December Showers bring...

January....???? Can some one complete this rhyme? No? Of course not! It makes no sense! 65 degrees and pouring rain w/ thunder...on December 31,2010. Just wanted to make sure I blogged it so that when I read my blogs next year I will remember this crazy day in December.

Coming soon.....I promise...

A new blog is on it's way, I promise. And it will be filled with holiday pics and fun stuff...:) .
LOVE YOU!

Thankful

So, again, haven't been keeping up with the blog....hope you all haven't forgotten about it. LOL! Lot's of things going on between, work, family, friends, and church. All of it's wonderful! Well, minus the whole work thing.....LESS THAN ONE MONTH UNTIL ALLEN CAN START BIDDING OUT OF HIS ROOM! :) Yay! So in just a few months he might be sleeping like a normal person again!

I just can't believe that it's Christmas time again. Honestly I feel like Christmas was just a few months ago! A whole year has passed by in the blink of an eye! And I'm going to be 26! AHHH! I'm so excited to give everyone their gifts. I love getting presents, but I love to give them too! We picked out some good ones this year too! :)

I just want to take a moment to mention how incredibly grateful I am this year. I know we just had Thanksgiving, which is the time to reflect on what we are thankful for, but Christmas seems to be the holiday that almost puts me on my knees in gratefullness. We are soooo blessed. Our family, our friends, our jobs, our church, our health. We are focusing each day on trying to take none of it for granted.

Love you all!

Another one of those days

I couldn't be happier today is finally Friday. I had a short week because I was sick with a sinus infection, but it still seemed like a month long week, or maybe just today was a week long day. It was one of those days when I repeatedly had to tell myself throughout the day how lucky I am to have a job. Normally I quite enjoy my job, but today I had one of those days when I was expected to be super woman, and I worked so hard at it today that there were actually a few brief shining moments when I felt like I might really be superwoman, but then the momentum would die down and I found myself gasping for breathe. I don't have any superpowers. I'm just a girl in a cubicle, with a computer and a headset, doing the best I can everyday, but working especially harder on Fridays, the days when everything must be done "RIGHT NOW". So, if you are reading this...the next time you call customer service for anything, regardless of what it is, be kind, and remember that the person on the other wasn't born on Krypton.

Here comes the cold...

Brrrr! I was pleasantly surprised at how warm last night was despite the rain, should have known I would wake up to strong winds bringing in the cold air! It is November after all! I'm so glad that last week I bought a winter coat. This time I bought an all black one. The last coat I had, I picked one with a lot of white on it; and I couldn't keep it looking clean. So, all black for me! :) I also bought a super cute 20's style hat to keep my head warm. I'm not going to lie...I'm kind of excited to get bundled up! (I know that's wierd...but it's like having new clothes. I never can wait to wear new clothes.)

I made chili last night for to have for dinner today. It's a great recipe I got from allrecipes.com and it's made with ground turkey instead of hamburger meat. I made the chili last year but I had used hamburger meat. This time I followed the instructions and used the turkey. I'm sorry but ground turkey is sooooo gross looking before it is cooked, and quite honestly it's a pain in the rearend to cook. After all, it's poultry...so you definately have to make sure there is no pink, so it took me forever to brown the meat, but once everything was put together I don't think you can tell the difference between using the hamburger vs the turkey, except that of course the chili is not even the slightest bit greasy, which is a good thing of course!

Just wanted to put a quick shout out to my lil sis, Charlotte...I'm proud of you for finding a great paying job! You will be a great customer service representative! Go get em! LOVE YOU! :)

Tried to get Caleb to lean in...

But he was cooler in the background...lol

Penny is sooo high fashion!

She's winner of America's Next Top Model Doxies.

Mondays....Penny hates em too!

Halloween Weekend was fun!

We had a great time this weekend! So wonderful to hang out with great friends and great family! And we couldn't have asked for better weather! The only disappointing thing of the weekend, we went and bought five bags of candy in anticipation of our first year passing out candy to trick-or-treaters, we turned the porch light on at five and opened the front door. I was so excited for all of the little cutie patooties to knock our door for some candy...and we waited...and waited...and waited, and then FINALLY our first costumed kiddie of the night...none other than my beautiful niece Kristen and her mommy! YAY! I was so excited they stopped by. Kristen was so cute in her clown costume! She's crawling now, which is super cute too! Well, they left and then we waited...and waited...and waited. We had at total of FIVE. That's right I can count em on one hand! How disappointing! Oh well, we will know for next year.

Decide to enjoy....

Another work week in the books and now I'm ready for the weekend. After Allen went to work, spent the evening cleaning house and watching silly chick flicks. I'm excited b/c my brothers and sisters in laws are coming to visit us this weekend. We have all been invited to our friends' annual Halloween party. Pictures to come...

I wanted to share this with everyone. One of the trainers at work sent this out in an email and I think it is a great little paragraph. Motivating...

