Adventures of Tyke

Updating

2012-02-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

So it's been FOREVER since I've updated this blog or any blog for that matter. Needless to say I was a little preoccupied with wedding planning, then a wedding cookout and just settling into married life. What I've been doing lately is slowly updating the house to more the style I want it to be rather than just a hodge podge. My latest conquest is our entertainment center. It has been the thorn in my flesh for months because I just couldn't quite find all the stuff I wanted exactly to put in there. I finally put the final touches on it yesterday and am finally happy with it now. :-)

I found these pillows on Etsy. You could monogram them however you wanted. I love that about Etsy that most store owners are flexible about what you order. This was actually Brian's idea. He felt that our name should be displayed for everyone to see rather than just on the couch. haha It has grown on me.

My cousin Heidi and I trade things all the time. I give her clothes, she gives me great home decor items. These were two she gave me a while back and I've been trying to figure out how to use them. I got some walnuts and pecans in the shell and filled up the one on the left and used coffee beans for the other one. Brian thought I should have done corn and soybeans. The little farmer in him! haha

Brian had been wanting a globe and thanks to some wedding and Christmas Pottery Barn gift cards, I was able to get this. All the fake books were a combination from Hobby Lobby, Gordmans and Tuesday Mornings.

Owls are all the rage this year! Of course when I wanted one I couldn't find them anywhere and now you see them EVERYWHERE! But I found this cute little owl at Z Gallerie. It's actually a piggy bank, but you can't tell that from the front. :-)

I was pleasantly surprised when I found these wood dice at Meijer. Of all places, but I thought they were cute and went with the style I was going for.

The & sign I found at Gordmans and had the vase of wheat grass left over from the wedding.

I found the chicken wire basket at Hobby Lobby and the balls were from Gordmans and Hobby Lobby.

These are my new favorite! We went to the Tea Room in Mackinaw for my aunt's birthday last weekend and I found these candlestick holders. So different and unique, I love them!

I feel like I have looked at EVERY lantern in town, online or in a magazine. They were either the wrong color, ridiculously expensive or too small. I finally went with this one from Pottery Barn and it was the perfect height for what I wanted. Ahhh, entertainment center complete. Onto the next room......master bedroom! :-)

Epic

2011-02-02T20:37:00.001-08:00

EPIC.......I've heard this word more in the last couple days then I've probably heard in my lifetime. All you heard for days was "this is an EPIC blizzard", "this storm is EPIC", "we haven't seen a storm like this since 1967, this is EPIC". An EPIC it was! Monday night I went to get the mail and the flakes were so big, I thought I was being pelted with snowballs!

I went to the store early Tuesday morning to get us some last minute items to last us until Saturday just in case we were stuck inside for days......and we are! :-) Not sure how you go to the store on Sunday and then end up spending even more money two days later on groceries, but were now fully stocked for like a month and Kate and I had an outstanding dinner last night! haha

I'm not sure we got the 24 inches that they were promising but we definitely got somewhere around 12-14. It was truly the most amount of snow I've seen in my lifetime. Dare I say EPIC? haha

Kate and I had some girl bonding since Denise and Whit both got snowed in elsewhere. We spent the evening making enough food to literally make us want to roll ourselves off the couch and then appropriately watched Biggest Loser. haha We woke up this morning to half the driveway covered about shin high and the road covered till about 4pm this afternoon. Thankfully we are all dug out now and able to move again, but it was kind of fun to get stuck for a couple days. This is the quietest week I've had in a while. haha

View from the front porch. It's hard to give depth perception here but the driveway was literally almost knee high past the end of Kate's car.

This drift just about came up to the neighbor's windows. If only I were a kid again to enjoy this massive snowstorm. Instead I sat and thought about how long it was going to take to melt all of this crap! haha

Not only was our grill a casualty, we had a drift on the back porch coming as high as the sliding door and we steps coming into the back of the house. Pretty crazy how tall the drifts were!

You can see that half the neighbors fence is engulfed. Good day to stay inside!

I got bored. Little late on taking down Christmas decorations so I at least gave myself a head start and pull them all in one place! haha

With a group effort between myself, Kate and Brian, we dug ourselves out and now we can return to society again tomorrow! haha

I've been slacking!

2011-01-16T21:27:00.001-08:00

So I've been slacking for months on keeping up with this blog. Probably won't get any better for the next couple months. I got engaged on Monday and have created a wedding blog. If you'd like to keep up with our progress, check out our wedding blog: http://caliwedding.blogspot.com

2nd Annual Huber Cousins Retreat

2010-07-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

So this weekend we made the trek out to Fort Wayne for the 2nd annual Huber Cousins lake weekend retreat. We all pile into a lake house(kids and all) and spend the weekend talking, playing games, TONS of eating, boating/jet skiing and just all around having a great time. It's a tradition that I hope we keep up for a long time.

Every family is responsible for a meal throughout the weekend and we all bring snacks(and we had LOTS of them) and then we pretty much see how quickly we can consume every ounce of food in the place till we leave Sunday. :-)

This year was fun for me as well because it was this lake weekend last year that I had just first started talking to Brian. I ended up meeting him that Sunday when we got back from the lake, so it was neat to have him there with me this year. Amazing how much can change in a year!

He is a lot of things but two things he is not fond of are lots of events on his calendar and not getting enough sleep! :-) Needless to say I was pushing the envelope with both this weekend! haha

I couldn't help but grab my camera quick with these two cuties checking out who else should come and join them to play outside! If Brian wasn't up before this, he was definitely up after they started banging on the window at him! haha

The boat was broken so we rent jet skis from Crocodile Dundee. He gave us a deal because we looked like nice people and didn't have any tramp stamps as he put it! These three were so excited to ride that they couldn't even wait till he put them into the water! :-)

I talked him into going by promising to let him see a tractor in Winnamac on the way home! haha

This set up didn't last long. I hate not being in control especially in motorized vehicles. He spent most of the afternoon hanging on to me! :-)

Don't judge my thighs in this picture. It's bad lighting and I'm sitting. I know I need to go to the gym more! haha

Brian came to Will and Tami's rescue when their jet ski overheated. When he saw that Tami had jumped ship to pull weeds out of the bottom and Will left to fend for himself, he thought he better step in and help! JK

Will looks totally tense here but I think it's just the angle or maybe it's that bulky life vest that doesn't seem to let him move his arms or neck! haha These two were so cute all weekend! They are best buds for sure!

