as attached to them and 2) I knew it didn't all fit right anymore whereas most of the t-shirts, etc. did. It's hard to get rid of a thing that fits and nothing is wrong with it and you still like it alright. There just wasn't space.

You may be thinking, that pile of clothes on the bed wasn't THAT bad (no? Pretend.) Then you see this:

The contents of my closet. In addition to the drawers.

Again totally covered the bed. Had to chase Sally off these too.

I might have been heading towards a hoarding situation. I did watch a marathon of Hoarders on Tuesday before I did this in order to motivate myself. Again, I reminded myself that I wasn't wearing all of this and someone else would wear it if I donated it. I was pretty proud of myself here - I got rid of some stuff that I wore this summer that was just looking worn and it was time to let it go. I am still in good shape for winter but I think I'll probably get a few new shirts for work come spring/summer. And I have 2 empty shelves in my closet. SCORE.

After it was all said and done, I had this to show for it:

And I got to roll them down the stairs. Thankfully the bags held.

Seven bags (including a not entirely full bag of bags/misc stuff) of stuff are leaving my house today. I loaded them in the car last night while I was motivated so there was no choice but to deal with it today. That is a mountain of wardrobe victory. (Yeah, I just said that.)

There are probably some other areas of my house that could use a purge too but this was the most pressing and I'm glad it's done. I'm taking today off from my house, but Sunday and Monday the tree/Christmas stuff will come down and I have to clean the bathroom and the floors. Then it's back to work on Tuesday. This break has flown by.

2011-12-26T16:04:00.001-06:00

It's the day after Christmas
And all through my house
Not a creature was stirring
And there damn well better not be a mouse.
The gifts are strewn on the table everywhere
And I'm kind of tired and don't really care.
The cats are snuggled all warm in my lap
Memories of yarn and ribbon dance in their kitty heads.
I might still be in my jammies laying on the couch
Thinking about taking a short little nap.
The bathroom needs cleaned and so does my closet
I'm really dreading dealing with the latter.
My Christmas was awesome
That much is clear
But I'm over this poem - try not to shed a tear.

Really, my Christmas was pretty great. Friday before all the holiday fun started I had dinner with Krystal and her boyfriend on Main St. in St. Charles which is all decorated for Christmas. We walked around and went in a few shops and had a lovely time catching up.

Christmas Eve started off with brunch at Cyndi's house for our girlfriends gift exchange. Cyndi made delicious biscuits and gravy.

Kristen with her gifts from Aimee

Aimee with her gifts from me and Andy judging Pie Off.

Me with my gifts from Nellie

Nellie with her gifts from Vanessa

Lori had Vanessa and Lindsey and Cyndi had each other so there is no pictures of them with their gift exchange gifts.

We hung out then I (of course) wanted a group picture. Andy had some trouble working the camera at first.

But we worked it out.

I headed home because my dad, his wife Janet and my sister and nephew were coming to my house for lunch and to exchange gifts. I of course dressed Sally and Sammy for the occasion.

I went to church at Webster Groves Baptist Church and St. Mark United Church of Christ that evening and both services were lovely. I also found out one of my cousins is expecting so we will have a new baby in the family this summer! Christmas day we started out at my mom's opening presents and drinking hot (warm) chocolate with Bailey's. It was nice to have the immediate family together. From there we went to my Aunt Kris's house for Christmas with Mom's side of the family. I was glad that everyone liked their presents - my aunts modeled their ear warmer headbands for us and my cousin Danielle was like "I want one!" and my grandma loved her calendar with pictures of the family.

From Aunt Kris's house I headed over to my Aunt Pat's (Dad's sister) to see that side of the family for a bit. It was fun to visit and see everyone and the kids enjoyed their gifts too. I got Bricelynn some dress up clothes and she modeled them for us. Very cute. Sharon took pictures - I'll have to see if I can get a copy. I should have taken one myself I guess. Laura got a copy of the Cards World Series games so we watched Game 6 and ended the night watching Freese hit the walk off home run. Went well with the ornament I bought myself for 2011:

I was glad to head home to a quite house and relax the rest of the evening! I did some more work on the lions I'm crocheting and watched tv/movies.

Hope your Christmas was great too - I'm excited to start my 2nd week off and it's supposed to snow tomorrow!

December stuff

2011-12-20T23:20:00.000-06:00

Devin turned 8 earlier this month. I can hardly believe it.

I was quite the proud aunt when he asked me for books for his birthday. He asked for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and I of course got them for him. He's big. It's crazy.

The weekend after his birthday we went to see the lights at the zoo. The butterflies were beautiful.

The polar bears (below with my sister) weren't bad. Overall the lights were kind of lame though. And made worse because Devin complained the entire time we were there about everything despite being excited to go when we talked about it. 8 year olds.

Afterwards we went to dinner at Rigazzi's and it was delicious. Overall a good night for sure. Before I went out with Kristen and Devin I had lunch at my Aunt Kris's house and we hung out and talked about crocheting for a bit. My grandma joined us too. We watched a kind of weird movie and had a lovely afternoon.

At work last week we had our holiday party which included a ginger bread house building competition. We had a random item that had to be included in our display. Ours was a knight. So we built a castle.

I'm actually impressed it even was standing. That thing was not well constructed lol.

Therefore it was fitting that it won this award:

Yeah, that sounds about right with the buttresses and whatnot. Castles aren't cheap man.

Friday night I was very excited to go to dinner with the Koeltzows and the Finleys. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Chesterfield. The food was great and the company was even better.

This was the most recent picture I could find of the 3 of us. I think it's time for a new one ladies. Look how little Olivia is!

Some more recent pictures from when Hayden was born... Mel, Olivia and Hayden (note how much O has grown!)

Koeltzow family :)

Since I'm not at working again until Jan. 3, there has been a lot of this going on:

I have been able to get some stuff done around the house and get some errands done so far. I intend to deal with going through my closet/drawers before I go back to work. Right now I am doing laundry so everything is clean, then once it's all put it away (I know, seems counter productive but then I can really see what I have) I will start purging. Nothing like watching a marathon of Hoarders on A&E to remind you of what is happening in your own closet. I'll write a post on the disaster that is my closet later.

Today I went to the orthopedist and he declared my arm officially healed. He said it will continue to get better pretty much until a year from the injury (next August) but said it looks really good for 4 months out. Praise the Lord I don't need surgery!!!!

I also baked cookies today and decided to take them over to the local police and fire stations. I even managed not to eat any and the people at the stations were excited to get them. It made me wish I had made more cookies because it was really fun delivering them. Thank you to those who serve us everyday.

Cookies. Yum.

I also finished some crochet projects today - these are ear warmer headband things. I saw these at Target for $10.99. I made these:

Not bad, right? I hope their recipients like them.

I just realized that I spent the day going to the orthopedist, baking, snuggling with my cats and crocheting. When did I turn 83?

I'm going to a bar or something. You know, if I wasn't already in my pajamas.

Oh dear.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-12-04T21:55:00.000-06:00

Things that have happened since Thanksgiving:

-Went shopping on Black Friday with Mom. Got some sweet boots and a few gifts. It was gorgeous outside that day and I spent it in the mall. Those boots are really cute though.
-Met Mom's boyfriend, Dave, and we went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack

Mom excited for her crab

-Had a delicious dinner with my girlfriends and exchanged names for the gift exchange this year. Highlights included getting to see Lindsey. Probably should have taken a group picture here, huh? Oh well.
-Finished crocheting a baby blanket and a scarf. You can tell the scarf was the 2nd project - it looked a lot better and didn't require an intervention to fix it, ha!

Crap. Chains are important. On both sides.

No problem. Nellie fixed it for me.

Finished baby blanket

Scarf

-Had lunch with my Dad and Janet (his wife).
-Put up my Christmas tree.

-Put up my Grandma's Christmas tree.

Grandma making some final adjustments

-Am trying to get back to going to the gym more consistently.
-Got my hair done.
-Ordered many a gift during cyber Monday.
-Nellie made this awesome mac & cheese, sausage, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower concoction that was so good I not only went back for 2nds but ate leftovers the next day and would have had it again if there was any left. She saw the dish on the side of an Eckert's truck. Lucky for me.
-Saw Arthur Christmas.
-Worked the Bike MS Awards Party for work.
-Saw the Norivel family and enjoyed talking with Beth.
-Got my 2012 photo calendar. I love it!
-Probably some other stuff too. It's been a busy week. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T22:32:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! My day was filled with lots of good food, extended family (I actually didn't see anyone in my immediate family today - go figure) and time driving up and down the highway. It was great to see everyone and I am looking forward to getting together again soon. Now I'm about to slip into a food coma. :)

New Skillz

2011-11-24T22:15:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was a long, busy but really fun day. I started the day at Knit and Caboodle at the beginning knitting class I bought a Groupon for. My friend from high school, Ariel, taught it. After a 2 hour class, this is what I had to show for it:

Kinda sad, I know.

In case you were unaware, knitting is hard. It takes quite a bit of concentration and counting and it's not very forgiving of mistakes, as you can see by my "breathing holes" in my little swatch of knitting. Definitely not something you just pick up in a day. I could probably learn if I took some more classes or something.

I decided to learn to crochet that day too to see which I liked better/was better at/ caught on to. Nellie and I made a quick run to Hobby Lobby (which was fun in and of itself - I love the craft store) and then she taught me a basic stitch and what to do. I caught on a little quicker and was able to accomplish this on Sunday:

Not quite so sad. I'll try this one.

Since I picked up crocheting a little better and quicker, I decided to try it for now. Nellie is an excellent teacher and I'm pretty pleased with the progress I've made with this project. Which I feel I should mention has progressed significantly beyond the picture. I have made a few mistakes but that's how you learn, right? The swatch shown is double crochet stitches (well, mostly anyway... I was learning, ok?) and I'm excited to learn some more. I am actually going to go hang out with my Aunt Kris in a few weeks (who also crochets) to learn a few things from her too, like maybe how to read a pattern. Nellie said she doesn't usually use them and I would like to learn how to at least read one so hopefully Aunt Kris can help me out. In the mean time, Nellie and have spent some time hanging out with our yarn like little old ladies. I'm getting a glimpse of our future, Nell.

Saturday was also my sister Kristen's birthday, so I met my mom, sister, nephew, cousin Danielle and one of my sister's friends at El Maguey for her birthday dinner. It was yummy as usual and I gave my sister her wine glasses (her standard birthday gift - she drinks a lot of wine and breaks a TON of glasses. Girlfriend is really hard on them.) From there I headed out to meet up with Aimee and Andy for a trivia night for Andy's brother's baseball team. It was excellent to see them and our team took 3rd! The highlight of the night was definitely the song lyrics round. We had fun singing and Jaci, Aimee and I made up dances/hand movements to songs like the Backstreet Boys' "That Way" and Aimee and Andy danced to "It Must Have Been Love."

After trivia was over we went to Columbo's for a few drinks and to hang out a bit. I think I might make friends with Jaci - we had fun. Maybe at least go to lunch or something since she works close to me. We'll see.

Not bad for a Saturday.

Halloween, Dallas and KC

2011-11-20T17:00:00.000-06:00

Picture catch up: Halloween with Nellie and the girls, bull riding in Dallas and a trip to KC to visit Pagie and Kim. Whirlwind travel but it was fun!

Reagan and I on Halloween

Sugar High!

Hannah is all about the trick or treating

Fairy family

Nellie and I

Yeah, I rode that sucker.

Paige and Kim at a delicious brunch

Paige's soon to be house

Loves

This is the parking garage next to the library. I love that it's covered in books!

P&L

I took the train home - happy trails!

#11 in 11 - World Series Champions!!

2011-10-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

The Cardinals are the 2011 World Series Champions! I met up with some friends at a bar last night to watch the game and it delivered. Thankfully the Cards didn't give me the heart palpatations like the night before (have I mentioned my undying love for David Freese on here yet?) and we enjoyed the victory. After the win, we jumped in the car and went downtown to join in the celebration.

Me and Dan right outside the stadium. You can't read it because I took this with my phone so all you see is the lights, but the score board reads "2011 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!"

It seemed fitting that the Budweiser truck pulled up in front of the stadium as we celebrated.

I took a little video of the craziness.

It was freaking amazing and crazy all at once. I saw a few people I knew and high fived a ton of people I didn't know. Everyone in STL is friends after a Cards world series win, lol. And Freese won MVP. Someone I know knows him and is going to introduce me. Who's going to step up? Erin Chisholm, Crystal Mueller - I'm looking at you ;). I need to buy that guy a beer - he did an amazing job this post season. Simply amazing. His back to back MVP awards (6th guy ever to do that) were well deserved.

I'm still in a little disbelief that it actually happened, but I'm loving it. GO CARDS!

Weekend of Awesome

2011-10-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

Can we just talk about the awesomeness of this past weekend? It was completely jam packed and I ended up having to choose between things but damn it was good.

The Cardinals are in the World Series! This picture of Hannah and Reagan is actually from the final game with the Brewers when we qualified for the series - not from this past weekend. But it was cute so I put it in anyway. I've been watching a lot of baseball this week!

I also got to see Lura on Friday. We went to dinner at 54th Street (delicious) and then headed out to Eureka to go to the corn maze.

Which sadly was more of a corn walk than corn maze but we had fun anyway. We even made friends in there - clowns called YumYum and BoBo. They even played Marco/Polo with us at one point. So even though it was kind of lame it was still a great night. We are thinking about trying the one on 70 (which is an actual maze) this coming weekend. Fun!