"Decide to enjoy
Even the most difficult work feels easy when you let if flow from your heart. You can take on the most complicated and challenging tasks with the effortless ease when you let go of your resistance to them. Do you feel resentment about what you must do? If so, you're only making it more difficult and unpleasant. Can you choose instead to feel sincere gratitude for the opportunity to get it done? Of you course you can, and by so doing you dramatically improve your performance. If the effort feels disagreeable , that's only because you want it to feel disagreeable. And why exactly would you want that? Resentment and resistance will only bring you down, and cause you to work longer at doing what you don't want to do. yet it is always within your power to make a positive change. Decide to enjoy what you're doing, and just like magic you'll suddenly be doing what you enjoy. Not only that, you'll be doing a much better job of it.--Ralph Marston : source: http://greatday.com/motivate/101029.html.


Hope everyone had a great week and that everyone has an even better weekend. LOVE YOU ALL!

Suggestions?

Tonight we went grocery shopping and happened to leave our back "patio" light on. When we came back six jr high/high school aged boys are playing football in our backyard. Not our side yard, but OUR back yard. I didn't know what to do. I just stepped back there and stared at them for a minute. Allen was carrying groceries. We went inside and turned the light off. Of course they had to move because they couldn't see back there any more, but what do you think? Do you think that turning the light off was a neighborly way to say get the heck out of our yard? Was it enough? Should we have said something? What should we do the next time? Suggestions can be left in the chat box. Any and all will be appreciated.

P.S. I am certain some of the boys left with dog poop on their shoes, as they were playing in OUR backyard that Penny poops in....

Some Sunday stuff...

Short week, YAY!

This weekend was so wonderful. The weather was absolutely perfect and we loved spending time with everytone. Tomorrow is my Thursday, since Thursday is my Friday this week. I have taken a mini-vacation in honor of our two year anniversary. We don't have any major plans yet. Who knows, maybe we will laze around in our pajamas for three days...we will see.

Oh Friday...

...only one night of sleep away! I'm really excited for this weekend. Matt and Nicole are going to come into town. (I did get the junk moved off the floor in the guest bedroom finally. YAY!) The weather forecast so far looks amazing. Gorgeous for the day and just cool enough for the fire to be a comfort, but not cold enough to make anyone miserable. GOOD! :)

No dapples....

I forgot to give the update about our future puppy. She was born this weekend. Well, at least we think she's the one we want. The lady we are getting her from has another mini-dachshund who is supposed to deliver this weekend and she said the one delivering this weekend will probably have a few more puppies since she is a bigger mini. We would like to find one to come close to Penny's size....which is actually going to be very hard because Penny is one of the smallest mini-doxi's we've ever seen. So, we think we are going to take the black and tan little girl that was born to a smaller mini this past weekend. She said there weren't any silver dapples.

Reminder to self...

Although the scenery on the way to and from work is breathtaking, I must remind myself that I'm driving, to focus on the road. I passed a tree so beautiful today that I wanted to stop my car right in the middle of the highway to take a picture. I just LOVE this time of year. I hope everyone is having a good week, tomorrow is midweek already! The phones are VERY busy this week, and I don't see any relief in sight...good...that's what we want, JOB SECURITY! :)

Can this week hurry up?

I can't wait for the weekend! I hope the weather is nice because I am looking forward to some bonfire hotdogs and my dad's chili! MMmmmm! :)

Blogging from bed

This weekend we made the switch to Sprint. I can now blog from bed with my hubby right next to me. How sweet the switch is LOL. Goodnight all!

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Ahh the joys of city life...

Listening to other people's children screaming at the top of their lungs, while they are throwing sticks into your yard. I cannot decide which is best, the screaming, or the insessant sound of one small child on a scooter, back and forth, back and forth.....

LOL!

But the day is gorgeous. So absolutely unbelievably beautiful, I'm so thankful to be living, and not just existing.

Date night tonight! YAY!

Allen and I are having a date night tonight. Just us. Something we haven't done in a while. I scored a coupon for buy one get one free meal at Ruby Tuesdays out of a magazine, which is a really good deal! He's sleeping now of course, but when he gets up I think we are going to go look for new cell phones! YAY! :)

YAY! A BLOG POST!

Well, I made it through another crazy week at work. Things are speeding up big time, we have alot of new groups and groups renewing which mean many people with many questions. Oh well, without the questions, my job wouldn't exist, so BRING IT ON! :)

Everyone always asks me how do I feel about having to drive 30 minutes to get to work and then 30 more minutes back home. I really don't mind it much at all. I really thought I would hate it because for almost two years I didn't have to drive farther than 10 minutes to get to work. The truth is I actually kind of enjoy the ride. In the morning it gives me time to prepare myself for the day, and in the evening it gives me the time to wind down from the work day. It also helps that the drive is a beautiful drive either way, whether I go the bottom road or the interstate. ( I usually take the interstate, it's faster. ) This week has been especially breath taking on the way to work. I leave just early enough for the sun to just start peaking over the trees, and the blankets of fog still hang in the fields. The wonderful colors of autumn set everything off in a perfect way, and it's truly breath taking. I had several days this week when I was almost moved to tears at the beauty of it. (Cheesy, I know, but true.)

I HATE THE ALLERGIES that come with fall, for me they are my worst allergies, but I think it's my favorite season. I'm so glad Allen and I were married in the fall.

Speaking of being married, getting ready to pass the 2 year mark! We are still just getting started with the rest of our lives. And I honestly think that I am even more in love with my wonderful husband than I was the day I married him, if that is even possible ! I don't know that it is necessarily, MORE in love with him, but I think my love is DEEPER.