Faye was pushing them on the hammock. She's the most advanced 2 year old I've seen in a while. She has the vocabulary of a 4 year old. She was using words like delicious and tasty all in her cute little high pitched voice and adorable pig tails.

We played Quelf. It is not one of my favorite games so I chose to watch which is far more entertaining. Rebekah had to make scuba gear out of something around us. I helped with the sunglasses. Looks pretty authentic if you ask me! :-)

Shar had to act like her phone wasn't working and everyone was supposed to guess what she was doing. Instead we all just sat there and watched her bang her hand on the table over and over saying she couldn't hear Jaret. Whoops!

Heidi had to bang a spoon against the bowl on her head and say some random phrase. This was funny, but I believe I enjoyed even more when Heidi and Rach had to act like siamese twins and then impersonate a boomerang together!

Overall we had a great weekend! Never a dull moment with this group! Between Tami's story that made us all want to shiver and Jarod's crazy high school memories, we laughed and cried and made a lot of great memories. I was really glad that Brian got to be there and be a part of this family that is so special to me! Can't wait till next year! I think were going to need two lake houses! :-)

We Made it a WHOLE Year! :-)

2010-07-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

June 28th was our "anniversary" date. Hard to believe that it's been a whole year since we met. Unfortunately, our anniversary was spent with me in California working late and him working on a huge project at work, so we weren't even together, but he's coming to California for Labor Day so I figure we'll celebrate then. I did buy us some beach cruisers(bicycles) for my parent's house. We love renting bikes and riding along the beach, so I thought it would be a fun gift for when we visit California. He was REAL excited about a gift he can use twice a year! haha

There are many reasons why I love this man, but here are just a few: he's funny and he doesn't even realize it sometimes. He's pretty reserved most of the time but he comes up with some funny phrases that we laugh about still months later. He balances me out. I'm a little high strung. Ok a lot high strung! haha He never gets upset about anything. That keeps the fighting to a minimum. :-) He's practical. I'm not exactly a saver. I'm more of a spender, but I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone! haha He's very good with budgets and expenses and keeps me on track. Sometimes a little too much! haha

Overall, he's brought a lot of joy to my life over the last year and I'm looking forward to seeing where the next year takes us!

The Planning has Officially Begun!

2010-03-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right! The planning has officially begun for...........WHIT'S wedding! :-) We are up to our eyeballs in wedding magazines, reception ideas, caterers, photographers, venues, and dress selection! Thank goodness we have an entire year.

1st Accomplishment - The Venue - Mackinaw Winery

2nd Accomplishment - The Date - May 7th 2011

3rd Accomplishment - The Caterer - American Catering

4th Accomplishment - The Dress - You'll have to wait to see! :-)

5th Accomplishment - The Photographer - Katie Zeller

Now on to the tastings, seeing the venue, decorations, bridesmaid dresses, music, invitations, etc. It's been a fun process so far. Gives me tons of ideas for my own someday. You can go over to Whit's blog to read about her dress experience: http://whitneyandisaacstrong.blogspot.com/

We honestly had very little to no frustration with finding her dress. We only had to go to about 5 stores and try on probably 6 dresses total. We figured looking in California made sense because then my mom could be there for the experience, but you never really know what you're in for until you do it. So we started at David's Bridal. They were super helpful and she tried on a few dresses. One in particular that was a great deal and even an extra $50 off that day. Whit said that mom, Kate and I all chimed "ohhhhh" in unison as she said the discounts on bridesmaid dresses, mother of the bride, invitiations and tuxes, but it wasn't the "one" Then we went to the next store where Kate and I had more fun trying on dresses than Whit did. They were having a sample sale so you didn't have to have an appointment and you could just grab dresses and try on. Since you didn't have a consultant to help you, Kate helped me get into the dresses. I had to lose my modesty quickly when you have no bra and you're trying to jump into a dress that is a size too small for you! haha So on to the third store for Whit. The White Dress! I mean even the name sounds magical! How could it not be the place? Well it was the place and the dress if you were willing to sign over your future 401k to them! haha Whit walked out and we gasped and then tried to talk her out of the dress. Just sleep on it! It's a lot of money for one day! Do you really want to make installment payments on a wedding dress?! So we walked out, dressless and Whit was pretty well defeated.

On to the next location! By this point, we had picked up two more bystanders. My aunt Cheryl and my cousin Brittany had flown in for spring break. Mom picked them up at the airport while we got a head start at the bridal salon. The front half was the normal bridal salon and the back room was the outlet part. In there you could buy off the rack and they entice you by telling you that they are 30-75% off. What they don't tell you with that wonderful enticing sales pitch is the dresses are torn, dirty, buttons missing, sequins gone, but hey I got it for a steal! haha So needless to say Whit did not find what she was looking for there.

We took a week off and decided that maybe a new attitude, a new store and a fresh perspective would help the process! :-) Mom and I made a few appointments for the following Saturday. One in particular was call The Wedding Day. Before we walked in, mom had us sit in the car and she prayed over our day and just asked that we would be able to find Whitney a dress that she loved and one that was in her price range so that she didn't have to have a rent to own policy on her dress! haha We walked in and I was immediately skeptical because every dress that she showed us Whit said she didn't like. Then my mom proceeded to take out two manicans in the front window sending them crashing to the floor and the people and the cash register to exclaim, "what the hell?" As we walked around the store, every dress she pulled for Whit was "fit and flare" and looked exactly the same as the three previous dresses she had pulled and even though Whit was turning up her nose at them all, she kept telling Whit "just try it, it looks different on". Oh brother! So as I wandered the store looking for a dress on the sale rack and trying to keep a low profile to not try and take out any more store front displays, Whit, mom and Celeste had pulled a few more dresses.

Now it was the moment of truth. Celeste was smart enough to put Whit in the one dress that we pulled that she actually liked. She walked out and it had all the things she was looking for, sweetheart neckline, natural waist, full skirt but not too full, etc. Then it happened! Whit started crying. I looked over at my mom tearing up because Whit was and Whit was going "I don't know why I'm crying!" It was pretty obvious at that point, that it was "the one"! Celeste wanted to tap in on some additional sale items, so she quickly put a veil on Whit's head which of course now we couldn't buy the dress without the veil and so it was.....Whit's wedding dress was found! :-)

Now on to bigger and better things.......centerpieces, planning and decorations! This is the part of the process that I absolute love! I love making spreadsheets and checklists and coming up with different, unique and affordable deocration ideas without using a mirror(what I call and crack mirror) and bowl of water with a floating candle. It's fun to see how much I can do on a budget and still make it cute. So we begin.......