Saturday night was the long-awaited girls night. We met up at Aimee's for some pre-party drinks then headed out to the Library Annex near SLU. We watched the Cardinals blow out the Rangers then shook our asses for a bit there and at Novak's.

Vanessa, Aimee, Kristen

Nellie and me

Aimee and me

They did such a good job posing! Clockwise from the top: Lui, Lori, Nellie, Aimee, Cyndi and Vanessa

Favorite pic of the night. Aimee said, "Open your eyes real wide." I follow instructions well.

We are suspicious.

After the bars we hit up Steak N Shake (of course) then fell into bed about 4am. No rest for the wicked though - I got up about 10 to head home and get ready to go to the wineries! Sugar Creek has such pretty views and it was PERFECT weather for a day of sitting outside drinking. Happy anniversary Kyle and Holly! It was so good to see you guys.

Holly enjoying her wine

Holly, Courtney and Mark

Kyle

Courtney and me

After the wineries I stopped by to see Linda and Lindsey and talk about the Pampered Chef party Linda is having next month. (Let me know if you want something.) I dropped off some stuff to Nellie for Aimee and headed home to watch the Cards game and The Amazing Race. Good thing I'm off today to re-cooperate from all this fabulousness.

100th anniversary of the birth of homecoming (Mizzou Homecoming 2011)

2011-10-24T13:52:00.000-05:00

Oct. 15 was the 100th homecoming at Mizzou - birthplace of homecoming. Homecoming is a big deal in Columbia - alumni really do 'come home' every year and it's simply awesome. And the Tigers pulled off a win so that's always a plus.

KC and I ready to tailgate

Dan the grill master and our cooler of beer

Our tailgate group

Tyler and me

Teren and Kelly

Dan and Nick

Dan and I

Sandy with Joey and a beer

Kevin, Dan and me

Here come the Tigers!

Chillin' at the game

And the day ended with Gumby's before we drove back to STL. Perfect.

Happy homecoming!

Do you know about the sock bun?

2011-10-13T23:32:00.000-05:00

Awhile back, I learned about the sock bun. It's super handy for work and gives a bun a professional, polished look for not a lot of extra effort. I had heard about it when someone posted on Facebook that they had done the sock bun curls and how well it had worked. I was skeptical about it's effectiveness since my hair does NOT hold curl very well. I was a fan of the bun though so all was not lost.

Last night I decided to try the curls. What did I have to loose, right? I mean I could just jump in the shower and un-do any damage if it was bad. So I tried it. The next morning I took out the bun and was shocked to see this:

I just parted my hair in the front, pulled the top back with a small clip and was good to go for the day. Sprayed with a little hair spray and out the door. Seriously. all this curl for less than 5 minutes effort. WHY DID I NOT TRY THIS SOONER?!

This has now become a hair option in my life. I felt I should share and spread the good word that this does in fact work. I apologize that the girl in the instructional videos is super irritating but she does a good job explaining what to do. :)

10 year reunion

2011-10-02T23:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday (Oct. 1) was my 10 year high school reunion. It ended up being a lot of fun. I wasn't sure how it would go. I still talk to quite a few people from high school so I didn't know if I would get there and just talk to the same people I see all the time. But I didn't and it was fun to catch up with people I hadn't seen in 10 years and some I just don't see much of. It was interesting to see who would call you out to say hi as you walked by, who you got hugs from and who barely said hello. It was also interesting to see who still hangs out and who was drawn to who, etc. They also had copies of our yearbook photos - including one from 6th grade... no one looked good in that one! I really enjoyed myself, as illustrated by the fact that I didn't get home until after 2am. Good job to the planners! We took a group photo and they went and got it printed at a 1 hr photo place so we all got a copy before going home along with our pint glasses. I loved that touch. :)

Yeah, I took a picture of the picture. Deal with it. They had a photographer there so I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures. I completely failed at taking any myself but that's what a photographer is for, right? Really, I had a blast.

Apple Picking

2011-10-02T23:27:00.000-05:00

Last weekend (last weekend of Sept), Nellie, Aimee and I took Hannie and Reagan apple picking at Eckert's in Millstadt. Nellie and the girls had never been and I think they were pleased with the experience. The girls rode some kiddie rides, jumped on a pillow thing, we went through a corn maze and rode a spinning apple ride. Among other stuff. Here's a smattering of pictures from our day.

Hannah and Reagan ready to go in

Queen of the tire

Hannie is all serious face. Aimee and I didn't get the memo.

Love these girls.

Tractor-train-barrel-ride-thing.

Children of the Corn.

Hannah and Aimee

in the apple ride

Nellie is a closet model.

On the tractor picking apples

Tractor ride

We picked some apples too. Apparently I didn't document that part. It was a fun day!

September

2011-10-02T23:18:00.000-05:00

Oh September, where did you go?

Bike MS was Sept. 10-11 (or Sept. 8-12 for me) and it went pretty well. Considering the number of new staff we had it could have been much, much worse so I was pleased. There were of course some hiccups but nothing we couldn't handle. Thank you to all the volunteers who made my life easier and congrats to all the cyclists who completed the ride. I can honestly say I'm just glad it's over.

I over did it a bit with my shoulder and had muscle spasms/ tingling/ soreness for about 5 days after we got back but it's fine now. Overall my shoulder is doing pretty well. I have good range of motion but am still really weak on that side as is apparent every time I do my exercises and go to PT. Hopefully it will get stronger over time and this won't be "the thing" that bothers me the rest of my life.

The weekend after bike (3rd weekend in Sept) Nellie and I took the girls down to Forest Park for Balloon Glow.

And, just for fun, here's some pictures the girls took of themselves on a random evening...

You know I love a good self portrait. :)

Labor Day Weekend Win

2011-09-06T19:54:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, my Labor Day weekend was awesome. Not only was the weather great, but I had a lot of fun. Friday night I went over to Cyndi's for a party and got to see some old friends, make a few new ones and of course see people I keep around on a regular basis :). I also learned that I am still awesome at flip cup even with just one arm. It was a good night.

Sunday was a completely lovely day. I went to the Mills with Nellie to do a little shopping (have I mentioned that I love that girl? A lot. Like I really think God dropped her in my life at the exactly right time. Anyway.) and then we went back to her house to make dinner (I brought some food over and she cooked it - I should pull that more often.) After dinner we took her girls outside to play because it was so gorgeous complete with bubbles. Bubbles on a windy day are amazing. And the girls frolicked in them (5 & 3) so it was kind of like a movie at one point. From her house I headed out to Growler's to meet up with Kyle & Holly (among other fabulous people) who were in from Dallas for a few drinks, etc. It was so good to see them and catch up with everyone. I don't see much of that group these days for some reason but I'm always glad to see them when I get a chance.

Monday I went for a walk outside because 1) it was SO pretty out and 2) I can do it in a regular bra. Since I still can't get my arm over my head and won't be able to for awhile longer, I can't get a sports bra on and it is greatly impacting my workouts. I mean, if we've met, you know I need support when doing any kind of cardio. :) Nellie and the girls went with me (she has a great subdivision for walking) and we thought the girls could walk with us instead of go in the wagon. Joke was on us because we ended up carrying them part of the way. Just some extra weight lifting, right? Got a little more than we bargained for! lol

Today it was back to work, and it's Bike week so it's CRAZY. It's so weird being one of the 'veteran' staff at the event and someone that is in charge of large chunks of the event and other people. It'll be my 3rd ride - and it's a weird spot because I don't feel like I've been here that long but at the same time like I've worked here forever. Don't get me wrong - I know my shit (sometimes the crap I know surprises me) and am comfortable telling other people what to do (ha - who's surprised there) but it's a newer role for me in our dept. and I'm still getting used to the idea that I have that authority.

Have a great week!

If you have a second...

2011-09-06T19:18:00.000-05:00

Please say a prayer for Cole. I came across his mom's blog (Sarah) a few months ago when someone else was asking for prayers for this sweet family. Cole had major brain surgery 5 days ago to try to stop the 100's of seizures he was having everyday. You can read their story here: http://beatingepilepsy.blogspot.com/ if you're interested.

Thanks.

Greater Tuberosity

2011-08-27T22:24:00.002-05:00

Do those words mean anything to you? They didn't to me until this past week. I fell in my house last Monday (8/15) and apparently did some damage. I have a non-displaced greater tuberosity fracture. Basically, I broke a bone in my shoulder. What?! I didn't fall that far/hard! Apparently it was enough. The Dr. said it was probably already weak from something else and the fall just kind of did it in. Awesome. So I have some definite limited mobility in my left arm. I go to physical therapy Monday morning so hopefully I will be on the road to recovery quickly.

On the plus side, I have only been through the drive through once since this happened since I quickly discovered that getting my food with my left arm was a problem. However, getting a ticket for the parking garage and going to the ATM are also a challenge. Reaching for anything that requires my upper arm to move away from my body is bad news. I hope it heals fast!

Nellie and Erin's Columbia Adventure

2011-08-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

So this morning I get this text from Nellie that says she has no kids till like 8 tonight and that she wants to do something. I had no plans today so I immediately think "ROAD TRIP" and luckily she was game. We decided to head to Columbia for the day.

In the car heading out.

I quickly got excited because 1) I haven't been to Columbia on a random day in quite some time and 2) I was going to get Nellie to myself for the whole afternoon. I also immediately started thinking of all of our lunch options - what delicious CoMo food was I going to eat today? We decided on Shakespeare's.

Our pizza name was Nellie the Ninja.

See her blog for why she loved having it announced to the whole restaurant.

We had salad and cheese bread and pizza, oh my.

It was really really good.

After we ate we walked around campus for awhile and I gave the nickel tour and reminisced a bit. It's such a pretty campus and the weather was perfect for walking around. We stopped by the alumni center and saw my brick:

And took pictures with Beetle Bailey

Chillin'

Beetle sandwich

We went to the new student center too since I hadn't been in it yet. Since classes start tomorrow the bookstore was a zoo - they didn't have nearly enough registers open (but they were set up - strange) so I didn't get to buy the shirt and new license plate frame I found. Oh well, another time I guess.

Stopped by the columns too.

I felt like we needed a picture.

Then thought maybe I should try to actually get the columns in there.

It was a fun trip and great to just talk about whatever. Definitely something we should do again!

More Florida pics

2011-08-14T20:45:00.002-05:00

I love the beach

2011-08-10T12:49:00.000-05:00

This week I'm in Florida with my mom, sister and nephew. We left early Sunday morning. I had to get up before the sun came up. I hate that.

But then we got here and I saw this:

Totally worth getting up at 5am.

I'm here! Yay!

Beach.

Mom on the beach

More ocean. Really this is what we've been doing.

I wrote my name in the sand :)

Of course there were also drinks a the poolside bar (daiquiri's this time)

It did get a little cloudy and rain some.

My sister (Kristen) and I got over it.

Margaritas helped.

But we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.

Love.

There are more pictures on my actual camera but I've only uploaded the phone ones so far. So you'll just have to wait. :)

Survey

2011-08-06T15:47:00.000-05:00

1. What is your occupation right now
-Development at NMSS

2.What color are your socks right now?

-currently I am barefoot

3. What are you listening to right now?

-one of the bring it on movies on ABC Family

4. What was the last thing that you ate?

-leftover pizza

5. Can you drive a stick shift?

-I can indeed

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
-Mom
7. Do you like the person you stole this blog from?
-Nellie? The person I had dinner and hung out with all last night? Naw.
8. How old are you today?

-28

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?

-Baseball or college football

10. What is your favorite drink?
-I like beer you can't see through and mixed drinks that are pretty colors. Otherwise I drink water.
11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
-I don't think you'd recognize me with my natural hair color

12. Favorite food?

-Ice cream
13. What is the last movie you watched?
-I am watching one of the bring it on movies right now, but I watched Easy A with Nellie last night

14. Favorite day of the year?

-My birthday, the day after Bike and Christmas are all at the top of the list

15. How do you vent anger?

-To other people usually.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child?- I had this bear named Smokey that I loved but there were many favorites

17. What is your favorite season?

-Fall

18. Cherries or Blueberries?

-blueberries

19. Do you want your friends to blog this survey?

-um, sure?

20. Where is you favorite place to escape?

-the water- beach, lake, creek - I love it all

21. Favorite Tv Show?

-The Amazing Race... but currently I am loving Switched at Birth

22. Living arrangements?

-I own a townhouse in St. Charles

23. When was the last time you cried?

-Since I'm on my period I cried during Extreme Makeover Home Edition this morning.

24. What is on the floor of your closet?

-laundry baskets and clothes that have to go to the dry cleaner

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest?

-Lindsey and Sara are oldest friends who I am not related to. Those girls have put up with me since kindergarten. God bless them.

26. What did you do last night?
- ate pizza and watched movies with Nellie and played with her girls
27. What are you most afraid of?
-you mean besides bugs?

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?
-cheese
29. Favorite dog breed?
-ones with good manners

30. Favorite day of the week?

-Saturday

31. How many states have you lived in?

-just the one. I'm boring.

32. Diamonds or pearls?

-diamonds

33. What is your favorite flower?

-tulips

2011-07-18T17:22:00.000-05:00

Recent happenings:

-Went to the lake with Krystal, Julie and Jason. Had a blast hanging out in the water, drinking and working on my tan. As a side note, jungle juice should not be that strong. Oi.