SIGH...of complete contentment...:)

Blog picture of the day is what the Peter's Heating guy took out of our dryer and had to replace this morning at 7:45 a.m. YIKES!

Update

I thought I would post a quick blog while the cake for bible study tomorrow is in the oven. I'm baking the sunshine cake my grandma d made for us a while ago that everyone loved. It's an easy recipe, so I hope my turns out as good as hers.

We have just been busy with work, Allen has been getting a little overtime here and there, and I'm still surviving the crazy world of health insurance customer service.

About a month ago Allen buzzed his hair off, well, I decided to cut my too! Actually, I didn't do it myself, I went to the salon of course and Allen and I both like the cut. It's a LOT shorter than what I wanted, but had to go this short, b/c that girl who cut it the time before this cut REALLY screwed my layers up and to fix it , my hair dresser had to go shorter than I had asked, but she did a GREAT job! Not only that, she cut me an AWESOME deal on some shampoo and conditioner that is really helping my thin hair look fuller. LOVE IT! :)

We had Matt and Nicole over this weekend, they stayed the night after a wedding. It was great to see them, even though we didn't spend too much time together it was still nice. Caleb also stayed the night. That little bugger is growing up so fast. HE IS SOOOOO TALL!

This weekend my uncle Ernie is marrying his girlfriend of over nine years! YAY! :) I'm singing for their first dance at the reception, and Josh is playing the guitar for their ceremony. Wish us luck!

OOOOOOO and great news! We're expecting! NOOOOO we're not expecting a baby, not of the people kind anyways, lol. We are waiting for a mini-doxie in Coatsburg, IL to give birth the second week of October. She said we can have first pick of the litter! We will either pick a black and tan or we might pick a silver dapple if there is one to choose. At first we were set against the dapples, but the more pics we see of the silver dapples, the cuter we think they are.

Up top is a pic of the dapple sire they have at their home. Hopefully we can get one that looks just like him!

Alive and loving life

We are alive, just not active online right now. Busy busy with work, the one's where we get a paycheck, and the work, work, work, at home continuing to make our new house a home. It's such a nice house I find myself doing much more housework than I have previously done in the past. Still moving things around trying to find the right place for everything. In between work at work and work at home, we've been spending time with eachother. I feel we have sort of been neglecting spending time with family (and our friends too...) lately but it's not intentional. We love you all very very much and cherish every moment we do get to spend with you and you are all always in our thoughts. We just have found very little alone time lately, so we have been taking advantage of what we can find. Things are bound to slow down sooner or later? Right.....:)

Oh three day weekend....

You are only two days away....yet...it seems like an eternity! UGH! Is anyone else having an EXTREMELY long week?

Oh hello again work week...

This weekend went by too quickly as always. Allen had to work Friday night. Saturday we had Grandma, Pop Pop, and Caleb over for dinner. It was my first attempt at stuffed zucchini. Everyone said it was good, and everyone ate it, but I just thought it was so so. It's a recipe I might play with to make better. It was nice to have my Grandparents over and even nicer to know they have a less than ten minute drive.

Sunday we went to church. We decided to hold off on Sunday school. We both were still pretty tired. Feels like we are more worn out lately because the allergies are so severe. Even with taking Claritin our allergies are dragging us down. Our future kids are doomed to have to live in bubbles... We also decided to hold off on joining the choir, so we did not attend the choir get together. After much discussion, it's something that we should wait to do until we make the decision to move our membership to this church. In two weeks we have the "Next Step" dinner where we get to learn a little bit more about the church and it might be a better idea to wait to make a committment to a choir until we make the decision to be members. We are going to continue to attend MPCC, but we are going to also look at attending the church here in Hannibal that my uncle Steve goes to and maybe a few others.

If I'm not blogging every night, just know that I'm catching up on some z's.

Love you all soooo much.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA R.!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YA! :)

It's getting darker, earlier....

Allen is VERY grateful for the cool down. I don't really have much of anything to report today...just that we miss everyone and love you all! :)

Gonna try this again...

Well, we've been minimizing our time on the computer since it started acting up and it hasn't seemed to have any major problems again. So, I'm going to resume normal computer use. We'll see. Still not sure what was going on. We did do the defragmenting thing so, hopefully it is fixed. I think it has something to do with the US Cable Modem because we didn't have any problems when we were in Quincy.

Well, this weekend was fast a furious. Friday night, Allen had to work of course. Saturday , I made a trip to the Hannibal Farmers Market. It's not as big as the Quincy one, not nearly as many choices, but the prices are better. I was able to get three summer squash and one cucumber for $1! O, and four green peppers for a $1 too! :)

Later we had "movie night" at our house. Grandma Hazel is leaving for Arizona the first week of October so we don't have very much time left to get to see her. So, we planned a movie night. Which kind of turned into crazy night at Amber and Allen's, LOL! We had Caleb, Josh, Charlotte, Andy, baby Kristen, Allen, Grandma, and myself all together! The movie we watched ended up being a very violent and serious movie. I thought it was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't so I was disappointed. Wasn't much a family movie night movie, to say the least. Then somehow we all managed to make it to church, almost on time on Sunday. HUGE thank you to Grandma Hazel for helping out with the automobile situation. I joked that I need a van. LOL! I shouldn't joke about that...soon enough it will be true! (Eventually...) It was really cool for everyone to be at church together.