Weekend with Britt!

2010-02-26T05:45:00.000-08:00

So our cousin Brittany came out to visit for the weekend. She came to cut Kate's hair but Kate claims we never tell her anything(which somehow is always the truth, not sure how we always forget :-)), so Kate made plans to go to Nashville to see Phil. So Britt drove 2 1/2 hours just to see us! We made sure to show her a good time so she wasn't regretting the drive. :-) We went to Swingers for dinner and then to Six String to country line dance and then to Daddios to hear Sixteen Candles.

Isaac getting a picture of Whit's pearly whites!

These are pretty much typical looks out of both of them! :-)

Ok, now they're just faking! haha

Britt, me, Shannon and Denise, Denise is just trying to show off that she's ready for spring break already with her base tan! :-)

Same picture, just add Ty's thumb. Britt is a little nervous about it being near her! haha

I should have known he was up to something!

Love this guy! He's like my little brother!

She had a 55 calorie beer. I think she had the right idea with Diet Coke. Watered down beer.....yuck! Beer in general.....yuck! :-)

Whit is not suffering from dandruff. It was just really snowy outside! :-)

Whit showing her true feelings for having to listen to country music!

The snow on her head still hasn't quite melted!

Not sure what it is about this picture, but Whit creeps me out! haha

Tyler taught Shannon and I the Texas two step, and that would be Whit's nose in the bottom right hand corner! :-)

So we've been out together two times and Brian wore this exact outfit both times. I think its his go to clubbing outfit! haha

I've been told if you put your hand on your hip, your arm looks smaller. Come on, all the kids are doing it these days! :-)

Six String was lame and there was no line dancing so we went to Daddios to hear Sixteen Candles. They were kind of lame too! haha However, we did get this pic, which is now one of my favorites of us because Brian is actually fully smiling! :-)

Brian likes this one better because it shows off what he calls his "guns"! haha

Ok, I'll give you one try, which one is Brian? :-) My parents can't even tell them apart!

They gave us free hats! We are totally natural gangstas! haha

Not sure what Jeff is doing, but it looks like his tongue is getting sucked into that bottle! haha

Apparently I wasn't in agreement with what Brent was saying! :-)

This would be compliments of Britt!

Britt was trying to get a picture of Brian's track jacket tied around his waist. She asked him if he was going on a field trip! haha

Brian whispering sweet nothings in Jeff's ear and he's clearly not comfortable with it! haha

Yeah, don't know!

Brent told Britt he's not very photogenic........she said, I can tell! haha

Ok, why did I have to ruin it?

Brent showing off his new western wear shirt. I think he looks goooooood and hopefully Brian can borrow it sometime! haha

Britt was hamming it up on the dance floor!

Take 1 - hat forward, hair in ponytail

Take 2 - hat backwards, hair down

Take 3 - hat off, hair in ponytail

My Very First Valentine's Date EVER!!!

2010-02-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

So Brian and I have been dating for about 7 months now and I was very much looking forward to my first Valentine's date E-V-E-R! You see in the past, I've started dating someone in January. Note to self, never start dating someone in January, because either 1) there's a lot of pressure for that first Valentine's day, what to do, what to say, how much to do, etc or 2) they break up with you right before Valentine's Day or in my case on the day of. I just don't recommend it. Start dating February 15th or later! haha

So anyway, this year I was excited. I told Brian that if he was going to break up with me, just do it and get it over with because I'm used to it by now, but he was pretty sure he still wanted to date me through this dreaded holiday! haha So about a week before we got to talking about Valentine's gifts. Brian was like gifts? I didn't know I had to get you a gift. I said, well I got you one. He was like, no no no.....why would you get me a gift? I said, well I love buying gifts for people and holidays just gives me an excuse! :-) He's like, I've never bought a Valentine's gift. I said, well what did you get for your last girlfriend. He said, flowers, but you don't like flowers. I said, you're right, try again. He was like, well I was just going to get you one of those big hershey kisses. I said, that's a good start but don't stop there. :-) He said, that's where I was planning on stopping. He said, you have my love and devotion. That should be enough. I said, actually you haven't said I love you, so really I just have your devotion at this point! He was like, well that should be enough. I said, well I want a gift! haha I said, it's my first Valentine's Day. I want it to be special. So I gave him some ideas that he was mentally taking down.

We decided to go to Jonah's Seafood house in Peoria. Brian isn't exactly a planner so I help him out a little and make the reservations so we actually have places to go on special occasions! haha We got there and they sat us by the window. He said, I love where were sitting! Do you think this is because of Valentine's Day? I said, no probably because I set up this reservation like a month ago! haha

We had a great time! My fish unfortunately was almost cold when it came out, so I didn't eat much so we decided to take it home. I however quickly dumped it down Brian's leg as we walked out of the restaurant. I had to laugh at his shocked face as he was still holding the to go container in his hand and it was hanging open with the potatoes fully intact and my fish laying on the ground. :-)

Brian would kill me if he knew I posted this. He made me take other photos after we left so he could Facebook approve them! :-)

We couldn't get the full sign in the picture, so we settled for it at least saying Oyster Bar above our heads! :-)

I like this one, but.......

Brian likes this one. Apparently, he likes more of his face showing! :-)

He doesn't think he takes good photos, so he made me take pictures of him till we got a good one. After about 6 tries, this is what we came up with. Oh my Valentine! haha

ILL-INI

2009-10-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

So we've been talking about going to an Illini game all year. Brian has been to two already but I haven't been able to go. We were actually going to pass up this week(for reasons I didn't understand) as well, but last minute got some good tickets so we decided to take advantage of them. The game was at 11am so we had to leave by 8am?! Nothing like drinking beer at 9am! haha JK I didn't have any. Just Coke! We met up with Brian's friend Jeff whose dad is a State Farm agent in Champaign. He got us free tickets and also into the State Farm tent for free food. How can you pass that up? :-) It was a great day for football! Illinois played miserable but we had fun anyway!