-Took Nellie's girls to the pool last week. It wasn't ungodly hot and the water was cool enough to feel nice but not so cold the girls wouldn't get in. They loved it and a fun time was had by all. It worked great with one of us for each girl - they were a bit clingy until they discovered that they weren't going to drown. :)

-Went to see Singing in the Rain at the Muny. Loved it. Loved it even more because the tickets were free from the United Way/Wells Fargo. The tap dancing was my favorite part and of course the signature scene where it rains on stage!

-Went to lunch with my dad for his birthday along with some other family.

-Saw Wyndy, Anna's mom and a 2nd one to me, and got to visit for awhile.

-Went to the store and bought Woolite to wash my delicates, etc. Got home and discovered I had already done this twice. Apparently I feel the need to buy a new bottle every summer because I now have 3 of them. Ahhh.

Feels like the 4th of July

2011-07-11T20:37:00.000-05:00

Independence Day weekend was actually a 5 day affair for me and a much needed break from work. Friday I hung out with Nellie (see previous post about the s'mores) and after zumba Saturday morning I really didn't do a whole lot else. I was going to go to the pool for awhile but it was SO hot that I didn't really want to be outside. My complex pool is not really conducive to lounging in the water since there are many children and their friends around a lot of the time and it was just too hot to not be in the water. I stayed inside and relaxed and did some cleaning so it was good. I keep thinking I did something else too but I don't think I did.

Sunday I went to a bbq at my dad's house and it rained really hard so we were all inside instead of out. Luckily this helped cool things off though! Cyndi, Lindsey, Dan and I were planning to go to the Maroon 5 concert and fireworks that night down at the Arch but they cancelled them due to the crappy weather. So we hung out at Dan's for a bit then watched the Webster fireworks show. I was just happy for fireworks. :)

Monday (the 4th) I went to a pool party at Sam's parent's house then a bbq at Cyndi's and we walked to fireworks in Kirkwood. I must say, it was a fantastic show and nice and long. I think I wore the most uncomfortable pair of flip flops I own though so my feet hurt a bit after walking about a mile there and back. Poor planning. It was a good day. I was really glad to be off Tuesday as well to re-cooperate and get some stuff done around the house.

I took some pictures but I am too lazy to get them off my phone right now. Sorry.

A little slice of summer

2011-07-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

A few pictures that don't really warrant their own post...

I made apple pie for Andy's birthday. I have never made one by myself before and was quite pleased that it was well received and all got eaten.

My Dad and I on Father's Day

Marine Week in STL - they were in Ballpark Village when Mom and I went to the game. So we went over to check things out. I made some new friends.

Mom stood on a tank.

And next to the tricked out jeep.

Us at the ballgame in "our" seats

The pretty sky at sunset that I thought looked like the entrance to Heaven.

And yesterday (Friday) when Nellie and I made s'mores in the kitchen because it was too damn hot to do it outside next to a real fire.

Good thing

2011-07-02T16:19:00.000-05:00

I do not have any children at this time. I think we can all agree that this is a good thing at this time. Luckily I have friends who have their shit together and are raising adorable little people for me to play with.

Hayden

Hannah

Bricelynn

Reagan

Eli (we need a new pic together Eli)

Max

While I'm not ready to have one, I love yours. Thanks for sharing.

**Pictures not inclusive of all the babies I see on a regular basis. New applicants welcome.**

It was the premise for a slasher movie...

2011-06-27T22:11:00.001-05:00

Six awesome chicks on a farm in the middle of nowhere with copious amount of liquor? Sounds like the plot for a slasher film, right? Nope, just an amazing weekend away from my life for a bit. Nellie, Aimee, Cyndi, Kristen, Vanessa and I headed down to Patty Creek Farm in Fredricktown, MO. Well, kind of. It's not really in town, per se. Which was the point.

We arrived Friday night and immediately got to hanging out by the fire roasting marshmallows and drinking

Kristen made breakfast Sat. morning complete with mimosas. Yeah, we started drinking at 9am, what?

Then we headed to the creek which was conveniently right there.

Fire area and outhouse with indoor plumbing. There was also a bathroom inside which we were happy to discover.

Me by the creek which was really clear btw.

Goals of the day included tanning and drinking. Both were accomplished while floating in the creek. Awesome way to spend an afternoon.

Creek pilates

Floatie fun

V looked kind of crazy with her golf umbrella, but she wasn't sunburned so I guess it worked out for her.

Aimee and I (apparently in the same shirt)

Hayride.

Cyndi and Nellie

Kristen is happy.

Nellie and I

Us in front of the farmhouse we stayed in. Kind of American Gothicish but I like it.

It was a great weekend. I would totally do it again. Nellie will probably give a more detailed account, so you should check that out too.

Hope your weekend was awesome!

Relax a little

2011-06-12T23:11:00.000-05:00

This weekend has been fantastic. Which was a pleasant surprise because I was expecting ordinary. Friday night I went to dinner with Krystal and enjoyed margaritas and catching up. Saturday morning I didn't want to get up for zumba so I went for a walk outside - the weather was in the 70s and it was great to be out there. That afternoon I ordered a picture father's day card for my dad, took a nap and then went and got ice cream and a pedicure which I desperately needed (the pedicure not the ice cream.)

After the pedicure I came home to make pretzel necklaces in preparation for Brewfest that evening at Forest Park. I enjoyed drinking all the different beers and was a tad drunk during the middle of the 4 hour session. Let's be honest - I'm fun to drink with. After a few drinks I'm friendly, have no personal space and am happy to have everyone else drinking with me. I also tend to say whatever pops into my head and take a lot of pictures so I'm entertaining too. I might be (am definitely) annoying if you're not drinking with me, but at least I'm predictable. Jorge (Cyndi's dude) encourages my shenanigans and it's bad news. At one point I realized what a mess I was and I was in no shape to fix it... so I just let it keep happening. Oh well. I had fun. Pictures are on Facebook if you're interested. I'm too lazy to put them here today. Sorry.

Today (Sunday) my mom, sister and nephew came over for lunch. My mom was going on a bike ride on the Katy Trail with a meet up group and Kristen and Devin stayed to swim for a little while. We had a lovely lunch and I enjoyed hanging out. This evening has been pretty low-key and I'm excited to be off work tomorrow.

Have a great week!

Challenge Walk 2011

2011-06-07T22:32:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was Challenge Walk MS. It's a 3 day, 50 mile walk with 216 participants this year that will raise over $500,000. They're pretty amazing really. You can see pictures from the weekend here. Nellie did my braids on Saturday which can be seen in the Circle of Strength album. Not my most flattering picture ever but the braids look good. :) Just for fun here's what my hair looked like that night when I took them out.

I don't know if this year was just a little more dis-organized crazy than previous years or if I just noticed it more because I knew more of what was supposed to be happening but the weekend was definitely barely controlled chaos. Probably a little of both. I think I did almost every job we have at Challenge Walk and was the errand girl for most of the weekend, which was fine. I made a conscious choice to be an "indian" and to just roll with whatever I was asked to do - esp. if I was originally supposed to be doing something else. This made my weekend much more enjoyable and less stressful because I just went with whatever decision was made and did what needed to be done. I had our chapter president's credit card all weekend (hence I was the errand girl) and I was driving a borrowed car (the Dean Team graciously donated them for the weekend) and at one point I had her Sam's card too. It was kind of like mom giving you money and her car and saying ok, go do this stuff for me, lol.

Anyway, it was fun to see all of our Challenge Walkers again - and since I've worked with them a few years now I know many of them by name and most by sight. I think some are surprised that I know their names and it's kind of a fun game for me to quiz myself on who's who as they come into lunch/ finish line/ dinner/ wherever. Sometimes you just need a game to keep you going at an event.

Perhaps one of the funniest thing to happen at the event (though I didn't really think so at the time) was that I was driving our refrigerated (refer) truck and it ran out of gas. On 94 in St. Charles in the midst of all the construction. This is what the gas gage looked like when it ran out:

Hence I thought I still had time to get to the station. I was wrong. There was lots of cussing.

So Randy (one of my co-workers) came to rescue me and all was fine. And I had to defend myself the rest of the evening convincing people I wasn't a total moron. Hence I took the picture. And I got to Sam's 30 minutes late and our cakes that I was picking up still weren't ready. Comedy of errors I tell ya.

There were some other annoyances/funny stories from the weekend but I feel like they won't be as good to those of you who weren't there or don't work with me (or haven't in the past) so I'll skip them here.

Overall it was a good event but I'm really glad it's over!

Saturday fun

2011-06-07T22:04:00.000-05:00

Saturday of Memorial Day weekend was low key but awesome. I did some work around the house during the day then went by my dad's house to pick up a sander and hang out. Except Dad and Janet had plans earlier than I expected so I needed a new dinner plan. Brad and Amanda recently moved to Imperial so I called them and asked if they wanted to do dinner. They graciously invited me over for homemade pizza and to hang out. It was SO fun and I loved chatting with them. Bricelynn (3) is adorable and I think if we saw more of each other we would be good buddies. She's so smart and talkative and I enjoy paying with her.

We're clearly related as she enjoys being the center of attention and has a love of self portraits. Like Hannah, she loved seeing herself in my phone's camera. She took a whole series of these pictures but I just included a few for your viewing pleasure.

Us.

B: Let's make silly faces! Me: Alright.

Pretty girl.

After dinner with the Steinkamps I headed to O'Leary's for Aimee's new job celebration. It was fun to hang out with everyone and I enjoyed the Long Island special on drinks. There was also karaoke - and apparently a lot of older people. We had a blast though! I met Cyndi's boyfriend for the first time and was pleased that he is a nice guy and put up with my tipsy ass as well as he did. He also brought a friend with a delightful southern accent that I enjoyed listening to. What is it about an accent?

Aimee and Andy signing to each other

Aimee with her "no more retail" card from me.

I am thrilled for Aimee to have her new job and that she'll be available to come out with us on Saturdays now! Congrats Aims!

Nellie and Erin's Adventures

2011-06-07T21:54:00.000-05:00

Nellie and I always have a good time when we hang out - even if we're just doing stuff at home. The other day we took her girls for a walk around the neighborhood, went to Wal-mart and then went and got a swing from her mom's old house to take to her house. I love the Moellering girls. I've put in the effort to become a favorite of the little girls and their mom is pretty awesome too.

Hannah and I are buddies. Reagan and I are friends too but it's taken more effort with her since she's younger whereas Hannah and I bonded almost immediately. Apparently all girls enjoy being able to see themselves in the camera of my phone. I find it to be a handy mirror and handy for self portraits. Hannah likes to see herself for pictures too. :)

Hannie

Hannah Banana

My little buddy

Reagan wanted to get in on the action too and asked met to take her picture. Done.

Nellie tackling the swing.

So after we (Nellie) got the swing apart, we had to get it in the car to take back to her house. To make it fit, we might have draped it over Reagan's head. She was freaked out at first but quickly decided it was as funny and we thought it was.

This is just how we roll. Then we turned on the Black Eyed Peas in the car and the girls sang along.

Love.

Painting

2011-06-07T21:38:00.001-05:00

There are some places in my house that were still in need of painting. When I moved in I did a bunch, but eventually I got tired of it and/or ran out of paint. I decided to tackle a few of those projects the last 2 weekends in May.

Some before pictures:

Entryway with wood doors

another angle and you can see the wood trim in back.

After:

Well, in the middle - trim going from wood (right) to white (left)!

Doors went from wood to white and entryway got painted brown to match the other walls. (The wall with hall doors was already brown - the entryway and other side got painted.)

I also re-stained my back steps since they were looking pretty sad and the condo association said I had to.

It looks a lot better but I'm done painting for awhile!

Hayden Matthew Koeltzow

2011-06-07T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hayden was born on May 16, 2011 and is absolutely gorgeous. Mel, Olivia and I went to meet him the next day. I can't wait to watch him grow up and to see Emily and Paul become awesome parents!

Koeltzow 3 :)

Me and Hayden

Mel, Olivia and Hayden

Paul, Emily and Hayden. Love.

Oh how things change

2011-05-18T19:40:00.000-05:00

Today I "ran" 2 miles around the neighborhood instead of going to Turbo Kick at the gym since the weather was perfect for it. Things I learned:

-My days of actually running 3 miles are now a distant memory. Maybe I'll work back up to it. Maybe.

-It feels way different running with my ponytail down and in a bun.

-Tropical Sno is now open again.

-Tropical Sno is still way too close to the house (like a quarter mile)

-It's not so much being out of breath that was the problem as my leg muscles feeling like they're on fire. I guess those work out classes are doing something.

-One of the neighbors has an old RV with a ladder going up to the top of it. I kind of wanted to climb up there to see why the ladder was needed. I refrained.

-I don't really like the new format of the C25K app I still use for the timer.

Catch up

2011-05-15T18:13:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy busy couple weeks. I worked 3 evenings the last week of April followed by working 7 days straight (Sunday-Saturday) the week after. This past week calmed down a bit work wise but that's about it! Here's my last 3 weeks in a nutshell:

I puppy-sat for the Brown's while they were on a cruise for their 12 week old beagle Molly.

She's cute but has SO much energy! That week confirmed my belief that I have no business owning a dog. I'm just not home enough nor do I have the patience for puppy energy! She was a good companion though a little crazy. :)

Our Mud Run was last weekend and the final day of my 7-day stretch of working everyday. It was kinda crazy but the participants really seemed to enjoy it. I was stationed at the Leap Of Faith obstacle most of the day (and have the tan lines to prove it.)

