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Monday, April 30, 2007

Wooheeee

I can't believe April is gone. Time flies when you are having fun...or something like that.

This, my dear friends, is my comfort food. Thursday was an extremely bad day for me. Yes, tears included. So my wonderful honey, Jay, brought me comfort food for supper. On the left, cheesy onion mashed potatoes from TGI Fridays, Mt. Dew, guacamole, queso, queso blanco, and wildfire dips from Don Pablos along with their traditional chips and salsa. No I didn't eat it all. Jay did help, but it was definitely yummy!

Then on Saturday, I surprised Jay with a trip to Kings Island. I, for one, despise waiting in line for hours for 45 seconds of upside down, mind numbing, stomach churning rides. Nonetheless, knowing how much he likes it, I bought the tickets and joined him for about 3 hours. Then we headed to our car to eat (much cheaper.) By that time, the Dramamine must not have worked for me, because my tummy was a little queasy. So while I slept for about 3 hours in the car, Jay enjoyed some more rides. We wore these shirts which a couple of our friends had made for our honeymoon. We figure we can still wear them for the first year. Wink!

In case you are interested, here is an update on the "kickball fiends." They have definitely calmed it down. The management said they were having problems with them as well and some of them no longer live here, but there are still a few who think its fun to terrorize our patio. Yesterday, Jay was attempting to take a nap during the afternoon hours. I was in the living room quilting when I heard the herd arrive. I decided I wasn't going to take the agonizing screaming and annoying bickering this afternoon. So as soon as I heard the volume outside start to increase I ventured out to the patio and glanced around the corner. AND we wonder why society is going downhill. They were playing IN the dumpster and yes there was trash in there. Aggggghh! I told them, kindly, that they needed to get out of the dumpster and move over to the grassy area in the middle. Of course, one little booger asked "why?" To any normal kid, I would think dumpster diving would be some kind of initiation, not "fun." Sigh, when will it all end?

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Warm Wind Chimes

9:30 a.m. Woke up and had devotions on our new swing. Beautiful morning! I dug out a beautiful wedding present from a friend. Mo gave us this wind chime set. I thought it might get annoying since it was slightly windy, but I loved it. It has very warm tones, not the usually tinny, high pitched clanging sound.

11:00 a.m. Dani arrives with her quilt and sewing machine for me to help her get ideas for the border on her quilt. She has been working on this one for a while but picked it back up when she got her sewing machine for Christmas. I love the yellow and purples. I started quilting the stars on one of the borders of my quilt. I think it really adds a lot to the quilt.

In the afternoon, Dani left and Jay took a nap. When the kids finally stopped playing around and IN our patio, I took my quilt out to the swing and quilted there for a while. Jay woke up and took some pictures.

5:00 p.m. We fired up the grill and grilled cheeseburgers.

6:20 p.m. Jay puts on his brand spankin' new rollerblades and we venture outside for some lessons. He didn't do too bad for his first time. No falls!

Here are some pictures of our day.

These are some of the largest bananas I have ever seen. The knife pictured here is a 8 1/2" long!


Friday, April 20, 2007

Shock and Awe!

We have heard this phrase a lot with the war going on. But I thought it appropriate for this post. I decided to unpack my summer shoes and in doing so realized why I never have any room in my side of the closet. I never said I didn't have a lot of shoes, but I do want to point out that the majority of my shoes are clearance deals. I also submit that I wear a lot of these shoes. Obviously, I just pulled my sandals out so I haven't had a chance to wear them yet but I will prove myself. Not pictured are my blue Nike flip flops, my swim flip flops, my brown boots and the second of the silver wedding sandals (I can't find it!)
Row 1



Row 2

Row 3
Row 4


Row 5

Row 6



Row 7

Shock and Awe! No wonder I don't have room in my closet. Guess I won't be buying shoes for a while or until I get rid of some. Oops!