Jeff was pretty sure he had told his dad to call him when he got there. He didn't! And Jeff didn't let him forget it! He kept saying, I must have missed that call from you dad! :-)

Brian with his brother Mitch and sister Kaitlynn. Mitch loved the free food so much, he had three plates! If I wasn't embarassed, I would have gotten another myself, but I refrained! haha

Mitch and Kaitlynn's first U of I football experience. Unfortunately it was nothing to write home about but they were just excited to be there!

I FINALLY got to wear my new U of I shirt! I'm so glad I didn't go buy like 6 different U of I shirts. Like one for every home game(because that would so be something I would do! haha), because this may have been the only game I get to see all year! :-)

He REALLY likes that Wyffel seed corn hat! He's a little bit country.......I'm a little bit rock 'n roll! JK Well actually he does think my style is a little wild as he calls it! :-)

It was one of the few touchdowns we saw all day. I had to document it!

About the only time the ball was on our end of the field and it was the last couple seconds of the game! :-(

The Birthday that Keeps on Giving!

2009-10-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

This has truly been the best birthday I've ever had! Everyone did so much and I felt so loved with all of the stuff going on. Well Whit had told me that she wanted to do something for my birthday with just Whit, and Kate and me. She told me to be ready at 2:30pm and we were going to leave. She got home a little late so she was racing around telling me to get going. She handed me a cup from Fusion Brew and when I'd ask what it was she kept saying it was fall in a cup! I didn't know what that meant but it was good! She put me in the car and made me wrap a scarf around my head. She wanted to make sure I couldn't see or hear anything so she gave me her Ipod to listen to as well. My left eye was stuck shut but I realized a little down the road that I could see slightly out of my right eye, so I was able to kind of tell where we were at. She circled a neighborhood and then headed back to our house. I figured at that point that she was picking up Heidi, but then I started feeling bad that I was peeking, so I quit looking! haha From there we went to Arftul Designs, Fox and Hounds and Reality Bites and then back to our house for games. It was such a fun day! Truly a great birthday week!

I couldn't wait to get that scarf off because it was itchy and not being able to see with Whit's erratic driving was starting to make me feel sick! I told her later that my eye mask might have been easier to use a blindfold. I can only imagine what people passing us along Veteran's thought!

I walked into Artful Designs to see Tami AND Heidi. It went something like this: "Surprise, ok were going to paint, but were on a time crunch so we don't have a lot of time!" I said, ok. Whit are you going to repaint me my mug you busted? "I probably should, but not today. We don't have a lot of time. Were actually all going to paint the same thing." I said, oh ok, looking around trying to figure out what to paint. Whit was like, "you need to hurry up! We have to be out of here in 15 minutes!" Ohhhh, ok! I quickly grabbed a triangle plate. We decided to paint it like a candy corn. The next thing I know, Whit is paying for the plate, all the paint is at the table and the four of us are going to town on the plate. We painted it in 10 minutes flat! That has got to be some kind of record! haha

The finished product! Later Whit said we painted it in the wrong order that we should have put orange at the bottom. I told her that wasn't right. She and Rebekah insisted that they eat candy corns and the bottom is their favorite part and it's ALWAYS orange at the bottom. I wasn't buying but went along with it so I didn't sound like a know it all! Later I looked it up to prove them wrong and then text them my findings! haha

Heidi set up pedicures at Fox and Hounds and Whit had brought cookies from Janet's for our afternoon. It was so nice to have a pedicure where you can actually understand the person giving you the pedicure! :-)

After pedicures it was on to Reality Bites! All six of us ate for $54 dollars! They trusted me to just order for everyone! If I know one thing, it's good food, so I was honored that they trusted me to order for all of them. We just got a bunch of different stuff and shared it all! It was awesome and you can't go wrong at my favorite restaurant!

They later came up and told us that another reservation was waiting on our table. Psssh, seriously, we were only there for 2 1/2 hours! How rude! haha

Last stop, our house for games. Whit had gotten individual cakes from Janet's and then we played Things! We laughed and cackled all night! It was soooo fun! I love spending time with these girls!

Then we played Quelf. It's a game of randoms and it is just that! Heidi had to balance a book on her head and walk backwards 20 steps.

Rebekah had to do the chicken dance. We had to show her what it was first! :-)

Whit had to blink wildly, march in place and slap her knees and hum a song that she thought was annoying. We never did guess the song! Guess we need to brush up on our praise songs because, These are the Days of Elijah was not on the tip of our tongues! haha

Rebekah got all the crazy action cards. She had to stuff her shirt with anything and everything. For every four items, she got a point. She wasn't sure all that work was worth the two points she received! haha

The Party Continues.....

2009-10-11T05:56:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, my actual birthday, Brian took me to Seven in Peoria Heights for dinner. I wanted to try out something different and he works in East Peoria anyway, so it was easy to just meet there for dinner. I've heard great things about Seven so we decided to try it out. Glad we did! It was great! Just nice to try out new places occasionally.

We both had the seafood bisque. It looked so cool I had to take a picture! They write their name in your soup. I think that's so you don't forget where you came to eat! haha

Brian got me some shoes for my birthday. He listens very well! I talked about them once and he found them at Von Maur without any help! They were out of my size so they had to be ordered! He took a picture of them and sent it to me to prove that he had found my crazy heels, as he called them! He thinks my taste is a little wild but he still likes my style.....most of the time! haha

He remembered that I don't care for flowers and that I'd rather have a card. He wrote in it all the reasons why I'm special to him. It was really sweet! I actually got teary eyed! He was like, usually you're so tough! I said, I know! But what you wrote was really sweet! :-)

Nippers and Scrumpdeliocious!