Allen and I have decided to get a new puppy, so we are now watching the paper. We are looking for a smooth black and tan mini-doxie. YAY! :)

UGH!

So, I'm only blogging very quickly, was finally able to get on the computer after having to turn it on and off FOUR times. One time I had to actually disconnect the power to the computer b/c it wouldn't let me turn it off and was beeping at me! Obviously there is something wrong. Allen is gonna take a look at it in the morning so I'm not sure when the next blog will be, especially if we have to take it in to have it looked at. :(

Love you all!

Oh weekends...why do you go sooo quickly?

Well, it was a short weekend. Allen had to work overtime Sunday night, and of course had to work Friday night, so much of the weekend was spent by Allen sleeping. I can't say I blame him at all. Not only is he working the worst shift ever if was rediculously hot last week, which takes even more out of Allen than a normally hot week. He did survive it though, and this week is already much much cooler.

The suprise Ms. Bezler had for me was a CD with two videos of me singing at church when I was 12 or 13. The videos are wonderful, but what is even more wonderful is the fact that she took the time to make the video for me and seek me out 13 years later to make sure I had a copy of it. She's a wondefully unique lady and I'm very blessed to have been taught by her. She definately made an impact on me. I'm glad to have remade the connection to her, now as an adult and I hope to get to spend some time with her again soon. She loved Allen's voice sooo much, it was so funny. The first thing she said to him after he said "Hello" was "Oooo you must sing!" And she kept asking him to sing through out dinner. It made me laugh so hard! :) What a great night!

Sunday at church was a summer celebration of what the youth and children of the church have been up to this summer. It was neat to get to see the impact this church is making on the kids and is a comfort to know they have ALOT of kids and an active ministry for them. Loving this church even more every Sunday we go. On Sunday September 12, they are having a "Next Step" lunch , for newcomers to the church to get to know more about it. I'm excited. Also, they are having a mixer on August 29th for people that are interested in joing the worship ministry a.k.a. choir. I am VERY excited about this. Allen is going to join too. It should be fun!

Love you all!

Ooooh!

So, tomorrow I find out what this big suprise my elementary music school teacher has for me 13 years later....what on earth could it be?

Connected again!

Well, we are finally back online, and back to a sense of semi-normalness. The move went as smooth as moving could be expected, fast and furious as always, and was relatively painless except on the painful side for out pocket book. This move has been one of our more expensive moves, but the good news is, WE GOT OUR FULL DEPOSIT BACK from the place in Quincy. All of that deep cleaning we did paid off! We were starting to get nervous that we weren't going to get it back. But we did and now we can breathe a sigh of relief. Unexpectedly, we have had to go with cable TV. Apparently the hills in Hannibal prevent the digital signal from making it into the homes, without a major outdoor antenna. We're doing the cable internet/tv package from US cable. Can you believe that Allen and I went three whole weeks with no tv and no internet? We could hardly believe it ourselves! We did a lot of reading and it definately did help us with less distraction from unpacking. Spending that long away from TV and the internet did help me realize how much time I've spent wasted online in the past few months. I'm going to try to be a little bit more aware of what I'm doing online and how long I spend.

We had a great weekend in Sturgeon visiting the Cooley family. We can't wait for everyone to come up and visit us here in Hannibal!

Now that we are back online, I will be able to blog again, and hopefully on a much more regular basis than before.

Love you all!

Big News

Well, I definately have been lacking in the whole "keeping up with the blog" thing, but at least this time I have a REALLY good excuse. We are moving to Hannibal! :) We have finally found a place that we want to actually go through the whole hassel of moving again for! Yes, we know we have moved a hundred times in the past few years, but we haven't made a move for the better like this. Allen's mom always says that each time we move it's an upgrade. LOL! Well, this one is a HUGE improvement. It's not that we haven't been happy in this little house in Quincy, but we've been wanting to move back to Missouri for a while. We will be closer to all of my family and even half an hour closer to the Cooley side of the family! We wouldn't be doing it if the place wasn't as nice as it is, but the second we stepped into the place we both basically knew this was it! We are going to be the first renters the house has had since it has been completely remodeled by our landlords. They are what I think are called house flippers. They buy houses, fix them up super nice and sell them or rent them out. So, they have multiple properties. We feel like we are in good hands with them. The landlords said they originally fixed up the house to sell, but then they decided to go ahead and rent it out, and we can stay as long as we want to. That they have several long term renters. So, since they had fixed it up to sell, it has brand new carpets, new fixtures, fresh paint, and brand new windows. New gutters too! It doesn't have a basement but it does have a decently sized storage shed...big enough for our stuff. There are brand new maple cabinets, brand new gas stove, a microwave, a garbage disposal, and the big kicker, a dishwasher! YAY! :) The bathroom is MUCH bigger than our toddler sized bathroom we have now. There are three bedrooms. So now when we have guests they can sleep in a bedroom instead of on the living room floor! It's at the end of a quiet dead end street and the yard is beautiful. SOOOOO much prettier than our current back yard, and it's flat. Can you believe our luck? We found a house in Hannibal that doesn't have a vertical yard! :) The cool thing about the location is, it's far enough off McMasters and there are enough trees to block the traffic noises, but it's also central to everything shopping wise. Walmart is literally just up the hill from us. (Even though Walmart is the devil...when we are forced to go it will be nice for it not to be all the way on the other end of town like it is here in Quincy.) There is a Krogers just up the hill. County Market and Walgreens are only five minutes away, and the YMCA is about 2 minutes away! We are SUPER D-DUPER excited to be moving there! Of course with the move we will probably be w/o the internet for a little while, so if you need to get ahold of us between now and probably the end of the first week of August, it would be best to just give us a call. This place is going to be a little bit more expensive in rent than our current house, but with everysingle window being brand new and all the windows having screens on them, we figure we can make it up in energy savings over the course of a year. (The house we are in now has very old drafty windows that do not open.)