Now this pair has a story behind it. They were brand spankin' new white leather K-Swiss tennis shoes that I had just bought while in college. I decided to wear them to my sister's horse show. I had no problems all morning, I dodged all sorts of "barn dangers." We were doing the finishing touches on the horse's hooves. My mom was leaning over with a bottle of hoof black, kinda like black paint. The horse flinched and the bottle of black went all over the place, including on my skirt, all over my brand new leather shoes. I was so ticked until I looked up and then I busted out laughing. My poor mother had just turned black!!! She had it ALL over her face. It even got in her eyes and was burning. Her eyelashes were black! The bad part is, hoof black doesn't come of easily. We had to use finger nail polish remover. My poor mom was literally black and then gray (as the hoof black started thinning with the remover) and then white again. Poor thing!


Not a word, Dad, not a word!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Indy Weekend

After a crazy Friday evening, we got up early and drove up to Indy. Jay dropped me off at my cousin's house (Janella and Jonathan's) where I had a blast scrapbooking with her for a few hours. Jay went on to meet his parents to work on some things for their VBS schedule this summer. Jay came back and we all went to Don Pablos (Yummy!). This afternoon we went to Jay's brother's home in Greenfield, Indiana and then back to Indy this evening to hear Jay's brother, Aaron sing in a choir concert. I am so tired now!! But I have yummy peanut butter cake that I get to eat here in a few minutes!

Hmmm..wonder who Jonathan likes?

Scrapbooks galore!


Happy Ladies!
Somes pages that I completed. I got 13 of them finished!!!


Waitin' for the food!

Friday, April 13, 2007

Dani's Big Idea

Well, thanks to my sister, Dani, I am totally exhaustified! She (and her roommate, Mary) thought up this great idea to babysit any (and all) kids from the church tonight so that their parents could go on a date and not have to worry about their kids. All was fine and dandy in their small apartment until about 6 p.m. when the kiddos starting rolling in. We ended up with 15 kids!!!! It was me, Mary and Dani to do crowd control for 4 hours. I did talk Jason into stopping by for a few minutes of relief.


To be honest, I am by no means a "kid" person. Kids don't usually like me and I am just not that great with them, but I got to have the littler kids (2 years and younger) and that was fun. This weekend I head up to Indianapolis for Saturday and Sunday to spend time with family.


Blowing bubbles on the patio!

How cute!


Dani and I with our hands full!


Jay helping out.


Mary and baby Olivia!


Tuesday, April 10, 2007

More fun pictures...

I was so excited to get one of my big photos framed tonight!!! The 11x14 that I was able to get with my wedding pictures was so pretty I wanted to get it framed. I took it to Hobby Lobby where they had all their frames 50%. They even matted it for me. I insisted on the brightest white mat they could find. I thought they did an excellent job. Across from where this photo now hangs is the signature mat and picture that was at the reception. I love reading the little phrases and the signatures from those who attended the reception. Thanks to Brenda for the wonderful idea!





Oh and these are my $.77 tiki torches that I bought at Old Time Pottery while I was there in search of smaller black picture frames. There are actually 7 of them but I couldn't fit them all in this photo!

Monday, April 09, 2007

Towel Head?






I thought perhaps you might question whether or not I have been working on my quilt lately. To tell you the truth, this is the biggest one I have ever done and it is taking a ton of time. I have been working on it almost daily and I log about 15-20 hours a week working on it. Quilting takes a long time, but it is definitely my favorite part. Tonight I listened to some Cold Case files and worked diligently. Right now I have the entire center quilted and am working on one of the three borders around the outside. I plan to quilt stars around one entire border, but we will see if that actually happens as that will definitely add a lot more hours to the quilt. I think it would make it more unique though. I had Jay take these pics tonight. This is what he sees nearly every evening that we are at home. He likes to call me his "towel head." I don't think that is a compliment, but I'm not sure....

Sometimes the screen goes blank because I am listening to it. Thank goodness for documentaries! Jay calls it a "holiness" tv.












Sunday, April 08, 2007

He is Risen, He is Risen, indeed!

While Jay played around with the Irish sunglasses from the wedding yesterday, I dressed up for Easter Sunday. Jay was very spiritual and went to a sunrise service this morning and then came and picked me up for the 10:30 service at our church. We both look pretty tired in these pictures but I wanted a picture of us on our first Easter Sunday!