2009-10-11T05:41:00.001-07:00

So not only did my friends plan me this huge surprise party, but they also took me to Chicago for the weekend and wouldn't let me pay for anything. It was a great weekend for shopping and it was even more fun to do it with some of my closest friends. Kate was cracking up all weekend at Ash's made up words. I don't even notice it anymore because I'm so used to it but Kate thought it was hilarious when Ash thought it was "nippers" outside or if the food was "de-lish" or when she called the weather "poop-ola" or when we decided to eat at Melting Pot and she said it was "scrumpdelicious"! By the time we left Kate was getting in on it and using the same phrases! haha

Heidi is dedicated! She could only be in Chicago for about 3 hours but she came up with us anyway. It did help that she drove 90mph the whole way there. I think that gave her about an extra 15 minutes to be there? Ever made it to downtown in an hour and 45 minutes? Me either! :-)

This is the shirt that Brian hates. He walks up to me swishes the sleeve and is like, "what's going on here?" I said what? They're just sleeves! He says, "yeah, but why is there so much of them?" I said, you just don't know style! This is in style! People are wearing this kind of thing! He's like, "who? Gradma's?" He's no longer allowed to give his opinion on my wardrobe! haha

We shopped downtown and made it to about three stores, two of which were Forever 21. The next day we hit up our third Forever! We came out with a haul! haha Ash is displaying one of her new purchases!

Thank goodness we were near the bathroom! Kate broke the seal early and went to the bathroom like 10 times during our hour and a half dinner! No joke!

They gave us champagne for my birthday!

They actually gave Kate one too. Apparently Melting Pot isn't too concerned about underage drinking! haha

Ash kept talking about how cute Whit, Kate and I looked, but she was the smart one because we all had swollen feet by the end of the day! We should really be more worried about function rather than form these days! haha

Kate and Whit were walking to the ATM before lunch and a homeless lady asked them for a dollar. They obviously didn't have any cash, hence the ATM. When they said they didn't have a dollar, she said "yeah, you guys look skimpy and cold!" Huh?!

The Ultimate Surprise!

2009-10-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

So my 29th birthday is this Wednesday and I just assumed that it would come and go like most birthdays do. Boy was I wrong! First, Ash and Holly broke a surprise to me that they were taking me to Chicago for the weekend to shop for my birthday. They spoiled the surprise because Brian had a ticket for me to go to the U of I game with him and they were worried I'd be mad if I missed the game. Secondly, they had said we should go out to dinner for my birthday Friday night. I thought that sounded like fun, so I told them we should go to Reality Bites. Ash said great and told me who she thought we'd invite. I asked if I could invite Ben and Marissa as well since they were part of that whole Ozarks group. She said the more the merrier! I don't think she meant for me to take that literally. So I went and invited Adam and Amy, Tyler, Denise, Heidi and Jarod and couple others. All of which had plans that night. Strange! :-) Little did I know that their plans were coming to my surprise birthday party! It was the best surprise ever! Ash called at 6pm to tell me that Reality Bites didn't have our reservation down and so she had called Biaggis in a panic and they ironically had last minute cancellations and could get us in. Brian had told me that he had gotten sick at work and was pretty sure he had the flu so he wasn't going to be able to make it. I was bummed thinking, the first year I have a boyfriend on a birthday and he's going to miss my dinner. But I took it all in stride. It was on my way to dinner that I started thinking about stuff and thought, you know if they really wanted to get me, they could have changed the restaurant and have more of my friends here and Brian's not actually sick, but I kept thinking, no they wouldn't have done that. Don't hope for that or you might get disappointed when you walk in and there's just the 8 people that you knew were coming to dinner and Brian's still sick! :-) But I just had this feeling walking in from the parking lot that there was more to this. That maybe Heidi and Jarod and Adam and Amy's plans were for my dinner, but I just kept shoving it aside only to walk into a room where 35 people are yelling surprise FOR ME! It was such a buzz! I looked around the room and saw so many friends and family. All people I care about and mean so much to me in my life! It was awesome and meant the world to me that they had all come and that everyone had gone to so much trouble to pull it all off, especially with me trying to "help"! haha It was a great evening and I can't thank everyone enough who was there and who helped plan it all! Truly one of the best birthdays I've ever had!

Ash and Hols were panicked with how many people I had told about Reality Bites. They kept fielding phone calls from people trying to figure out if the plans had changed. Apparently planning a surprise party for a planner is not easy to do! haha

He got me good! I was planning on taking him soup and crackers after dinner because I truly thought he was sick! He just wanted to be in on the surprise as well. It worked! :-)

Whit wanted to borrow my shirt because her and Isaac had dinner plans. When I asked where they were going she didn't know. I thought that was awfully odd but I was too busy getting ready I didn't think much of it!

They nailed it all! I love zebra print and I love bright green! They paid attention to every detail! They invited over 85 of my friends to be there! Talk about an undertaking!

They didn't think they could pull it off for my 30th so they got me a year early!

I kept trying to convince these two to get a babysitter for their kids so they could come to Reality Bites! Ben was so confused on the plans he didn't want to say anything about if they could or couldn't come so he just played stupid! He does that well! haha

They even tracked down people from my old small group to be there! Such a special night!

Kate was trying to throw me off by asking me a thousand questions through text as to where I was, what I was doing, what Brian got me for my birthday, if I wanted to hang out after dinner, etc. I had no clue she was sending them all from Biaggis!

The masterminds behind my party! Great job guys! Love you two!

I had been texting Amy all week trying to convince her to change her dinner plans to come to my birthday dinner. She kept ignoring me! Suspcious! haha

Laundry Treat!

2009-10-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

Brian had a tv delivered to his house a week ago, so I told him I'd work from his place, so I could sign for it when it got delivered and then he didn't have to worry about tracking it down or having it sitting on his front porch all day while he was at work. While I was there I figured I'd help him out and do some laundry. It was pretty much selfishly motivated because he spends half his weekend doing laundry so I figured if I helped out, he'd have more time to spend with me! haha Either he's a slow laundry doer or he just doesn't do it all at once because in an afternoon I had ALL his laundry done, plus sheets washed and put back on his bed and towels washed and put away. I also had time to drop his shirts off at the cleaners. He was so blown away by all that I had done that he said he was going to treat me for all my hard work, so we went to Jim's Steakhouse for dinner. I hadn't been there in years but you can't go wrong with their augratin potatos and their Brittany dressing. Sooooo good!

You can kind of see my coat hanging on my chair. Well I had that on when I got to his place. I guess you could think it was my outfit but it's a tie waist coat that has 3/4 sleeves and belled ruffle sleeves. When I got to his place, he was like you want to take off your coat and stay awhile? I said, well I thought we'd be leaving in a few minutes. He was like, oh that's really a coat? I was like yeah, what'd you think it was? He was like, well I didn't know! You have all kinds of interesting outfits that should be dresses or who knows what and they're your shirt so I was confused! He was like, don't get me wrong, I love it as a coat! :-) Boys, when you want them to have an opinion about your clothes they don't and when you'd prefer they keep their mouth shut, they always have an opinion! haha

Pfest!