We can't wait to be moved in and have everyone over for dinner! :) Love you all!

Sweatin it up...YUCK!

Well, Allen went on vacation for a week, so I decided to go on a blogging vacation too! LOL! Naaa, that's not really true. I just have been very busy and with Allen having ALL of last week off and myself having a three day weekend I didn't really want to spend my time on the computer. But, the good news is we both are alive and well, this week has been back to normal for us. Work, work, work, except for glorious wonderful Monday, which we both had off. I will give an overview of the past 2 weeks tomorrow. That's all she wrote for tonight. Our air conditioner is broke and our land lord is coming to fix it tomorrow. (Or at least we hope he can fix it...) and it is hotter than you know where in here. I am sweating up a storm typing this so. That's all for tonight. I'm headed to the bedroom where the fans are at least blowing. More tomorrow. LOVE YOU ALL!

: ) Penny Pics Post YAY!

So, I haven't blogged much this week...here's an update. The house went to see was fantastic, Allen loved it too. But...was not for us...the owners picked another couple to rent to. Probably they didn't have dog...who knows. Oh well.

Josh and Caleb have spent the last three nights over at our house because the air conditioner at my mom and dad's house went kaput. Mom and dad have a little air conditioner for their room so they have been ok, but it was a miserable temperature in the rest of the house for Josh and Caleb. I'm pretty sure Caleb thinks he is in heaven, not having to get up early in the morning to take care of chickens, no chores, and all the video game playing he wants. LOL!

We are going to Sturgeon this weekend! YAY! :) We can't wait!

We have a few green tomatoes growing on our tomato plants. They look very healthy. I can't wait til we have so many tomatoes to eat we have to give em away! :) My container garden drowned, all except for my basil, which some how has miraculously survived. Next time I will do it differently. It's a live and learn process for me! The dang bugs and rabbit ate up the two pepper plants we had next to our tomatoes. Sad, I know.

Well, I would like to say tomorrow was my last day of work, but it's not. Overtime on Saturday, ummm...YAY! :)

Love you all!

Wonderful weekend, not so wonderful start to the week...

So Saturday was a lot of fun! We went to the farmer's market with Mom and Dad, then in the afternoon we went to my parents house to go fishing. We had to wait until the evening to go fishing because of the storm that blew through the area. Right before the storm we managed to get a look at just how many blackberries are about to be ours in just a few weeks. I am NOT exaggerating when I say that there are enough out there for 10 people to pick berries ALL day and still not have picked them all. It's CRAZY, and I'm very excited. I will be making my first ever attempt a canning, blackberry jam....MMMM! :) Saturday was also nice because my Uncle Steve and cousins Zach and Morgan came fishing with us, oh and the grilled T-bone steaks my dad fixed and heavenly peanut butter pie my mom made!

Sunday was of course father's day. It was really neat to surprise Pop Pop! I really think he had no idea we were all going to be there at church. Lunch at the mexican restaurant was great too! (Thanks again Grandma and Pop Pop.) We didn't get to see Phil for fathers day, but he was definately in our thoughts. I'm so grateful to have a father-in-law who has shown me fatherly love since the beginning, even when he wasn't sure about me and whether or not I would be any good for his son! He has played such a huge role in making Allen the man he is today. Allen has learned to be an amazing husband from the example of his father and someday will get the chance to be as good of a dad to our kids as Phil was to Allen.

This morning, Allen got a speeding ticket! Sooooo....the overtime money I will be earning on Saturday morning is already spent. Allen's pretty upset about it, but I just told him it happens. I've had a few speeding tickets before too...we will pay the ticket and he will slow down on Harrison street. Life goes on of course, but not a great way to start the week.

Tomorrow night at 5:30 is our appointment to see the house in Hannibal. We will keep everyone posted! Wish us luck!

Love you all!

Grilled Awesomeness!

This is what we had for dinner last night. It was amazing and if it wasn't kind of a pain in the rear to make, I think we would eat it every day! It's probably going to become a regular weekend meal for us though!

If early morning stuff is for the birds...

What's all this third shift stuff for....the bats? UGH! I miss my hubby!

Tomorrow is pay day Friday, YAY! :)

Thankful for Thursdays...

Because it means tomorrow is Friday!!!!!! Hope everyone has been having a good week!

Monday ... SIGH.... AGAIN....

Well, it was back to work today. As always, it was just as hard as ever. Saturday we had an awesome time at Kate and Seth's house. They are such great hosts! It was so much fun to get to hang out with our friends and get to meet some new people too! We feel so lucky to have found some great people that we can count on here in Quincy.