It's about a 6 foot high platform that they climbed up then jumped into 6ish feet of muddy water. I spent a good part of the day yelling "1..2..3..jump!" and making sure people didn't jump on top of each other. It was fun to get to see everyone though - including Cyndi, Nellie and Laura who ran in it! Good job ladies! Also, thank you to Andy for coming to hang out for awhile and taking this picture for me. :)

Last Sunday was Mother's day and I went to lunch with my mom and talked to my grandma on the phone. The rest of the day was spent in recovery mode from Mud Run - so mostly sleeping and then a little house cleaning. I was tired!

Nothing noteworthy happened during the week, but yesterday (Saturday) I went to lunch with Sara Cross who I hadn't seen in forever so that was cool. That night we went to a trivia fundraiser for my friend Vanessa's work and had a good time despite the really hard trivia questions. We had TONS of food and because it was there I think I had a little bit of everything. I was uncomfortably full by the end of the night because I just kept putting food in my mouth. It was delicious though!

Today was a small family reunion for my Nana's (dad's mom) side of the family. It was fun to look at the pictures and see how some of us resemble her relatives. There was this one woman there, Barbara, who looks A LOT like my Nana did when she was younger... I did a double take when I saw here because my Nana is dead... it was crazy. I had never met her but we were definitely related! It was fun to see everyone and we got to decorate coozies so I enjoyed myself. :)

I also applied for some jobs that I would really like to get, so say a little prayer for that if you don't mind.

I think that about wraps it up...

Work + the weather = not too pleased

2011-04-24T23:04:00.000-05:00

Mostly this past week has been about work and the weather and I'm not to pleased with either one so we'll just skip that part. The weekend has been pretty good though - I did get to have a yummy dinner at the Gill/Brown house on Friday but missed Lori's birthday party due to the tornadoes. Saturday I went over to my dad's new wife's daughter's house (my step-sister now I guess?) to celebrate their marriage last Friday. Congrats Dad - hopefully 3rd time's the charm! That evening I got to go to dinner with Nellie and Vanessa to a yummy mexican place in the Loop. God I love mexican food. And margaritas. Yum. Happy Easter too! This morning my sister and I went to church with my mom then most of the family came over for lunch afterwards. Even Brian came into town so it was fun. I still wonder about some of his life choices but that's a discussion for another time.

I hope your week overall was better than mine!

Some weeks are just busy

2011-04-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

This week has been busy in both the fun and crazy way. Walk MS was today and I ran the St. Peters walk. It's our 2nd largest walk and of course the weather was absolute crap compared to what it was ALL WEEK. It was cold (40s with wind chill) and very windy which is not ideal for a walk. But we were at the St. Charles Community College and were lucky enough to be able to move most things besides the walk itself inside - a luxury no other site had so we were very thankful! (In case you were wondering, the college is awesome to us and you should tell them I said so if you're ever talking to a member of their staff.) Despite the weather, things went well and I think everyone had a good time. We had about 650 show up (about 900-1000 were registered.) I had a great group of staff and volunteers and they totally made my job easier. Special shout out to Kathi, Katie, Debbie, Laura and Julie for being awesome. We had a few hiccups but nothing major. And now it's done and I'm pretty excited about that.

Despite the absolute crazy at work during an event week (and a few new staff to break in with varying degrees of success) I did get to have some fun in my personal life. Monday night I went to dinner with Lura (whom I dearly miss at work) and catch up with what's been going. Tuesday I took a glass class with Aimee and Cyndi and The Glass Workbench in old St. Charles. The regular guy was out so the class was kind of lame but we made some fun jewelry and enjoyed hanging out. Wednesday I got to go to dinner at Growler's with Kyle, who's in town from Dallas for work and see Steph, John, Mark and Courtney too. Awesome. Thursday we skipped trivia but I went to zumba which I really enjoyed that night. I had had a rough day and it put me in a much better mood :). Friday Lindsey Oliver was in town so I went to diner with her and some other people at Olive Garden and we shut the place down. They were cleaning up around us so we thought we'd better go home. Tonight I'm laying low because I'm pretty tired and it's been a long day. Tomorrow is Devin's baptism at my mom's church and lunch after then I think I'm free. Monday it's back to work and the aftermath of 10 walks on one day. Whew.

Thursday is our night walk at Kiener Plaza (where there is beer and live music - it's a lot of fun - 6pm if you want to come) then WALK IS OVER. You know, just in time for the Bike kickoff ride and Mud Run.

Sally is laying in my lap begging to be petted so we're going to hang out and go to bed early. Have a good weekend!

Koeltzow baby shower

2011-04-10T19:34:00.000-05:00

I am so excited for my friends Emily and Paul to become parents. They're going to rock at it and let's face it, their kids are going to be adorable. Hayden Matthew Koeltzow (LOVE their name btw) is due to make his grand entrance into the world next month and I can't wait to meet him! Our friend Jamie hosted the shower at her house but was assisted by Mel, Sara and KC in the planning. I think the only way I managed to escape the hostess group is that there were probably too many people in charge of it already from what I heard. :) I offered but they had it covered. Which was cool with me - they did a great job! We hung out and Em and Paul got some great gifts. Some of her family was able to come in from Evansville and Paul's parent's came in from Troy so we had a good time.

Doesn't she have the cutest profile? Love it.

Olivia (Greg and Mel's daughter), Dan and Kevin soaking up some sun. Later Dan, Greg and Scott (Emily's dad) taught Olivia how to be the beer girl. Classic.

Em and her hostesses: Jamie, Mel, Emily, Sara, KC

Such a fun group!

So Emily loves this book so I bought it for Hayden. It is apparently one of Olivia's favorites too. I also got some other stuff for them including Mizzou onesies, bath stuff and pacifiers. Like I said they got some great stuff I were very humbled by everyone's generosity. I can totally see them reading to Hayden in a few months!

Congrats again guys!

Smattering

2011-04-10T19:24:00.000-05:00

It's been a pretty good couple weeks. Not much is going on but I always seem to be busy if that makes any sense. Just livin' life. :)

Last weekend I went to a fish fry Friday night (one of the main benefits of living in STL during Lent) and went to a 3 year old's birthday party on Saturday as well as to dinner with my sister. Sunday I got to hang out with 2 old friends. Monday was the regular gym routine, Tuesday I went to my first Cards game of the season and Wednesday I got my hair cut/colored. Thursday was trivia and then it was the weekend again. Whew. I take that back, it appears a lot is going on.

Friday after the fish fry I went to hang out at Nellie's for a while. Hannie and I put together princess goodie bags for her sister Reagan's 3rd birthday party the next day. There were a few rings left over and it made me laugh when she put them all on the same hand. Bling bling!

Nellie says I hang out at her house so I can get my baby cuddle fix.

Look at that face. Of course I do. I like Nellie too though to be fair. She rocks.

Saturday I had fun hanging out at Reagan's party for a bit and dinner with my sister was nice. We went to Friday's and had a few drinks and yummy food. My sister and I aren't really close but I am making an effort to try to hang out with her more without the rest of the family. We get along WAY better than we did a few years ago at least and it was nice to see her. It's also interesting talking to her about just stuff and seeing how different we are despite growing up in the same house and being so close in age (22 months apart.) Anyway, it was good.

Remember awhile back when the Pay it Forward thing was going around Facebook and I told you I made aprons and a tie blanket? Sunday I got to deliver the blanket and see my friend Laura who I don't think I've seen in person for more than a few minutes since high school at least. Maybe even middle school. It was so fun to chat and catch up. I loved hearing about her family (she has 4 kids!) and how things are going. I think she liked the blanket (which I was really nervous about so whew) and of course the day I delivered it it was 85 degrees after weeks of cold crap in which you would use a fleece blanket. Ah well. Later that evening I met up with my friend Heather from Mizzou who I signed up for her Pay it Forward. She made me watermelon jolly rancher vodka. WIN! Again it was fun to see her and meet her little boy. And I got liquor. She knows me so well.

Monday was my mom's birthday but we celebrated before the Cards game on Tuesday by going to dinner at JBuck's. It was delicious food and fun to hang out. Mom got upset that I forgot her birthday card at home but what can you do. We have a set of seats this year (my birthday present) and here is our view for the summer. Section 359 - right under Hardee's. Love it.

Wednesday I got my hair done, and boy did it need it. The bottom part of my hair was so dark I had an identity crisis every time I pulled half of it back. It was crazy. So Katie did a few more foils this time and it's back to it's regular bright awesomeness. Thank God for good hairdressers! Love you Katie Chavez!

Thursday night at trivia Jose joined us. Jose is Vanessa's fiance who just returned from spending the last 9 months in Europe studying law. Vanessa couldn't make it that night so we were a little surprised to see him. He must have missed us. He brought us gifts from his travels and seemed happy to be back.

The little boy bottle opener with the giant corkscrew penis is my favorite. Apparently he's everywhere in Belgium.

Aimee's Bday

2011-03-30T23:33:00.000-05:00

Sunday was Aimee's birthday. She worked out a 4 day weekend for herself and did all sorts of fun things. Saturday we celebrated at her house with a party. That afternoon, my backyard looked like this:

Apparently spring was having an identity crisis and it snowed like 5 inches. This did not deter us from our partying and drinking but it did keep a few people from coming out. Lame. Alisha came out and she lives in Washington so I don't know what everyone else was so worried about. :) Anyway, we drank, had some delicious cake prepared by Cyndi and played some games (trivial pursuit 90s edition and drinking games.)

making a wish (check out the fleur de lis cake)

This one turned out cute (Me, Andy, Aimee)

Maybe if I open my eyes reaaaal wide you won't notice my state of intoxication. No? Oh well. (Me, Kristen and Cyndi)

Me and Scott (Kristen's man friend as she calls him. I call him awesome.)

KB spent some time separating the blue m&ms from the rest and then just ate those.

You can tell we're getting older - at about 4am when we were done for the night (early for one of the Quirin parties... remember new years?) Aimee wanted to make it till sun up but we faded. And then instead of crashing on the couches/in the spare room/ wherever we landed we all had sobered enough to drive ourselves home to sleep in our own beds. Apparently 28 was the threshold for that. We still had fun though.

Happy birthday Aimee!

Work fun

2011-03-30T23:19:00.000-05:00

Last Friday at work was kind of a fun day. We surprised Allison, one of my co-workers with a baby shower. She had no idea obviously because she called in sick that morning and we had to fabricate a very important meeting to make her come in. Her boyfriend was in on the surprise and was more than happy to drop her off at work for the "meeting." (He works from home.)

I got her monkey onesies and a nursing shield. Onesies pictured. :)

After work we went to Granite City Brewery for Elke's going away party. Her official last day is April 5 but this day worked best for her. We had a good time and Lura & Danica came out too. It was great to see everyone and hang out outside of work. Lord knows we all need a drink sometimes at the end of the day! Apparently this is also new NMSS outgoing tradition. Lura did one the previous week so now it's standard.

Go Elke!

Another one down... 17th since I started.

Fancy

2011-03-20T14:14:00.000-05:00

So you may remember awhile back when I went to Sam's Oscar party that I mentioned an outing was planned to get more use out of our formal wear. Yesterday, that plan became a reality. Eight of us got gussied up and headed down to Soulard for drinks and dinner in our formal wear. It was a more low-key night that I was expecting (I wanted to shake my booty a little) but I think the not wanting to walk around in the pouring rain and cold had a part in that. (We actually took the bus down there so we would have had to walk to wherever we wanted to go.) We had fun anyway and I loved hanging out with my girls. You know how my blog is titled "Incredibly Blessed"? These ladies play a large part in making that title possible. :)

Nellie and I getting ready to go. Girlfriend did my hair and it rocked.

Finishing getting ready at Kristen's

Aimee and Nellie looking amazing

Lori Aimee Kristen Me Nellie Cyndi Vanessa Lui

Lori

Aimee Cyndi and Lui at dinner

Nellie and Kristen

Vanessa and I

Another One Bites the Dust

2011-03-20T14:05:00.001-05:00

Lura's last day was this past Wednesday and we had her going away happy hour on Friday at Trainwreck. And by happy hour I mean I got there at 5:15 and left about 10. Good times.

Lura and I

Shots!

I will miss you friend.

Kimber and I

And there were blow job shots...

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do next week when Lura isn't in the cube next to me, but I guess we're going to find out. Good luck in your new job LJ!

Beer School

2011-03-20T13:58:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Aimee, Cyndi, Andy, Jon and I went to Beer School at AB. It's an hour class that is 30 minutes of learning about beer (valuable life skills like how to pour certain kinds of beer and how beer is made) and 30 minutes of tasting said beer and finding out which are your favorites. I am proud to say that we all passed with flying colors.

Andy and Jon

Diploma

Aimee with her certificate

(PS - guess what this girl gave up for lent? Drinkin'. Jesus would understand.)

Look what I got to upload...

2011-03-20T13:19:00.003-05:00

Mardi Gras and Cyndi's birthday

2011-03-07T12:03:00.000-06:00

Saturday was the Mardi Gras parade in Soulard and also Cyndi's birthday. We combined the two events for a day of crazy fun. We met up in the morning at Cyndi's before heading to the parade. We took a few jello shots then piled into Nellie's car and headed out. I took several pictures, but blogger is dumb and downloads them upside down since they're from my phone (I fixed them on my computer) so you'll just have to use your imagination. I used to just do a quick copy/paste off Facebook since they upload the right way there, but Facebook doesn't let you do that anymore. I am very annoyed by this in case you can't tell.