2009-10-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well it only comes around once a year but it's always memorable. You can't let fall go by without a trip to the Pumpkin Festival. Now besides the eating and all the mingling you do, there's not a whole lot to it. We could probably all get together once a year without all the fuss, but then what's the fun in that? This year I branched out and actually tried the pumpkin stuff. Not sure how I've been going for like 15 years and only eaten the donuts. But I will say the rest of the stuff is delicious as well. Brian had never been to Pumpkin Festival and at first didn't understand why everyone was saying stuff about "Pfest" but by the end of the evening he was using the lingo fitting in with all the rest of the cool kids! haha By the time we had run into my 20th friend, he looks at me and says, "you know I'll never remember all these names, right?" I said, no worries, I don't expect you to! He said good! I've forgotten more of your friends name than I actually have friends! haha We went up to Pfest with Ben and Marissa and then they left early and we got delayed talking to people and didn't end up going back to their house afterwards. I will probably never live that down with Ben because he had planned the whole after party just because of me! Whoops! I did honestly feel really bad!

Avery was dancing around to the music in the food tent! Such a cutie!

Brian tried to win me a stuffed animal! I was kind of glad he didn't! Not that the gesture wouldn't have been nice, but I was panicking as to where I was going to have to display my "treasure" after he won it for me! I'm not really the stuffed animal type all over the bed! :-)

He was skeptical of Pfest at first but by the end of the evening he was telling his dad and his brother that they should have come! He's always a little delayed in the enthusiasm area! haha I said one of these days you'll learn to trust me that I know what I'm talking about. Especially with food. If there's one thing I know, it's good food! haha

Pole Holding

2009-10-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

Brian bought a Polaris Ranger and keeps it at his dad's house on the farm. He's been wanting to take me fishing for a while so a couple Saturdays ago it worked out to go out there. It was a gorgeous day and it was so hot that day that we hit up the pool first and then head out to the farm. He kept asking me if I'd actually fish. I said sure! As long as I don't have to bait the hook or touch the fish, I'm fine! :-) He's like that's not fishing, that's pole holding! I said fine! You go fishing, I'll go pole holding! And that's exactly what we did! haha His dad had made some Texas cake that we also partook of. It was awesome! I love the country! It was a great day to just relax and enjoy some country livin!

I had just learned the side arm cast here. I also love the fact that it looks like he took this with a wide angled lens! haha

Can't get more peaceful setting than that!

Not sure why I held the camera so high in the air! Makes it look like God is the one who took the picture! haha

I caught a fish! As you can see, I knew EXACTLY what to do with it when I reeled it in! Dance around, scream and stay as far away from that little slimy buggar as much as possible! haha

I got a little more daring but I was keeping my eye on him! He wiggled a lot!

Now if you hadn't seen the first two pictures, you'd think I was a natural born fisherman! :-)

Brian wouldn't let me take any pictures of his catches because he thought they were all too small to document, but I at least got this one which he still claims is tiny. There were no tall tales of the fish we caught that day. :-)

So sunglasses might have been a smart idea. I kept thinking, the Ranger only goes 50mph? Big deal. That's not THAT fast! Well it is when there's no windshield, doors and bugs flying straight into your eyes!

Labor Day Weekend Cali Style

2009-10-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

So I always go home in the spring and the fall to see my parents and just have a little getaway. Each time I go the amount of time I stay seems to grow. In March I went home for two weeks and that turned into 6 weeks. This fall I went home for 2 1/2 weeks. Even when I think I'm staying a healthy length of time, my dad is still trying to convince me to stay longer. Well this time I had a boy to bring home. I stressed over it a little because it was really soon to be meeting my parents especially when my parents are 3000 miles away. We had talked about him coming out over Labor Day but we hadn't made any definite plans and with the whole meeting the folks thing, it seemed to get slow walked. So I just surprised him with a ticket instead and flew him out. He was excited and nervous to say the least but ultimately didn't quite understand the big thrill about California. He'd been before and he didn't share my excitement about how cool it would be........until he got there! :-) The pictures are out of order thanks to the lovely Blogger photo uploader, but you'll get the idea!

I took him on a whirlwind tour of Southern California and hit all my hot spots! My absolute favorite is our condo in Carlsbad!

We ate breakfast down at the clubhouse. The terrace overlooks the lagoon and the 18th green! So beautiful! He said he felt like he needed a cable knit sweater to wrap around his shoulders to fit in! haha

Then on to La Jolla to see the seals. Unfortunately people were on their beach so there were few to see, but we did get to see a few swim up upon unsuspecting snorklers. I don't know about you, but that's not what I have in mind when I go snorkeling is to look up and see a round face full of whiskers in front of me!

I love La Jolla because of all the cliffs and rocks overhanging the beach. It was gorgeous weather the whole time he was there. It was like 95 before and after he arrived and about 80 the whole weekend he was out. He was the lucky charm apparently! :-)

Brian likes to take scenery pictures. Me......not so much! If people aren't in them, I will never look at them again! I figure what's the point! I'm not going to care about some random cliff or beach unless I'm standing in front of that random cliff or beach. So I humored him and he's a scenery picture! I have LOTS of these from his stay because he stole my camera while we drove down the PCH! :-)

We finished the day with some shoe shopping in downtown San Diego and dinner at one of our favorites, Peohe's. It over looks the skyline of San Diego and is right on the water. We even lucked out because they were shooting off fireworks that night and we were front and center for them! He loves fireworks! I couldn't have planned it better myself!

San Diego skyline

This is where the weekend actually began. We took him to Balboa and went bike riding along the beach. It was a first for me too! We don't own bikes but my mom's friend Kathy does. It was a little crazy trying to dodge everyone walking or darting out at you on the boardwalk but it was really cool to ride along the ocean. Brian loves to bike ride so it was totally up his alley.

We took the car ferry over to Balboa from Newport and had some NY style pizza before our bike ride. Next time I'll remember to try and get the bike with the cushy seat. My butt hurt for days! haha

He had never been to the Pacific side, so we put our feet in the water. It was warm for the Pacific but a whopping 70 degrees still feels REALLY cold!