Sunday was so wonderful to get to celebrate with my whole family the love of my grandparents. We were able to see some family members that really, I only ever see at funerals. When were kids we used to take a lot more trips to Iowa. Allen and I were talking, and we better find out when all of the family reunions are so we can go. Luella , a dear old church friend of the family's is 83 years old and she said something to me that makes a lot of sense. She asked why we always wait so long to get together, it's either an anniversary or a funeral and by then it's too late. She says we need to be with eachother as often as we can. "Don't wait,"she said. How true!

Well, there was an ad in the Hannibal paper last week that I about fell off of my chair when I read it, 3+ bedroom, 2 baths, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, walk-out basement, detached one care garage, $550 per month. Which is actually $10 cheaper than our little place now. Well I called the number and left a message , two messages, and didn't hear anything back. I called a few times this weekend and again this morning with no luck....so I just figured it wasn't meant to be, but today she called me back! She's going to show it to us next Tuesday at 5:30. She has no problems with "a couple of pets", and the place has central heat and air, all electric appliances. We have all of this criteria we have come up with for a new place to rent in Hannibal so we can be Missouri residents again, closer to the family. This house fits ALL of the criteria except one...location...it's in a good part of town, in the fact that it's not a dangerous ghetto part of town, but it is right off of the main road through Hannibal...yikes..so we won't know until we get a chance to look at it. The thing is about renting is, that we will never find a place that is absolutely perfect, b/c that's how it goes when you rent, when we buy we will get that "perfect" place, but for now while we are still saving towards that down payment, there are some concessions we will have to make. So , I have tried to come up with all the good things about the house , and it's location. Meanwhile, my hubby , the negative one, is coming up with all the bad ones. Ying and yang, that's us, then after we look at the place on Tuesday we will be able to come to a decision. We will keep you all updated! PRAY FOR US! :)

50 Years!

Congratulations to my grandparents! Yesterday was their 50th wedding anniversary and today we celebrated with them at a reception in Hannibal. It was wonderful, and they were wonderful, but it's been a long weekend and we are getting ready for bed. More about our weekend tomorrow! Love you all!

Farmer's Market Find

Well today seemed to be slim pickins at the Farmer's Market. Mostly onions, gooseberries, and potatoes, and turnips still. There was a stand today selling what they claim to be "garden fresh" tomatoes, but they were selling them out of commercial type boxes. I'm just not sure about that...besides we have our tomatoes plants growing in the back yard. We will probably just wait for those. I only bought a bunch of red onions. Well, as a far as produce goes. I also bought the most amazing chocolate crossaint I have ever had. In fact the most amazing pastry I've ever had period. I'm enjoying it now as I'm typing this blog with a cup of coffee. There is little local german bakery up town called My Koog that always has a stand at the market, but we have never stopped to buy anything from them, but today since I didn't buy a bunch of veggies I thought, "What the heck." I bought one for me and one for Allen. He's still sleeping so he hasn't experienced this wonderful pastry yet. If you are every in Quincy for breakfast, I highly recommend a chocolate crossaint from My Koog's. www.mykoog.com

Made it through Friday!

Oh yes I did! :) Now Allen just has to make it through his Friday night and let the weekend begin!!!

There has been this one neat medium sized spider outside the door everynight this week, that I have left alone and let be. I think it's a friendly sort of spider, but tonight I noticed there are two of them right above the door...I'm not sure about this...the spiders may have to be relocated. I don't want them inviting all their little eight legged friends for a party on my porch and then later in the house.

Speaking of spiders, I haven't uploaded the pics yet, but the last time we were at Allen's parent house we were in their shed and on a tractor blade was the biggest spider I've even seen outside of captivity. It was nearly the size of Phil's hand!!!! I will have to post the pics later.

STEAMY!

Whew! It's steamy hot tonight! I think it's hotter and much more stickier now than it was at noon today. YUCK! Thank goodness for central air! :) I'm getting ready to take a shower and go to bed, but I've been sooo good about posting something everday this week, lol, I figured I didn't want to ruin my streak. Don't really have anything to say. I'm excited about this weekend. We have a housewarming party for a couple friends of ours on Saturday and then on Sunday we are going to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary! :) Fridays are soooo long when the weekend looks so good!

Just a thought...

If you are not committing insurance fraud, then why spend 15 minutes of someone's time explaining to them that you would never commit fraud, when you have not been accused of anything?

I heard the screams of my herbs...

I heard the screams of my herbs and lettuce in my container garden over the torrential rain earlier this evening. I don't know much about container gardening, but I'm pretty sure the plants are drowned! I went out there after the storm passed and dumped as much water off of the plants as I could, but they were all beaten down. My lettuce was almost big enough to cut a enough for a salad, now it's a sad sight. :( We will see if my little garden can recover. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Oooo and the lightening bugs are out! LOVE THEM!

Awww....isn't he sweet!

I came home from work today to these beautiful flowers that my wonderful hubby bought for me today! They are gerber daisies w/ a few sun flowers. What a nice thing to come home to! :) Of course the picture is junk because it was taken w/ my cell. I cannot WAIT to get a new phone in October!

LOL!

Look who is going to help me do dishes tonight! It's SHREK! LOL! We found this little green guy in the bottom of our cereal box! I don't think I've pulled a toy out of a cereal box since I was a little bitty kid! He really makes me laugh!