Saturday, April 07, 2007

Hubby Chef


I am so proud of my honey. He was going to make me a peanut butter cake but he couldn't find any cake mix at the grocery with peanut butter. So tonight he made a chocolate cake and spread peanut butter on 2/3 of the top and plain vanilla icing on the other 1/3. The peanut butter was for me of course. How sweet! I had a small piece while it was still warm and a glass of milk. Yummy!


A Wedding of Friends

Today we attended a wedding of two of our friends. Mark Mander and Deanna Wolf have been friends of ours for some time. Actually, Jay and I probably know Mark better than Deanna. Mark is actually from Ireland and Jay and I both went to college with him. Deanna has worked at the college for a few years. They will actually be moving to Ireland in June. Jay was an usher in the wedding and I thought he looked quite handsome in his new suit. Unfortunately, my battery went down in my camera so I don't have many pictures, but I am sure there are other blogs out there with more pictures.

You might remember me talking about Mark and his afternoon stay at our house one Sunday afternoon in which Jay and Mark solved the worlds theological mysteries...or something like that.

Mark and the miniature groom. This little lad was adorable in the traditional Irish kilt.



Mark and Jay just before the wedding.


Mr. and Mrs. Mark Mander


Monday, April 02, 2007

6 months!!!!

Well, after a horrible weekend, I am feeling better now. On Saturday, I worked over 8 hours running public visitation at the jail. Yay! The highlight of the day was when Jay arrived with a plate full of warm chocolate chip cookies for me to share with the jailers on shift.

I arrived home Saturday evening and found my hubby of 6 months snoring away and I thought the couch looked like a good place to relax...err...sleep. When Jay woke me up about 6 p.m. I was done for the weekend. Headache (from sinuses), drippy nose, my diaphragm was achy and tired from sneezing about 50 times while working that morning at the jail. I went to sleep and for all intents and purposes didn't really wake up until this morning. Almost 36 hours of sleep. I did of course wake many, many times to blow my nose and keep Jay awake with my sneezing. He did prepare a good Sunday dinner which I woke up to help him eat.


After a particularly horrible Monday, I am still tired. On average I get hung up on about once a day and of course cussed out about once a week (and it's fun to hang up on them!) So after a "fun" day I arrive home to 75 degree sunshine....and 10 kids surrounding MY patio playing kickball where 1 out of 3 kicks slams against our apartment wall. Now why in tarnation would these kids pick right beside our apartment to play kickball? The side wall of our apartment is about 10 feet away from the DUMPSTER and about 12 feet of concrete drive. If you turn around and look the other direction (AWAY from our apartment) there is a large green grass area, PERFECT for kickball. Just think, this is the next generation. GRRR!
So tonight to take my mind of the screeching kids and thudding of the ball against my wall, Jay and I went out to eat at Cheddars, a casual cafe with good prices. Below is a summary of our night out. Enjoy!
Flowers from Jay for our 6 month anniversary, last Friday!



One of my favorite weddings photos in a brand new frame



Now why would you put this lovely sign right beside the dumpster, at the back of the building?
Don't ask me but that is where it was!

While awaiting Jay's arrival, I decide this rock water fountains is kinda neat.



He wanders to my car only to tell me that he has been sitting at the table for 10 minutes. Falling into the typical Monday category, I had left my phone at home, so I had no idea he was already there.


Your friendly Shred-it Man!



After a yummy dinner of grilled tilapia and mango salsa, I follow the Hand.

Do these orange barriers mean anything to you? Apparently Jay thought they were a turn lane and nearly ran over them!


Which, I was sure to tell him, would have landed him here....



After an uneventful 2 miles on the highway, we exit where Jay decides turning on red is no big deal. But in this case it was a red ARROW.

I, the lawful citizen that I am, decide my car accelerates only at green lights.



After a quick reprimand to Mr. Baker, he decides to stop......at the bus stop sign!



Alas, we arrive at home, where thankfully the kids have decided to utilize the monkey bars Away from the apartment. Imagine that! (We're still looking for the delinquents that shoved our sign over)

My 6 month anniversary gift from Jay. However, due to the enormous popularity of the kick ball game, relaxing here warrants several balls in the lap as this is foul territory (can you tell I am bitter?)

Me and my honey sitting on the swing. I love you, Jay!