Bike riding was my mom's idea. Props to Candy for coming up with such a fun plan for the day!

We ate at the Fisherman down in San Clemente which is on the pier, literally sitting on the water. We sat on the patio and you can actually see the water beneath you through the planks on the patio. We did the crab feast and that's exactly what it was. It was a little less appetizing when they bring it out with head and feet still attached. Nothing like ripping the body apart to have your dinner!

Brian said at dinner that he couldn't figure out what I was so excited about with him coming out but now he got it. He can see now why I like it out there so much. Now he can't wait to go back! :-)

We walked the pier which is about a 1/4 of a mile in length. I wore high heels which is a little tricky on the planks. You either pull your heel out of the crack every 10 seconds or walk barefoot. Neither one was a very good alternative!

Praise the Lord

2009-10-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

My mom's friend Kathy has a daughter named Crystal who is a great singer and she got asked to sing on TBN's Praise the Lord show. Mom asked me to go with her and I wasn't paying much attention when I said yes. I just thought we were going to hear her sing. Little did I know the production it was going to be. It was a show about Heaven and Hell and people having near death experiences. It was really pretty interesting. We got to be in the audience and were actually on tv a couple times when they panned to the crowd!

My mom was a little more enthusiastic with her clapping so she got on tv more than I did. haha

The set was like I dream of Jeanie meets the Tonight Show!

All of TBN is terribly gaudy!

I bet all that gold could feed a lot of hungry kids!

I've never seen so much gold in one place in my entire life!

It was more impressive during the day to see all the marble everywhere. At Christmas it about causes wrecks along the freeway because of how many lights are on it!

State Fair

2009-10-02T23:31:00.000-07:00

Luke is on a pit crew for an ARCA racing team and his first race was in Springfield at the state fair. Their car got out early but it was so fun to watch it anyway. Ash and I were so excited for him, you would have thought Luke was the one driving the car! There's something about the rumbling of the engine and the cars whizzing past at 180mph that takes your breath away a little bit. Reminds me of my experienced race car driving days! haha

They were car 66. Brian and I went to grab some food and came back to find out they had wrecked and were out of the race! :-(

First mandatory pit

Luke is the one on the front tire

Brian brought me my own set of ear plugs! How sweet! haha

He was relieved when it was over. He said he about threw up before it started! haha

Doggy Daycare

2009-10-02T23:29:00.000-07:00

It's always a trip when this group gets together! Brian says he has to sometimes process what is said before he reacts because he's like, "did they really just say that?" Maybe a filter at times would be better! haha Regardless, we always have a great time together. Tonight in particular, Hols was filling us in on doggy daycare. They have a golden lab and they take her to doggy daycare twice a week while they're at work. Hols said they separate the big dogs and little dogs, they have play areas and pools for the dogs and they even have a timeout that no dog wants to go in, because they have to watch all the other dogs play while they sit in timeout. Hilarious what we can do for our pets these days!

Tim had a mustache contest at work for a United Way fundraiser. He grew it long and then Hols put pink and purple beads in it for him. I think he got 2nd!

We got Ash that sundress for her birthday! She looked adorable! However, she needed a little goo gone for her flip flops we got her. They would stick to her heel and then sling shot off at any given moment!

Ash had to pose as my date since my date was sleeping while we ate! I only accepted that excuse about twice before I started forcing him to go to dinner with me and my friends! haha

I believe this was after some more non filtered conversation! haha

Oh look who woke up and decided to join us! :-)

Tiffany and Denver's Wedding

2009-10-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

You couldn't have asked for a better setting for a wedding. At your house, on the outskirts of town, outside, small group. It was gorgeous! Tiffany looked beautiful! Stephanie had given her extensions and her hair looked awesome!

Her dress looked great and great on her!

Mr. and Mrs. Denver Nord!

The happy couple!

Steve had some awesome dance moves! They consisted of swaying back and forth! haha

I made myself completely scarce during the bouquet toss. They were actually calling people out onto the dance floor. I conveniently had to go to the bathrom.

Haley's kids had some sweet dance moves which she claims they didn't learn from her! Sure, Haley, sure! :-)

Haley and Tater were my date for the evening! Brian wasn't quite ready for the meet all my friends wedding debut! haha

Old roomies!

Birthday at Gill?!

2009-10-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

Ash's bday was August 5th and we treated her to appetizers out and a volleyball game at Gill Street......Brian's volleyball game that is! Aren't we awesome friends?! haha Actually we did take her out on a separate night to celebrate but on her actual birthday we went to Gill. She wanted to meet Brian, so this was an easy non conspicuous way to do it. He started catching on by about the third week when each game there was a new set of friends showing up at his games. He finally started saying, so who is coming tonight that I'm going to be meeting? Apparently I wasn't quite as sly as I had hoped! haha

Ash was paranoid about her headband, but I thought it was cute

Love this girl! We've been through a lot together!

Need to get crackin on thos are weights! I look like I have saggy old lady arms!

Dinner with B

2009-10-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

This was a couple weeks into our relationship and I was discovering I was liking him more and more. I had been trying to pinpoint his personality and thought I had it nailed down but was asking him some questions at dinner one night about if he's taken a personality test. Now he would say I was drilling him with questions and he felt like he was on an interview. He thought I was trying to make him come up with reasons as to why we should keep dating and thought for sure I was going to end it. haha Not so! I just like getting to know people! He has now gotten used to what he calls the "interview game" and knows that's just me. Not sure he likes the "interview game" but goes along with it for my sake! haha

We were a little overdressed for Rosatti's Pizza, but I always dress to impress especially this early on in a relationship. I think it was weeks later that he got to see me without makeup. He said I didn't look too scary! haha

Personal Shopper!

2009-10-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

So Erika got a new job at White House Black Market and also had her 10 year class reunion, so we had a few things to accomplish. 1. celebrate her new job and 2. find her an outfit so she looked hot with all her old classmates! :-) I'm not one to brag, but it would not be the first time someone has called upon me for my fashion expertise(totally kidding) to help them with an outfit. Erika is a great dresser but she's just never wandered into Forever 21 and attempted to dig through what they call clothing racks! haha So we spent about an hour and a half putting together a hot outfit to make all her old flames wish they had never let her go! Just kidding!