Nellie and I at the parade

We hung out at the parade for awhile then headed to warmth for delicious New Orleans style food for lunch. I had a shrimp po boy and it was awesome. Back at Cyndi's we did Hour of Power (a shot of beer every minute for 60 minutes) in which I failed at completing the hour. I missed 4 and was still so full from lunch that I did have to pray to the porcelain gods for a minute in the middle because there was no more room in the inn so to speak. Anyway, after that I rallied and kept drinking for the rest of the evening since I felt sooo much better. Ah, nothing brings out the 21 year old college student in my like Mardi Gras. We hung out and had drinks and food till about 10 when Nellie and I decided it was time to head home. It was a great day!

The pictures would have made this post so much better. Grr.

Oscars

2011-03-01T19:58:00.000-06:00

Sunday night was the Oscars and Sam had people over to watch. She suggested everyone dress up and old bridesmaid or prom dresses were totally encouraged. It was a blast.

Me before heading over

Sam and I

Sam and her sister Emily

The Oscars themselves were pretty boring, but I had a good time hanging out with everyone. There was lots of good food and cute kids to watch play. Fun! And, my bridesmaid dress inspired a whole other outing with another group of friends go dress up. Yay for re-using bridesmaid dresses!

Other highlights of the week:

-Getting to see Lindsey Oliver while she was in town and trying a new coffee place

-Dinner with Dad and Janet at Buffalo Wild Wings

-Zumba with Nellie on Sat morning (she somehow convinced me that the 8am class wasn't too early... I'm still not sure how that happened.)

Charleston, SC

2011-03-01T19:51:00.000-06:00

While we were in Charlotte visiting family we took a day trip to Charleston. The weather in Charlotte was awesome for the most part (60s and 70s) but it was definitely colder by the water! Mom and John had to buy warmer clothing at the City Market.

It feels a lot like the French Market in NOLA... I think in the summer it would even more so.

We had lunch at Blossom - yummy!

After lunch we walked around the city for awhile. We stopped at Waterfront Park which is right on the bay. It was really pretty but the wind coming off the water was a little bit chilly!

You can take a ferry out to Ft. Sumter, but we decided it was too cold. It's out there, trust me.

We also walked down Rainbow Row, named because of the bright colors of the houses. Most have been converted into townhouses these days that sell for about $3 million each.

Most of the older houses actually face the side because back in the day you were taxed based upon what faced the street. So they put the skinniest part of the house to the street. Many have faux front doors because of this and awesome gardens. The porches are also like another room. Beautiful. If the town houses were $3M I can only imagine what these are.

Cannons used in the civil war

My mom and Alex

There were also some sword fighters putting on a show. You could get your picture taken with them.

After walking around we took a horse drawn carriage tour through the city. There are 4 different routes and you don't know which one you will get. We of course got the one that went through where we had just walked, but it's the best one so we weren't upset. :)

After the tour we headed home (about 3 hours). I took a nap in the car. :) Jackie and I went to a movie when we got back (Just Go With It) which was funny. I love hanging out with her... too bad we don't live in the same city!

Overall it was a great trip. I love going to visit them and always have a good time. Jackie and I get along great and we can always pick up right where we left off like no time has passed. Good times.

~E

Charlotte

2011-03-01T19:22:00.000-06:00

The day after my birthday Mom and I headed to Charlotte, NC to visit family for President's Day weekend. Our flights out there were uneventful and we arrived in Charlotte about 11:30pm. John, Jackie and Christopher picked us up at the airport and after chatting a bit we all headed to bed because it was pretty late. Friday morning Mom and John (her cousin) headed to see the Biltmore (a mansion about 3 hours away) and I hung out with Jackie (my second cousin, John's daughter) and her boys, Alex and Chris. We went out to the outlet malls and did some shopping (yay Old Navy deals!) and caught up.

Alex (3) and I

Christopher (7 months)

Friday night I hung out at Jackie and Patrick's house with some of their friends and George (Jackie's brother). We had pizza and played games. It was fun. Mom, John and Aline (John's wife) went out to dinner at their country club (George was mad he missed it.) Saturday Jackie and I went to lunch and did a little shopping since we didn't have the boys (a treat for her) and that afternoon I hung out with Mom, John and George in the hot tub.

Sat. evening Jackie, Patrick (Jackie's husband) and I went out for sushi for their friend Rachel's birthday. It was REALLY loud in the restaurant but the food was good and we had a good time.

Mom and Aline watched Jackie and Patrick's boys and their night was kind of rough, but they survived. :) Sunday we all went to Charleston, but I think I'll do a separate post about that. Monday came all too soon. We all hung out at Jackie's for a little while then back to John and Aline's for lunch and to hang out some more before it was time to go to the airport. Unfortunately, our flights were delayed big time and we sat in the Charlotte airport for several hours because of a ground stop in Chicago. We finally got home around 1am - it was a long evening!

Great trip!

28 is starting great

2011-02-16T21:03:00.001-06:00

Today is my 28th birthday! My birthday is one of my favorite days of the year because I always try to do my favorite things and don't feel bad not doing anything else. :) Today was no exception. I started the day off right by sleeping late and having a leisurely breakfast. I woke up to several texts, voice mails and facebook messages that made me smile right off.

After laying around for a bit, I took a shower and headed out to get a pedicure.

Bright pink. Love it. And I got to wear flip flops all day because it was so warm!

(The rental tells me the temp outside. Handy.)

The guy that did my pedicure was really nice and chatty. He was kinda cute actually. Maybe I should have paid better attention to his questions? Hm. He was quite interested in Demolition Ball and how I got the bruise on my leg (the small one by my ankle not the massive one.)

From my pedicure I headed straight to my massage.

It was lovely. Since I took too long getting ready earlier I didn't have time for lunch between my pedi and massage as planned so I was pretty hungry by this point. Luckily I had an ice cream date with Sam and Max.

So I didn't feel bad getting the medium size instead of the small. It was delicious. We wanted to keep hanging out so we headed over to the park to play for awhiile.

That is a look of pure glee (hard to see in the bright SUN!) I ran home to feed my cats then headed for my sister's house for dinner. She made chicken alfredo and it was really really good.

Devin helped.

She says it's better than Olive Garden and she might be right. And it has WAY less calories which makes it even better. She also got me flowers and a gift card.

And Mom brought an ice cream cake. (She got me Cards tickets for my present - we're going to several games this summer!)

Yum. After dinner Kristen and I hung out a bit and had some more wine and Devin read me a book.

Pretty damn good day in my book!

Happy birthday to me!

Ha! I did that today!

2011-02-15T21:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday and today I went to workout classes at Club Fitness. Melinda is kicking my butt in a good way. Yesterday was Drills to Make You Sweat, where you basically alternate cardio for 3-4 minutes then weights for 3-4 minutes. Truth in advertising, you definitely sweat and just when you think you can't keep doing this you switch muscle groups. It's good. Today was Turbo Kick. It's kick boxing meets drills meets dancing around. It's kinda fun. Kinda.

When I got home from class I was watching the Biggest Loser and I'm watching Bob yell "Cross! Uppercut! Kick!" and I'm thinking... I did a workout JUST LIKE THAT today! Go us!

That's all.

Demolition Ball

2011-02-13T13:14:00.000-06:00

I am surrounded by chairs that do not belong in my living room and there are dishes with remnants of cake in my sink and a buffet of drink options on my counter and I couldn't be more pleased. Oh, and I definitely have some bruises. It was a great party.

For my birthday this year (which is Wednesday by the way) I decided I wanted to do something a little different and decided we should all go play Demolition Ball. The place is about a mile from my house (convenient!) and I thought it would be a fun evening. I was correct. Basically, you are in bumper cars with a plastic scoop trying to get a wiffle ball in a net (or at least hit the square.)

Be aware if you ever go to play that you will get bruises and that a sports bra might be a good decision.

The place also had food and a bar, so before we played we hung out for a bit and had some drinks.

This one was called a "snow day." Thank you Sam for recommending it!

I loved hanging out with everyone. I'm a lucky girl to have such great friends!

After the game we headed back to my house. Cyndi made me a delicious mocha cake and Aimee made homemade ice cream. Sooo good.

Of course there were drinks too.

So we hung out for awhile.

Then it was late and we are old and tired.

So everyone headed home from my most fabulous birthday party.

Thanks for making my birthday party awesome!!

Poor Car

2011-02-10T18:18:00.000-06:00

This morning, on my way to work, this happened:

Some guy in the "u" of townhouses next to mine was completely NOT paying attention this morning and pulled out of his parking lot right into me. Yeah, this happened on my street not 30 yards from my house. When I got out to look at the damage I wanted to just turn around and walk home and go back to bed. Instead, I called the police, filed a report, got my car towed to a body shop, got a rental car and finally made it into work about 10am. Luckily since it's not my fault insurance will cover everything, but it was still a pain in the ass. I've been on the phone with insurance companies all day but I think everything is worked out. Of course, my car was full of all the stuff from last night's Bike event so one of my coworkers had to drive up with me later to get everything out of it. Enterprise gave me a Chevy Cobalt to drive, and while it's fine for the most part no way was all that crap going to fit in it. Those cars are small. So Randy and I took a trip to the body shop to get stuff.

Ah, good times.

Phil

2011-02-10T18:08:00.001-06:00

Work has been kinda crazy this week - there's a lot going on with Walk and the whole staff had to stay late one night to make calls to past participants. In addition to that, Wednesday night we had 2 things going on for 2 of our other events (Corporate Achievers and Bike) so all of our staff had to work late again. Last night I ended up at the Bike event. It did have it's perks though.

You know how I LOVE The Amazing Race? Guess who I met. Phil Keoghan!

In 2009, he did a bike ride across the country raising money and awareness for MS and participated in several Bike MS rides. While he was doing it, he made a movie - The Ride. St. Louis was one of the premier locations and he was there for it and we hung out. He's awesome, by the way. I got an autograph too!

Gary and Mallory stopped by too. Gary has an office in STL so he and Mallory came to the premier. (They're a past Race team.) I am pleased to say that they are just as sweet in person as they appear on TV.

Sometimes there are perks to working for NMSS I guess. :)

~E

Zumba and Super Bowl

2011-02-10T17:56:00.000-06:00

After I dug my way out of the snow last week it was time for some socialization. :) Thursday night was trivia, and we came in 2nd which was cool. I got there kinda early and hung out with Andy for awhile just the two of us while we waited for other people to show. It was cool to talk and hang out with him. Good call marrying that one, Aims =).

Friday night I went to zumba with Nellie and Cyndi then to dinner at IHOP. Cyndi has become an excellent workout buddy for classes and such and I think when Nellie joins us at Club Fitness she will be too. Yay! (Aimee, you have to come back!) In fact, this past Tuesday we tried a Turbo Kick class. It was good but I think I still like our Monday class (Drills to Make You Sweat) better. But maybe I'll go to both sometimes? The same lady teaches both classes and I like her style. We'll see. Also on the health front I picked up some of those FiberOne bars at the store the other day. They're pretty tasty and while I'm pretty 'regular' anyway, I've noticed a difference. TMI? Sorry about that.

Saturday was our Walk kickoff at Rams park. It snowed that morning (of course) but we still had a pretty good turnout. And afterwards we took a tour and I considered hiding out here:

But they caught me and said I had to leave. Oh well. There were no players there that day anyway. Sunday was Super Bowl and Storm hosted a party at his house. We had excellent food (someone made chilli cheese dip that I couldn't stop eating and there were little smokies wrapped in bacon among other goodies) and great company. I enjoyed hanging out with that group since I hadn't seen some of them in quite awhile. Good times.

Snowpocalypse

2011-02-02T11:04:00.000-06:00

Snowpocaplyse was really more like sleet/icepocalypse at my house. I ended up with about 5 inches of sleet/ice/snow. I've gotten 2 snow days out of the deal and an early dismissal (that's a lot for us!) so it's been a pretty easy work week. I went to dig out my car earlier today and was surprised that when I stepped out onto the snow I didn't really sink - the ice/sleet/snow mixture was THAT thick. There are some massive piles of snow that were shoveled to the side after the last snow storm that hadn't melted yet and I could walk right over them without sinking into them at all. It was kind of weird but made cleaning off the car a lot more pleasant because I wasn't up to mid-calf in snow. I don't think I could have gotten out of my parking spot because of it though. Guess we'll see in the morning!

I would also like to take a moment to thank Ford for making cars with excellent defrosters. I have not had to scrape the windows AT ALL over the last 3 days. I did have to chisel my windshield wipers free since the sleet had all piled up right there but other than that the defrost took care of it and quickly too. I was impressed. See how clear my windshield is? All defrost.

Hopefully the roads are clear by morning and I won't have any trouble getting to work. We'll see!

Pay It Forward 2011

2011-02-02T10:56:00.000-06:00

So awhile back on Facebook there was this thing going around where people posted in their statuses that they would make you a homemade gift some time in 2011 for the first 5 people to comment. Catch is, if you comment you had to re-post. So I did it. If I'm going to spend a weekend inside doing craft projects I would rather do it when the weather is cold and crappy, so last weekend worked perfectly. I spent Friday night cutting out fabric and Sunday sewing. I had 3 people comment on my offer, so I made two aprons and a blanket. I don't have a picture of the blanket yet (and don't want to post one because it hasn't been delivered) but it's one of those tie fleece ones and was pretty easy though tedious. I'm pretty pleased with how the aprons turned out for Anna and Nellie though!