One more day of the insanity...

I know it's been a short work week, but whew! am I glad tomorrow is Friday! On Saturday the plan so far is to go "girls only" shopping with my mom, while Caleb and Allen stay home and play the PS3. Depending on the weather, the four of us might go play tennis together after shopping. Then I think in the evening we are planning on a game night at Grandma and Pop Pop's. So, I'm really excited, and tomorrow is going to be a LOOOOONNNG day!

HE SAID WHAT?!?

Today was a strange day...I think everyone is all out of whack because today was Wednesday but it only felt like a Tuesday. I don't have much to say tonight, so I will just leave you with two quotes of the week. Note, these are actually from the mouths of people I have talked to this week. I cannot make this stuff up!

Winner for most egotistical statement of the week: "You tell her that God does not answer the phone at 8 a.m, and not to call me until after 10 a.m.!"

Winner for most inappropriate comment of the week:

Him:"What was your name again?"

Me:"My name is Amber"

Him: "Amber, that a nice stripper name."

Me: "Uhh.."

As always,

It was another wonderful weekend in Sturgeon that was simply too short. We had a great time spending time with the family. The weather was perfect! I was able to learn a little bit more about Allen's extended family which was neat. We're both so lucky to have such loving families that have touched our lives in so many positive ways, and continue to touch our lives even from beyond the grave. I used to think that Memorial Day was a morbid day, but as an adult, I can see the true value of a day set aside to spend some time remembering our loved ones that have passed on before us. Of course, they cross our minds many many more times than just once a year at the beginning of summer, but a special day for remembering is still nice.

The tomatoes in our backyard are looking pretty healthy! :) And my container garden has completely taken off! Very exciting!

Tonight we had bbq chicken sandwiches and fresh vegetables with ranch dressing for dinner. We had a green pepper from the store, some farmers market green onions, and for the first time ever, we tried a veggie I bought from a farmer and his wife on Saturday called a Kohlrabi. Its a german vegetable and it's name literally translates into "cabbage turnip". It looks sort of like a turnip and is part of the cabbage family. I wouldn't say it tasted strongly like either one. It has a very mild, slightly sweet flavor, that is reminiscent of cabbage. It's crisp and juicy like an apple. It's LOADED with potassium and vitamins, low calorie, and high in fiber. A fantastic raw veggie. LOVED IT :).

:( SICK DAY!

I'm at home today while Allen is sleeping. For the first time in probably 10 years or even more, I have strep throat! I haven't had it since I was a kid. What a bummer...woke up this morning at 4 a.m. in some serious pain. When I woke up for work, the pain hadn't gone away at all. Then I peeked at my throat in the mirror and could see one white dot. So, I called in and went to the clinic, where the doctor took one look in my throat and said "Yep, definately strep. Need to get you on an antibiotic right away. " YUCK! I'm hoping Allen doesn't come down with it, but he probably will since it's so contagious.

YES!

Well, three if you count the farmers market as exciting. Exciting thing number one, I have sucessfully planted my container herb and lettuce garden. We were able to find an old square coffee table for three bucks at The Crossing's Thrift Store, so I don't have to wory about the rabbits munching on the goods! Exciting thing number two, which completely overshadows the container garden, and probably even deserves it's own blog posting. We finally bought a Play Station 3 today. We were able to get a good deal on it at Best Buy. We've been wanting one for a long time now and since they finally dropped the price down on it we've been thinking about it. Now we own one! Allen may never sleep again. LOL! I'm really excited too, b/c we will be able to watch all of our Netflix on the nice new tv we got for Christmas. Anyone wondering what game Allen had to have? Modern Warfare 2, supposedly one of the best games for the PS3.

That's all for now. YAY! :)

Farmers' Market Success!

Last week was a bust at the farmers market because we arrived too late but this weekend we made it in plenty of time to take home some of the good stuff! :) I've never cooked turnips before, so this will be an interesting experience. We bought the turnips from the man we bought the strawberries from. It was a last minute decision. We were only going to get the strawberries, but the turnips were just sitting there, those beautiful white globes, and I had to get them. I'm pretty sure I have had turnips one time when I was younger at my Great Grandma Braggs. I think we might have had them mashed. So, I can't remember if I like them or not. If anyone has any great turnip recipes or turnip greens recipes, (cool to get two dished out of one veggie), send em my way! Today's a beautiful day. I'm just blogging very quickly while Allen and I are still enjoying our coffee together , then we are going to attack the day. We are going to Menards for some plants later today. We are also gonna go have sushi for lunch! YAY! :) LOVE THE WEEKENDS!!!!! (And it's pay day weekend, even better!)

WOOOOSH and another week almost gone!

Even though it has been a while since a real blog, there hasn't been much to report on. My little brother graduated 8th grade on Friday, which is yet another reminder of how fast time is flying by. Work has been hectic for both of us. For Allen, he's really coping with the working at night, sleeping during the day thing, but the room he's in is already hot and they are forecasting 80 degree weather for next week. He is NOT looking forward to it at all. Everyone please pray for him because it's going to be very hard on him to start until he can get used to it.