Anna's with the pengins

Nellie's with the ninjas

I accidentally cut the fabric with the ninjas upside down, but now they're right side up for her when she wears it, right? Luckily no one else seemed to really notice this but me so I guess it's fine. I love the print anyway! I watched these videos to learn how to make the aprons and it went pretty well. Thanks Aimee for helping me and letting me use your sewing machine! Who knew I could sew?

Saturday morning I helped Cyndi sand her kitchen (they are re-modeling and took out a wall and and had to re-drywall so a few layers of mud and sanding were involved.) It was a good upper body workout and I was happy to help a friend. She also offered to come help me paint in my house soon which is a nice bonus. Funny moment: when we were done and completely covered with dust, I commented that we looked like old ladies (our hair was completely white with dust.) Cyndi said well at least we stayed friends into our old age. Aww. :)

Saturday night was our friend Jen Lui's birthday party so we headed out to Cyrano's for desserts. Unfortunately Cyrano's took FOREVER to get us a table despite the fact that we had a reservation. Oh well. Lui seemed happy and the desserts were yummy so alls well that ends well I guess.

Schlafly

2011-01-25T19:51:00.000-06:00

Sunday we went out to Schlafly Bottleworks to take the brewery tour and have dinner.

The tour was great and I enjoyed learning about how they brew their beer. I enjoyed the beer tasting at the end even more. We had a good time sampling and learning. We're all about broadening our minds.

Then we had dinner and drinks. It was delicious.

Since Nellie's birthday was a few days earlier, we celebrated at dinner. We sang and she got cake.

She was even nice enough to share. It was damn good cake.

The end.

Snow Day!

2011-01-20T16:46:00.000-06:00

I was very excited this morning to get the call that today our office was closed and we were having a SNOW DAY! And for good reason. We got about 7 inches of snow in St. Charles and even more in some places around the city.

(It was deeper if you went out further so I'm saying 7 instead of 6.5)

view from the front door

View out the back

And, today is my friend Nellie's birthday and my hair stylist Katie's birthday (who I went to high school with.) Happy birthday ladies!

Clearly the event that I was supposed to go to for work tonight got cancelled and it was re-scheduled for when I'm on vacation in Feb. so I won't be going. We are also skipping trivia tonight so I'm just hanging out at the house. I did go out and clean off my car though and cleared myself a path to walk to it so hopefully it will be a lot easier to clean off tomorrow if it does indeed snow again. Or if I decided to venture out later then I'm set. On a related note, I need to invest in some rain/snow boots I think. I'll have to keep an eye out for some cute ones.

ONEder Fund

2011-01-16T14:24:00.008-06:00

Sometimes I'm a bit of a stalker. I read the blogs of people I've never met although I feel like I know them because they share their lives with me on the internet. Sometimes I find delightful things unexpectedly because someone will post a link on the side of their page. Or I end up reading about a friend of a friend of a friend's life. It's crazy sometimes. Anyway, about a year ago I came across Kelle's blog and have been following it ever since. Check out the video she posted and consider donating here. So far she has raised over $66,000 in mostly small donations of $5-$10 for NDSS. It's pretty cool.

Anyway, at least watch the video.

~E

2011-01-10T20:18:00.000-06:00

Friday I went to the "moving on" party for Matt and Danica, my former co-workers. Well, I guess Matt is still kind of a co-worker since he's doing the independent contract thing for Challenge Walk (why I have no idea, but he is so good for him) but whatever. Everyone met up at Houlihan's for drinks and food and we had a good time hanging out. It was good to see everyone outside of work and quite a few people who don't work at NMSS anymore came so it was fun to see them and catch up. I'm sad to see Matt and Danica go but I totally understand and am glad they're moving on to bigger and better things. I'm kind of jealous but I guess I should be happy to have a job even if it doesn't pay that well. Yes I'd like some cheese to go with that whine but it's my blog so I'll whine if I want to.

Vanessa is also back!! I am glad to have her back from Europe and hanging out with us again. I missed her! And she brought me a cool key chain from London - sweet!

It is now normal for me to run 3 miles at the gym. Granted I don't necessarily run the whole way, but that is the beauty of the elliptical - I can slow down at the end and it's not a big deal and I don't have to adjust the speed. This is mostly because I get lazy not because I can't keep running - but for some reason after 2 miles I kind of loose my motivation. If you would have told me at this time last year that I would be regularly running 3 miles I don't know that I would have believed you. But here I am. I am back on the 3 workouts a week bandwagon (I was only going twice most of the time and that wasn't really cutting it) and maybe I'll start counting calories here too. Although I often check the calories and half the time decide to eat things that are bad for me anyway. Yes I realize I am doing that wrong. I'll work on it.

~E

NYE 2010-2011

2011-01-05T20:58:00.000-06:00

As usual, I party hopped on NYE. First I headed over to the Niethe's house where I didn't take a single picture. I know, fail. It was great to see everyone and catch up though! The Niethe's also just re-did their kitchen and it's beautiful. Way more counter space and it feels bigger. And on said counter space someone brought bread and dill dip and I could have just stood next to it and eaten it all night. But I refrained. But damn it was good. :) Games were played and it was a lot of fun.

From there I headed over to the Quirin's, who had been at the Blues game earlier in the evening but were hosting a late-start party. Perfect for me. I had a little bit of trouble getting over there because there was an accident on 270 in the middle lane and people couldn't figure out how to go around that and you couldn't get off and go down Lindbergh because it was closed due to the tornado damage. But I made it eventually. When I arrived, this was happening:

Yes, that's 4 loko. Now illegal. Sweet.

Aimee was picture happy which was good because I forgot my camera and that is usually my job.

Matt and Jaci before Jaci fell off the chair:

And after.

There was Rock Band.

And doggie cuddles

And since we were up till 6am drinking, stuff like this started happening

Yes, Andy is licking Aimee's head. She coincidently didn't notice until she looked at the picture and noticed her head was wet.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T00:24:00.000-06:00

Post about my New Year's coming soon. As soon as Aimee uploads some pictures. :)

~E

Tornadoes are Scary

2011-01-02T00:15:00.001-06:00

On New Year's Eve we had unusually warm weather (60s) and unfortunately in this part of the country that usually means severe weather in the form of storms and in this case tornadoes. Sunset Hills (about 5-10 minutes from my mom's house) was hit the hardest and some of the houses were completely leveled. The video below is from my friend Mark's house. Luckily just the garage and trees were damaged and not the house or any people, but you kind of get an idea of how powerful the storm was.

The picture below is from my friend Dan in front of Anna's parent's house. Thank goodness no one was hurt!

Many trees were uprooted and S. Lindbergh is just a mess for those familiar with the area. Thank God for the sirens to warn people to seek shelter or this could have been much much worse.

Nellie and Lee and Brian oh my!

2011-01-02T00:05:00.000-06:00

Wednesday I met up with my girl Nellie for drinks/food at Fridays. Can I just say I love this girl?

This picture is not from our trip to Fridays. I just included it because I like it.

It was good to just hang out and talk about life. We talked about our jobs and babies and friends and eating habits and working out (Nellie is a rock star. Click here to read about her awesomeness) and everything under the sun. I really enjoyed it and love that she lives so close. I don't think she has any idea how often I contemplate just walking over to her house and inviting myself to one of the awesome dinners she cooks. Cause y'all know I rarely cook. Anyway, I had a great time.

Then Wednesday night Lee arrived. I cannot tell you how excited I was that he was coming town and that I was going to get to spend time with him. Lee and I met working for Res. Life at Mizzou in Laws Hall. We were on staff together and quickly became friends. He cracks me up and is a fantastic friend. Seriously, he rocks. (Yeah, I said it Lee. Like you didn't already know.)

Also not from this week since we are like 5 years younger here.

And I clearly had a crappier camera with a hair on the lens.

Wed. night he got in about 10pm so we caught up a bit then headed to bed. Thursday morning we met up with Mel for breakfast and had a good time catching up with her. I love Mel. Back at home Lee slept half the day because the genius stayed up the entire night on Tuesday then only really slept on the plane (about 3 hours) then Wed. night at my house. Boy was tired. It was also funny to see him with my cats. Lee is not a cat person but Sammy and Sally didn't seem to care and kept trying to go lay on him. He would flinch/jump/freak out and they would get down and I would laugh. Good times.

Lee came in for another former Res. Life staff member's wedding, our friend Brian. Since he was in the wedding we had to go pick up the tux from South County Mall and Brian met us down there to get his too and have some dinner. Unfortunately I started feeling sick during dinner and kept having to run to the bathroom, but it was really good to catch up with Brian and hear what was going on in his life. I think it's neat that he and Lee have stayed such close friends. I didn't say much at dinner but enjoyed listening to them talk and learning about Brian's life. Congrats to him on his marriage to Christina!

Since I kept getting sick (I think maybe a touch of light food poisoning from breakfast?) I went to bed pretty early Thursday night (like 10:30) and left poor Lee to fend for himself at my house. I hated to waste the little time I had but I was terrible company! Luckily I was feeling better the next morning and was able to say bye and see him off. Good visit!

Secret Santa with the Girls

2011-01-01T23:35:00.000-06:00

The Monday after Christmas I went to dinner with my girlfriends at the Cheesecake Factory to exchange gifts from our Secret Santa. It's always a fun party even though we were missing 3 girls this year - shout out to Theresa, Vanessa and Lori!

It's been quite awhile since I had been to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and it did not disappoint. The food and drinks were yummy although a bit pricey (hence I had not been in awhile!) We started our party with Cyndi giving out these awesome wine glasses that she had made for us with candles. So cute.

Snowman!

We ordered our food then it was on to exchanging gifts. Though there are somehow no pics of it, I drew Aimee's name this year and got her fleur de lis jewelry hooks, a sparkly nail file and slipper socks. She loved them of course and laughed when I told her the hooks came from the Icing at the mall. :)

I got these books and earrings from Theresa

Linds got awesome frames from Cyndi and Cyndi got penguin socks as a bonus gift (cheater! lol)

Kristen got fabulous earrings and a gift card from Vanessa

Cyndi got outdoor running gear from Aimee and a penguin BF necklace (aw!)

Good times!

Christmas Day

2011-01-01T23:24:00.000-06:00

Christmas day started off at Mom's house opening presents with the immediate family. I was thankful that I had gotten everything ready the night before because all I had to do was get ready and head out.

I got some awesome gifts this year and was blessed to be able to give gifts to the ones I love. Here's Mom with the purse I got her

Devin with his Sponge Bob slippers from Grandma

Mom hosted Christmas for her side of the family this year so we helped her finish getting everything ready and then the family started arriving. We had a yummy lunch then it was time to open presents.

This picture is my favorite from the whole day. My cousin Danielle, me and my sister Kristen with our gifts from our Grandma - complete with framed pics of Grandma.

My Mom with her sisters - Kris, Kerry (my mom), Kathy

I also went over to my cousin Danny's to see my dad's side of the family for a bit too. It was lovely to see everyone even though I had started to feel a little under the weather (and in fact spent the whole day Sunday sick on the couch.)

I hope you had a Merry Christmas too!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-26T00:01:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry this post doesn't have any pictures. I actually didn't take any - I was feeling kind of blah.

Christmas Eve started out a little rocky for me because I have a bit of bronchitis and a cold and wasn't feeling the best. I just kind of laid around in the morning then headed to Dad's to hang out for a bit before church about 3. Dad and Janet had everyone over for pizza and snacks, which was nice. Then we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service. Except it wasn't the candle lit service I was expecting and love so I was actually quite disappointed. And they didn't print the words to the carols in the program - they said we are going to sing "from heart" - meaning everyone should know the words. But we only sing a lot of these songs on Christmas so I don't know the words and the people we invited with us who had never been before definitely didn't so it was weird and I didn't like it. Oh well.

After church Mom, me, Kristen, Devin and Tyrelle (Devin's dad who my sister is seeing again) headed over to Kristen's house for some dinner and to hang out a bit. We watched "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and let Devin open a few gifts. It was nice. I made the cheese balls for the next day when I got home, did some laundry and headed to bed. All in all a pretty good day!

~E

Cookies

2010-12-25T23:49:00.000-06:00

On Thursday, in addition to watching Max, I also made 10 dozen cookies with the help of Miss Lindsay Gill.

We made chocolate chip, snickerdoodles and those reindeer cookies you get at the store that I for some reason love. MAJOR THANKS to Linds for helping me and lending me her kitchen so we could watch movies while we baked since the bulb on my TV bit the dust Wed. night! THANK YOU!

(I ordered another bulb online and successfully replaced it myself and my TV now works again. Thank you also to Samsung for making that process as easy as possible and providing clear directions in the TV manual.)

Max-Watching

2010-12-25T22:33:00.000-06:00

So usually I'm the friend that parents call when they want a night out, often without their kid(s). Generally speaking, I'm cool with that because everyone needs a break now and then and I'm fun. And modest. :)

But it's a little known fact that if you ask me to watch your kid(s) and I'm available, I will probably say yes. (Unless your kids are mean or something.) Then I get to spend evenings with cuties like Max.