For me, work is just hectic because of the nature of what I'm dealing with, people don't call me to ask me how the weather is...so you know...what can I say? One thing I will say for sure. I feel like my life is moving 1000 mph any more with the way work has been. The days don't seem short while I'm in the thick of it all on the clock, but sometimes when I clock out I just look back at the day and realize I need to hit the breaks once I'm clocked out. I'm always so wound. Can you believe that in 40 days the year is HALF over! Seems like we just celebrated Christmas. Time flies when you're...working.. LOL! :)

Still kicking...

Hey! So, we haven't blogged in over a week...but we're still alive. I will try REALLY hard to get on here and post a real blog tonight. Just wanted to let everyone know we love you all!

Only Tuesday...

Well, it's only Tuesday, but I think it's safe to say that I'm going to have another "kick the wall" week at work. EVERYONE IS LOSING THEIR MINDS! Dr's offices, patients, other insurance companies, people at my own office...they have all gone loco. Why can't we all just get along? Why can't we all always act like the grown-ups that we are and not 4 year olds? ANSWERS PEOPLE! I NEED SOME ANSWERS! LOL! I said something about it must be a full moon....but I'm pretty sure that full moons don't last 11 days, which is exactly how far into May we are....and it's been full on insanity for the entire month. The only way I'm making it through is by trying to stay uber positive, killing people with kindess...

At least Allen's week has started off better this week than last week.

We had a WONDERFUL weekend in Sturgeon. It wasn't long enough at all, but we did get to see everyone and it was nice to catch up with them. I hope that all you mother's who read this blog had a great mother's day. You deserve way more than just one day out of the year to be your special day. I can't wait to be a mom!

Love you all lots! :)

Beautiful Baby Kristin

For your Saturday smile:

Headed to Sturgeon for the Weekend

I know! I know! I haven't blogged all week. This week was probably one of the worst weeks ever at work, gradually getting worse and worse until today, which was by far the worst day of the week. Usually Friday is the best day of the week, but today was definately a Monday in Friday's disguise. I don't know if it's a full moon or what, but people have been MEAN and SPITEFUL all week. Allen has had an equally bad week. So, thank goodness for the weekend! We leave for Sturgeon tomorrow after Allen has caught some Z's. Can't wait to see the rest of the family! I hope that everyone has had a better week than us, and that everyone has a great weekend. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

And before I sign off for the day...maybe a little bit of a sound off...seriously, if someone needs help, it's my job to help, but if someone calls me and says, "I have a bill and I don't know what to do about it, why didn't ya'll pay it?" I might ask a few simple questions, like. "Who is the bill from?" or "How much is the bill for?" But if YOU call ME asking for help and you can't answer either one of these two obvious questions, or especially if you answer either one of these questions, with , "I don't know, all of my paperwork is at home, and I'm in my car." DON'T YOU DARE GET AN ATTITUDE WITH ME WHEN I CAN'T MAGICALLY ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, "How come ya'll didn't pay for the bill that I have no idea how much it's for, what it's for, or who it's from." Also, if I had the opportunity to be face to face with people today, if one more unlucky soul would have referred to me as "you people" , they probably would have received a punch straight to the nose.

Again, thank goodness the weekend is here. I'm hoping to regain some sanity before it all starts over again on Monday.

A perfect reason NOT to steam!

The most beautiful little girl was born at 5am Saturday morning! Her name is Kristen Jayde , and we are her Aunt and Uncle! She is so precious. I cried when I saw her. She's so perfect I just can't believe how wonderful she is. I can't wait to get to spend time with her and watch her grow and I hope we get to be a big part of her life. The other news of the weekend is we got a new (new to us anyways) car , but Kristen outshines that news any day of the year! :) Here are a few pics, they are low quality because they were taken with my cell phone. I can't wait to get some good pics!

To Steam or Not to Steam...

I am debating on whether or not to rent the steam cleaner for this weekend and steam clean the carpets. They aren't in dire need of it, but it is spring cleaning time and I finally have the kitchen re-organized. Plus we want the house to be as spiffy looking as possible because we are leaning towards asking our landlord if we can go head and get another dog, and we figure he is probably going to want to come inspect the place to make sure we haven't let our little munchkin tear anything up, which of course we haven't.

Yes Mr. President, we will wait until Saturday to get a new car!

Well, President Obama spoke in Quincy today. It was a HUGE deal. So huge of a deal, we did not make it to test drive the car we have our eye on. OH, we tried, but we were cut off at every street we tried due to the COMPLETE blockade of almost ALL of the south end of town's streets. We tried a few different routes to make it to Broadway with no luck. Every street we tried we ended up having to turn around. We ended up on a road that neither Allen nor I was familiar with. We figured that if we kept following the road, eventually we would come to the highway. What we did not realize was that the road we were on led us straight to the airport that the president was going to be leaving from. LOL! We spent an HOUR on the road to try to get to the car dealership and ended up just going home. We did get to see the cargo plane that the presidents motorcade vehicles flew in on, and the tail end of Air Force One, which I have to admit...was kind of cool. The picture above is a poor cell phone pic of the cargo plane. So...we are hoping the car will still be on the lot on Saturday. We put in an offer online, but the response we got back was a very generic response. Dr's appointment went fine. I had a cyst on my right ovary, but apparantly it's a VERY common thing for women my age, so common in fact, my gyne spent literally TWO minutes with me and made me feel silly for even showing up at her office. I don't like that...at all. Oh well, all is well that ends well!