Max is telling me a story that I don't understand

a word of but it's apparently hilarious.

He was SO good. When he realized Mom and Dad had left, he paused for a moment then went right back to playing. He was a happy boy and played and talked all evening. He also loves Wheel of Fortune (and most game shows I'm told) so I turned it on for him. He just randomly claps and expects you to do the same.

"Um, hello Aunt Erin... why aren't you clapping?!"

He also likes music but was not in a dancing mood that evening. He even played the piano for me for a minute. He gets super excited when the cat comes into view and says "arf" at the window like the dog. He has one of those little couch things that turn into a bed and he had a fun time sitting on it, laying down, getting back up and repeating the whole process. We had a good time.

Dinner Date

2010-12-21T23:57:00.000-06:00

Pretty adorable, right?

Eli and I had dinner with his parents tonight. He's getting so big! Since Mark and Courtney are still recovering from the stomach bug thing that's going around I had dinner with this cutie instead. Fun!

Also shout out to Mark - thanks for the firewood and I hope you and Courtney are feeling better!

Yoga on Monday Nights is Not for Me

2010-12-21T12:58:00.000-06:00

Remember how I said Aimee, Cyndi and I were trying some different classes at Club Fitness? Last night we went to yoga at the Lemay Ferry location.

Admittedly, it's been awhile since I've taken a yoga class but I do not remember it being as intense as this one was. I was expecting more relaxing, stretching, doing things-that-feel-good-to-my-muscles kind of stuff. I was WRONG. We started the class basically standing on one foot for 10 minutes then switched to the other foot for the next 10 minutes. Then we had 40 minutes of class left. Eventually we went to more stretchy stuff and I have never been more pleased to do ab work in my life. Anyway, I will not be going back to that particular class.

My stay-cation so far has been pretty awesome. Saturday I made some Pampered Chef deliveries and had P'sghetti's for dinner (YUM.) I also went out to Dave and Buster's then Harrah's with Aimee, Cyndi, Andy and a bunch of Andy's fraternity brothers. It was a fun time and I enjoyed getting to put some faces with stories I'd heard lol. Anyway, a bunch of them live like 10 minutes from me so not only were they fun to hang out with but it was a convenient drive. Score! lol.

Sunday Neil and Kelly came through town so I got to see them along with Emily, Paul, Mike and Sara. It was awesome catching up with everyone and hearing what's going on in their lives and what exciting things are coming up. This is the good stuff, baby!

Monday I did a lot of laying around (until the yoga class) then went grocery shopping which was desperately needed. I made a list of stuff that needs done around the house (mainly cleaning) and will start chipping away at that today. I think Thursday is going to be my baking day (read: cookies!) so if you want to come keep me company let me know. And Thursday I get to watch Mr. Max Ericson so I'm way excited about that too.

And I confirmed today that Lee is arriving the 29th for a short visit and I'm way excited about that too.

I love the holidays.

~E

Insert Catchy Title

2010-12-14T22:37:00.000-06:00

This past Friday I joined some friends for a trivia fundraiser for the St. Louis Sabers (the St. Louis women's rugby team.) We had a blast and did pretty well at trivia (thank you to the Quirins who knew most of the answers) and saw LOTS of people we knew. Seriously it was a mini-LHS reunion. Anyway, despite being robbed the point on the color of Dorothy's slippers (we said ruby, they wanted red... I know, right?) we had a great time.

Sunday I did a Pampered Chef thing out at my friend Jamie's new construction properties but it was a bust because it was SNOWING like crazy here in St. Louis. I thought I was crazy for going out in it to be honest. It would have been a good thing I think if not for the weather but oh well. Monday I was off work (I'm liking this short work week business) and went to a zumba class with Aimee, Cyndi and Lui. The class was just eh but it was fun to do it with them. We're trying random classes at Club Fitness to see what the good ones are. Should be interesting. Maybe I can shake my annoyingly consistent weight for the last 6 weeks.

I totally forgot to take a picture of the snow. Oh well.

3 more days of work then 2 weeks vacation!

Devin turns 7

2010-12-06T10:38:00.000-06:00

My nephew Devin turns 7 today.

7.

Crazy how fast kids grow. Anyway, he had his birthday party with his friends yesterday at Planet Fun in St. Peters. If you've never been there, it's basically a bunch of tunnels and stuff for kids to crawl through and play and get out their energy. Good thing for us since we had 8 first grade boys with us! They had pizza and cake and ran around like crazy people. It was a blast!

Devin and I

With his cake before we started singing

His cake - yum!

Since today is his actual birthday, the family is going to Chevy's to celebrate tonight for dinner. His pick - last year it was Red Lobster... kid's going down in taste... lol. Should be fun though!

The rest of my weekend was pretty tame - I went to the mall and had dinner with my Mom on Friday, spent the day in my pajamas watching Christmas movies and doing some house stuff on Sat. And I'm off again today! I like this 4 day weekend thing... :)

Gus turns 1 and Burlesque!

2010-11-28T11:44:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I went to hang out with my dad for awhile then headed over to Abi's to celebrate her son Augustine's first birthday. We had yummy chili for dinner and got to hang out!

Paige Abi and I enjoying the party

Gus wasn't in the best mood at this point, but he did enjoy some birthday cake.

After Gus's party, I headed over to Aimee's to meet up with her, Cyndi, Kristin, Lindsey and Vanessa before we went to see Burlesque! at the theater. It was both completely terrible and awesome at the same time. We had a good time watching it and mocking some of the things that were a little far fetched. But it was fun!

Today I am doing stuff around the house and tomorrow I have jury duty. Should be interesting.

Black Friday 2010

2010-11-27T12:30:00.000-06:00

I'm not usually a crazy early shopper on Black Friday unless there's something really good that I want or need. I'm just not that dedicated. But I did go out to the stores to cash in on some good deals out there. I went to Target and Wal-mart to get a few things and will probably do some more Cyber Monday shopping online. (Maybe while I'm sitting around for jury duty?) I was pleased that the stores I went to seemed to be prepared and I didn't have to wait in line too long and things seemed to be signed well for me to find them. It was a pretty good experience!

Friday night Kyle and Holly were in town so we went to Growler's for dinner. I actually went early to put our name in and Andy (Aimee's husband) came up and had a beer and appetizers with me while I waited. There was a bit of a fiasco with the host putting a large group who called in in front of us (they don't take reservations or anything like that or we would have called too) but overall we had a good time hanging out. After dinner we went over to Storm's house to meet Kyle and Holly's new addition - a french bulldog puppy named Bella. She's really cute and full of puppy energy. Storm's dog, Brewsky, wasn't quite sure what to do with her but we were impressed by his tolerance of her. We did a little reminiscing about when he (Brewsky) was that small (he's a 2 year old Beagle that Storm got when he was 8 weeks old) and how crazy he was too.

We ended the night looking up random You Tube videos on Storm's TV (he has Apple TV and you can do that - its pretty cool) and laughing our asses off. It was a good time and I was glad to see everyone!

~E

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T12:20:00.000-06:00

My Thanksgiving this year was pretty awesome. After I did the 5k, I went home and got ready to go over to my Aunt Pat's (Dad's sister) and my Aunt Kathy's (Mom's oldest sister) houses. It was awesome seeing all the family and catching up. It even snowed for a minute but didn't stick and was just enough to be pretty without causing road issues or anything. Awesome.

I think it's some kind of blogger rule that you have to post a list of things you're thankful for for Thanksgiving. Who am I to buck tradition?

Things I Am Thankful For This Thanksgiving:

-I have the best friends a girl could ask for. I mean, really - I have a few groups that I hang out with and they're amazing. I've made some new friends this year and have gotten back in touch with old ones and it's been great. I feel like I should list you all individually but people don't have that kind of time. (This is reflected in the fact that I can't bear to cut anyone from my 77 person long Christmas card list lol. :))

-My family is also pretty great. Sure we have our drama like everyone else but at the end of the day everyone loves each other and would have your back in a fight. Unless we're fighting amongst ourselves - then it's every man for himself. (I would like to give a special shout out to Brad here. 3 years ago when I decided that I wanted to get back involved with that side of the family he really made me immediately feel like I belonged and was welcome. Not that everyone else didn't do that but he really just erased the missed years. So special props to him.)
-I am thankful that I have a job still and that I don't dread going to it everyday. While I may be looking for something that pays a bit better, I've got it better than a lot of people. Plus my co-workers are pretty cool. What would I do without Lura to complain to and listen to my nonsense everyday? She's the best cube neighbor.
-My health - I had a medical scare this past month when I noticed a rather large lump on my neck. After lots of tests and doctor's visits it now looks like it's nothing to be worried about. Thanks God!
-I was able to get my shit together and run/walk a 5k without falling over and dying. This may seem small but I am thankful that I got my butt off the couch and started working out again and was able to achieve this goal. Maybe I would have liked to be a little faster, but I finished and that was what mattered.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~E

Kirkwood/Webster Turkey Trot

2010-11-27T11:57:00.000-06:00

On Thanksgiving morning, I got my butt up and went down to the Kirkwood Farmer's market in the cold and misty rain to run a 5k. Luckily the rain stopped so I decided to go ahead and do this thing.

Before it started, we were hanging out and freezing our butts off but excited to get going.

Laura, Kristin, Cyndi, Alisha, Aimee and Me

So we did it. Aimee, Alisha and I did it together. The last mile was mostly uphill so that definitely kinda sucked. We would have run more if it hadn't been for that and therefore finished a little slower than my runs at home have been. But we still rocked and were very proud of ourselves. (Randy, can you please talk to these people about logistics? Cause they didn't even have a Finish banner for me to stand next to take a picture.)

We're done! Yay! Go us!

And that was the day I ran/walked a 5k.

Dinner parties

2010-11-27T11:47:00.000-06:00

Monday my sister came over for dinner with Devin and Devin's dad, Tyrelle. We made this mexican salad kind of thing that is really really good. Kristen and I had a good time talking and chatting about stuff. I also gave her her birthday present (it was the Friday before) of wine and a stopper and a re-usable wine bag. She loved it!

Tuesday I met Mel and her daughter Olivia at O'Charley's for dinner and catching up. :) It was good to see her and I loved hearing what's going on in her life. I fell so blessed to have such good friends in my life and there are just some I don't get to see enough and Mel is one of them. Damn our busyness!

It was also announced to us this week at work that we have a new Director of Development. As soon as he starts I'll update you as to how that's going. It might be a rough transition due to some hard feelings but hopefully there will be minimal blood shed. I of course have Jury Duty on his first day (Monday) so I won't be there to watch it in person, but I'm sure Lura will update me.

Shopping, turkey and Harry Potter

2010-11-27T11:34:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday after I got home from the slumber party Mom and I went shopping for my Christmas presents. The last few years I have wanted clothes for Christmas so one day we head to the mall and go crazy. I picked out some really really cute stuff this year and I am quite excited to wear them. Mom will actually wrap everything though for me to open on Christmas morning so I'll have to wait a whole month. But it's cool. I am also quite excited to tell you that I have dropped a pant size. YES!!

After shopping with Mom I went over to Krystal's to have an early Thanksgiving dinner with her and her family and some of their family friends. The food was delicious and it was fun to see her since she didn't come in for actual Thanksgiving. She also invited this guy Mark who we went to high school with (she was better friends with him than I was) who I haven't seen since I don't think so it was fun to catch up.

After dinner I headed to the movie theater to meet up with Mom and Brian (his shopping excursion for Christmas was after mine and then they went to dinner as a mom-son thing) to go see Harry Potter 7 Part 1. I enjoyed the movie and am excited to see the next one. Mom didn't quite remember some of the stuff so I had to explain some of it as we went but it was good. After seeing the movie I decided I needed to re-read the last book to refresh my memory a little. I knew there was some stuff that they left out but the plot of the story was going the same way so no big deal. But I wanted to read it again so I remembered. The second half is action packed so it should be a really cool movie.

The next day (Sunday) we (Mom, Brian, Me, Grandma, Devin, Kristen and Devin's dad) went to the church's Thanksgiving Banquet. Our old pastor (who baptized me and was there during some very hard times for me) was there and I was thrilled to see him and his wife. Great weekend!

~E

Slumber parties aren't just for kids you know

2010-11-27T11:21:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, Nellie hosted a girls night complete with sleepover. We went over to her house first for dinner then headed out to see Vanessa's brother's band play. We decided we were cool so half the car was wearing sunglasses despite the fact that it was dark out.

In the car heading to the bar. Nellie started the sunglasses trend but is not in this picture

Vanessa and I at the bar. There is a whole series of these shots but I'll just post the one for you.

Cyndi and Aimee got in on the self portraits too.

All our fun picture taking and having fun scored us a free pitcher of beer from a nearby admirer. Nice.

Cyndi, Aimee, Vanessa and me

Nellie and me

All of us at the end of the night. Love it!

After the bar we went back to Nellie's house where girl's night kind of came to an abrupt halt because her husband ended up coming home instead of staying elsewhere as previously planned. But instead of going to bed he decided to come sit and hang out with us - so that was the end of girl's night. We had fun though!!

Crap I'm behind

2010-11-26T00:24:00.000-06:00

Stuff I need to tell you about:

-Slumber party adventures
-Early thanksgiving dinner with Krystal
-Shopping with Mom
-New boss
-Dinners with Mel and my sister
-Thanksgiving and the obligatory list of things I'm thankful for
-The 5k I ran this morning (well, I finished anyway)
-the other awesome things that I'm going to do this weekend because it's jam packed
-Anything else I decide might be important between now and then

Geez this list is long.

~E

Life is good

2010-11-14T11:14:00.000-06:00

Life has been good this weekend.

Friday at lunch we ordered Imo's and that seemed to set the tone for the day. That night I went to see Mike in Annie Get Your Gun. He did an awesome job as did the whole cast. I hadn't seen the show before, so it was cool to learn a little bit about Annie Oakley. Mike had a pretty good turnout - in addition to me, Mark, Courtney, Dan, Anna and Storm came Friday night too. We had a good time! After the show I met up with Dan, Mike and Ed Niethe for a couple drinks at Seamus McDaniels (or something close to that.) We had a good time hanging out and Dan, Mike and I ended the evening with a trip to Uncle Bill's for yummy breakfast food. Pretty damn good day.

Saturday morning I got to go hang out with Sarah (Cohen) Born. I have missed her sooooo much!!! We went to Starbucks and just talked for hours. I'm so lucky to have a friend that even after many years of not seeing each other I can still sit with her and tell her anything and everything. She's amazing. And her girls are just gorgeous too! I hope it's not so long between visits again and that I'll see her again soon. Did I mention life is good?

After I got back home from hanging out with Sarah I relaxed a bit then did some cleaning. I also got my 2011 calendar ready for the new year with birthdays, etc. I went to bed earlyish because I was really tired and slept late this morning so I guess I was. And it was one of those sleep-like-the-dead nights where you wake up and the covers haven't moved and your hair still looks decent because you were so still. Tonight I'm meeting up with Linda to closer her PC show then who knows. This week is my last full 5-day week of work for the year, and while I'm way excited about that it's going to be sooo busy. Oh well.

~E

Thank You for Serving

2010-11-11T18:17:00.000-06:00

I'm a pretty patriotic girl. I love my country and think very highly of those who serve it or have served it in the past. Thank you to all the vets out there who have served or are currently serving our country!!

~E

Confessions of a Couch Potato Who Plans to Run a 5k

2010-11-10T20:41:00.000-06:00

Oh running. I have such a love-hate relationship with you.

My Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5k is coming up (on Thanksgiving obv.) The first two miles go pretty well. I could probably even get them a minute faster (each) in the next two weeks if I wanted to. Then there's mile 3. Mile 3 is significantly slower and generally a giant mess. Part of the problem I'm sure is that I have minimal interest in fixing this problem. But I'm running this damn turkey trot and I should probably consider addressing it. *sigh* At least I got to run outside today since the weather was so nice. So that's a plus, right?

I ran in one of my ROTC learning community shirts from Mizzou today since it's the Marine Corps's 235th birthday today. I'm kind of surprised I have made it this long without owning at least one Navy/Army/Marines shirt. I mean, really, how many guys have I dated that were in the service? (Don't answer that.) I might have to work on that. Anyway, tomorrow is veteran's day so thank you to all the men and women who serve our great country!!

3 day weekends are great

2010-11-08T22:13:00.000-06:00

This weekend I was able to head down to Springfield to visit some friends. I was really excited to spend some time with Paige and to see my friend Carrie again. I drove down Friday after work and got in kinda late, so we talked for a bit then went to bed. Saturday morning Paige made french toast for breakfast (yum!) and we decided to head to Carthage, MO to check out the Precious Moments Chapel. Neither one of us had ever been so we were excited to check it out. When we got there we were not disappointed! The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed looking at all the figurines and paintings and hearing some of the Precious Moments history.

Paige and I in front of the cute fountain outside the entrance

The beautiful mural inside the chapel of what Sam Butcher pictures the entrance to Heaven will be like.

Angels getting their halos (another cute mural)

There were lots of paintings in the chapel and several depicted this cottage that was built for Sam Butcher's grandchildren in the middle of the river. So we took a picture with it.

Car pic! Isn't she adorable? :)

That evening we headed down to Branson to have dinner with my friend Carrie and her daughter Analise and to go look at the Christmas lights (which have been up in Branson since like mid-October.) It was so good to catch up with Carrie and hang out - and you know I love me some Christmas lights! It's funny how you appreciate them more when you don't live there. But sometimes if I was in a bad mood I would drive around and look at the lights to cheer myself up when I lived down there. Ah, memories. lol.

Sunday Paige, Bryan (Paige's boyfriend) and I went to breakfast at Gailey's. Mmmm sooo gooooood.

After breakfast Paige and I went for a quick walk while we waited for the furniture stores to open. Then we went to look at new sofas for Paige. Fun times on furniture row in Springfield! Then it was time to head home. What a great trip!

Sunday night I watched Toy Story 3 (Mom bought it) and my regular Sunday night tv. Monday I was off so I slept in and got to hang out with Abi since she was in town for a conference. And I got to see Gus (her almost 1-yr old - how did he get so big?) since he came in to visit Oma and PaPa while Mommy was at the conference.

It was so good to see her! It was a great weekend - too bad I have to go back to work tomorrow!

~E

Happy Halloween a little late

2010-11-04T16:37:00.000-05:00

Me at work on Friday

Fright(less) Fest and chili

2010-10-25T12:21:00.000-05:00

Sunday I slept in and then headed over to Nellie's to hang out and eat some chili. The food was yummy and the company even better. Vanessa is now home (she wasn't supposed to be until after Nov. 2 - long story) so we got to hear about her work stuff (ie why she was home) and had a good time playing with Nellie's 2 little girls ages 4 and 2.

After leaving there, I headed to Six Flags for Fright Fest with Cyndi, Aimee and Andy. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Fright portion of the evening. Stuff was decorated, but there wasn't creepy music playing and hardly anyone was walking around in masks/costumes. It was remarkably not scary. But I love roller coasters so all was not lost as that's what we did all evening. We were going to go on the haunted train ride too, but the line was really long and it was lightening like it was going to pour rain. When it starts to lightening, they shut down most of the rides so we decided that we would just head home and avoid getting soaked. It turned out to be a good choice because a few minutes after we left it started raining pretty hard. Maybe next year we'll get to ride the train.

Today I am off work (yay 4 day weekend!) and am going to be doing some laundry and cleaning the bathroom. I'd be more upset about it if I hadn't been off for the last 3 days having fun. I could get used to this not working Mondays thing...

~Erin

Homecoming is best at it's birthplace

2010-10-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

Saturday was Homecoming at Mizzou. In case you're not up on your history, Mizzou is the birthplace of homecoming. Seriously - wikipedia it. So we do it big every year but this year there was some extra stuff. Like ESPN's College Game Day came to Columbia to cover the game and do their show from the Quad. Where the Tiger fans broke the record for having the most people there - over 18,000. Then the game in prime time on ABC against the (previously!) #1 ranked Oklahoma. Who the Tigers haven't beaten since 1998. Over 71,000 people packed the stadium to see how it would all play out. (In case you were wondering, that's a damn lot of people at Faurot Field.)

I thought I was going to have to watch this one from home since I didn't get tickets in time. But then Sam texted me Saturday morning saying they had an extra ticket and did I want to come down? YES!!! So I packed up and headed to Columbia. I met up with Tyler for a late lunch at Bandana's upon my arrival then headed towards the stadium. Sam, Taylor and Mike did the alumni band thing with Marching Mizzou (alumni can march on the field during pre-game on homecoming. It's a really cool tradition - the Golden Girls and cheerleaders have started doing it too.) so I went over to watch them for a little bit and hang out. Then it was game time. We were lucky weather-wise - it was pretty nice. It did rain for a little bit, but not too bad. And no one left since it was such a good game!

Sam, Taylor, Mike and I at the game

We had a blast cheering for the Tigers. Then things started to get crazy when the fans realized that we were going to win this game. Everyone was on their feet and cheering like mad. It was awesome. Then we won and the students rushed the field.

Me with the celebration in the background

Here's some video of Sam and Taylor marching in the parade.

What a great Homecoming!

~Erin

Lately

2010-10-18T21:03:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was pretty awesome. Friday night I went to zumba with Nellie, Aimee, Cyndi and Laura. Zumba was much better this time than the last time I went - the instructor actually stopped to explain things (maybe because it was a larger class?) and was much clearer on what the moves were. I was tired at the end! Afterwards there was drinking in the parking lot and chit-chat. Loved it. (PS - if you want to be our friend, you cannot be judgy about drinking in parking lots. It has been decided.)

Saturday morning I hung out with one of my favorite little cuties and went to the grocery store. After a nap I met up with Krystal and Liz for a bit then went to dinner with Krystal to catch up. Then because I'm an old lady I was home and in my jammies by 9:30 p.m. Sunday I slept in and then headed to Logan's 4th birthday party. It was Thomas the Tank Engine themed because Logan LOVES Thomas. The kid has train stuff galore. My cousin Danny jokes that he'll be the 43 year old man that has the trains in the basement that he piddles with. :)

He was not in the best mood for this picture, but once we started opening presents he perked up. I got him the conductor hat and some books - cute, right?

Today I did a combination of running/walking for a total of 3.1 miles (well, at least it was close since I was going around the neighborhood and the measurements aren't exact.) It took me about 43 minutes. Since I walked a decent portion of it I'm pretty pleased with that. Good deal.

Catch up

2010-10-17T23:21:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about just pretending the last 2 weeks didn't happen and picking up my blogging with what's new lately, but some cool stuff happened and I didn't want to skip it. In addition to attending Bricelynn's 3rd birthday party, I also went to the Blues game on Columbus day (I took off) with Cyndi, Aimee and Andy. It was a fantastic day of drinking in parking lots, fights and a little bit of hockey. :) We had a blast! I also went to zumba with Nellie for the first time and got to meet her girls. It was a lot of fun! I went to Oktoberfest with my mom (which was just ok) and was sick for a bit. Like actually had a fever one day and a sore throat that lasted almost a week but is now thankfully gone. Yay! There was probably some other stuff in there too, but that's about all you missed.

I will do a separate post about this weekend because it was pretty great.

~E

Happy 3rd birthday Bricelynn!

2010-10-17T23:15:00.000-05:00

This is my Aunt Pat's great granddaughter Bricelynn. Whatever that makes her to me. I go with niece because it's easier and I am not particular. She is a sweetie.

She's saying "Presents!" in this picture because she had a TON of them. She's spoiled but we love her.

why

2010-09-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

I do not understand why people like to run on the sidewalks with the hills when there are perfectly good school tracks and treadmills.

Francis Howell North, you are dead to me right now. You have had football games on both Monday and Wednesday night this week and since Friday is a typical football night I'm not holding out much hope. You force me to choose between the damn hills and a gym membership. (I'm hoping to put of paying for the gym membership for another month - we'll see how fast it gets cold.) How do you expect me to know exactly how far I ran when I'm just wandering around the subdivision for 30 minutes? (PS - I can run for 30 minutes. Crazy.) Sure I can drive my car around to figure it out, but how annoying is that?

I had planned to move my training to the subdivision eventually with the hills or to at least run on an incline at a gym if it got cold really fast. But I was hoping to be able to run a little faster on the nice flat track before I did that. Apparently FHN has other plans for my training. Sigh.

~E

Weekends rock

2010-09-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

I had to work late this past Thursday evening for our John L Trotter Research Program (till like 9:30) but was rewarded by getting sleep late on Friday since I was off! I pretty much spent my day off laying around. It was fantastic. Friday night was game night at (Jen) Lui's house complete with bbq so I made Sam's cheesy potatoes and headed to Ballwin. It was fun meeting some new folks and hanging out with the ones I already knew. Great party Lui - I'm glad you're hanging out more with us!

Saturday morning I did more of the sitting on my butt and sleeping in thing. Amazing. That evening we planned a surprise dinner and girl's night for Vanessa since her boyfriend just left for Europe for a year over at Lori's. We had good food, lots of wine and great conversation. It was a blast!

Sunday I decided it was time to deal with the disaster that was my bedroom. Translation: a whole day of laundry. Blah. I did some other minor cleaning too, but laundry and getting everything put away was a major task. I am pleased to let you know that there are currently NO BASKETS OF CLOTHES in my room right now - clean or dirty. It's a housekeeping miracle at my house. I even took pictures I was so excited. We'll see how long it stays this way. I give it about a week or 2 before the novelty wears off and I have to do another load of laundry that may or may not get put away. We'll see!

~E

Run update

2010-09-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

Maybe you've noticed that I haven't updated in awhile about how my running is going. No? Ok well I haven't because I ended up taking 2 weeks off with Labor Day weekend then Bike and a busy week after.

Anyway, previously things had been going quite well - I could consistently run for 25 minutes and was working on getting faster and that seemed to be working out. Then the break. It was rough coming back. It took me a few workouts to work back up to my previous endurance levels, etc. I can now run/jog again for 28 minutes (the workouts for week 8) and can run 2 full miles. The good news is that I'm back to my previous consistent mile times - the bad news is that I'm still pretty slow. I'd be more upset about it except that prior to starting this program I could barely run at all (remember week 1 when I was dying after running for a minute?) so I feel like I've come a long way. And since I don't plan to stop running after next week (the end of the C25K program) I figure I'll get faster eventually. I'm not breathing really hard at the end of my runs so I know I can go faster, I just have to push a little harder and have the confidence that I won't die if I do. There's definitely still a mental factor. I'll figure it out I'm sure!

~E