Congrats to Erika on her new job at White House Black Market! I'm hoping she can hook me up with her discount! haha

We love the downtown Champaign area. So many fun restaurants! It looks like we all talked about posing with our arms over each other, but that was just luck! haha

Just Keep Walking and Act Normal!

2009-10-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

So Erin's 30th was this summer and her mom threw her a surpise party! You got to love a surprise party especially when you're almost responsible for ruining the surprise party! You see with surprise parties there are too many elements for them to pull off just right. Some people can't keep their mouth shut, or forget and just say "see ya Friday" when the surprisee is like "what's Friday?". Then you have the classic case of the surprisee seeing everyone's cars in the neighborhood or in our case, were arriving at the house the same time Erin was. A little more time before she got there might have made it just a smidge more fool proof! haha Haley, me and Heidi were walking up to the house when we realized that Erin was sitting in the driveway in her sister's mini van and looking straight at us. What do we do? Where do we go? What do we say? Just keep on walking! We don't look suspicious or anything! Three girls walking the neighborhood at night with purses on our shoulders and hats on. Yeah, that's just everyday fare in Morton! haha Thankfully Erin didn't see us and we didn't ruin the surprise, however we weren't exactly in the house to be able to surprise her either! :-)

Erin's mom made us an awesome meal!

She also had a yummy cake!

Ode to the days when you looked forward to blowing out the candles! Now there are so many on the cake, no one wants to light them all so you just do one and pretend there's 30! haha

Great night catching up with old friends!

We look like Britany Spears and a Bratz doll!

Abby did NOT follow the instructions....she didn't wear a hat! :-)

This may look like a bad attempt at see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil, but we were just trying to throw off the face recognition on my camera! haha

4th Date......Homerun Derby?!

2009-10-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

So the cat's out of the bag! I have a boyfriend! I know, I know! You're about as surprised as I am! I have to pinch myself at times to make sure I'm not dreaming! haha Not only do I have a boyfriend but he's been around longer than 6 weeks! Big feat for me! Big feat! I usually scare them away oh right around 4 weeks! I'd like to say I was joking with that last statement, but unfortunately it's true! :-) So since I'm backdating this posts, at this point Brian and I had been on 4 DATES, yes 4 DATES and he asked me to Homerun Derby. I thought this was kind of a big gesture coming from the guy that told the girl that set us up that there were no sparks on date 1! haha Even more so, he paid for my ticket! It was $375!!!! AND he wouldn't let me pay him back! So now I'm going to St. Louis with this guy and his brother who I barely know. For all I know, they could pull off the road and leave me for dead on the way down! haha But I went and we had a great time! I'm not a Cardinals fan so I went and supported my Cubs even though no Cubs were actually in the homerun derby, but I was still wearing my Cubs t-shirt proudly! :-)

We ate at McClusker's for lunch. It had an awesome outdoor garden area to sit in. Can you tell were still awkward with each other at this point? I look like I'm not sure what to do! haha

Now I don't know if you've ever dated a twin before but let me tell ya, it's a tricky business! Thank the Lord they wore different colored shirts that day or I would have been in trouble! haha

Jenni had a friend that worked for Budweiser and he gave us a tour. We got to sample beer right out of the filtering barrel. It was actually a -3 three days fresh! The born on date doesn't go on till it's packaged! :-)

VIP tour! Yep, that's how we roll! haha

On the VIP tour you get to pet the Clydesdales.......

and chase after them! Susie over there didn't care that she was ruining our photo opp! They are kind of spoiled horses! I've never seen such exquisite conditions for a horse! haha

It was rather surreal to be at the Homerun Derby. Lots of excitement! My favorite of the whole night......the hot dog! It was amazing! I'm sure Brian thought that it was so worth it to spend all that money on me for me to say my favorite was the hot dog! haha

The participants. Pujols was the crowd favorite by far being a Cardinal. He knew it too! He was strutting around there like he was the pope!

I'll let you take a guess on which one is Brian. You might think it's the one I'm standing closer to, but it's not! I was keeping some healthy distance between us with my purse! haha

They say opposites attract and we would be a classic case of that! I mean seriously, a Cardinals fan?! I thought my dad was going to disown me! haha

You can tell who he likes more.......this is his profile pic on Facebook! haha

High on Fumes!

2009-10-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

So it seems to be a tradition that when Nichole and Aaron move, I come out and bum a few meals off of them and help them paint! :-) This time I was WAY more willing to come help because they moved back near Burlington which means they are a whole two hours closer to me! Yay! Not that I didn't just absolutely LOVE that five hour drive before, because I did. Let me really have time with my thoughts. However, after an hour into I realize I don't have a lot of thoughts! :-) You know how many times you can sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall on a five hour drive? About 4 times! haha All joking aside, I'm thrilled to have them closer. I love getting together with old friends and being able to always pick up where we left off and that's exactly what Nichole and I do!

After a fun filled day of painting, we went to treat ourselves with some chicken lips! Don't judge until you've tried them!

Marie showed us their parents condo that was upstairs from the restaurant we ate at. I didn't know there were drawers that you could buy that don't slam! :-)

These three thought it would be funny to be triplets for the night. Nichole gave her brothers specific instructions "pick out a cool outfit for Aaron". That apparently includes dressing exactly like his in-laws! haha

The three identical amigos!

Sexy mama! Look at those hidden bra straps! That took some creatvity and a trip to Target to hide those babies! haha

It was a Twilight Day!

2009-10-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

Whit has a new love in her life. His name is Rob Pattinson and he is a vampire! Not sure what the appeal is. I've never been attracted to someone who is butt white and could suck my blood but whatever! So for Whit's birthday, Kate and I gave Whit a Rob Pattinson themed day. It rained all day on the 4th of July, so we changed our plans and took Whit to Champaign to go shopping.

Her day started out with Rob's favorite lunch......which is hamburgers. So I brought Whit some McDonald's in her new Rob Pattinson lunch box.

She acts embarassed, but she thought it was TOTALLY cool and she takes that thermos to class with her. All the kids want to be just like her! haha

Then we had a goody bag in the car with none other than a Twilight bag to put all her goodies in. Whit said, you know I'll never carry that right?

We took her to one of my Champaign favorites called Cowboy Monkey and had some awesome tacos. I also gave Whit some more of her gift. A Twilight bookmark and a Twilight jewelry box. Can't forget to mention the poster of Rob that we took with us on a poster board so Rob was with us all day. He had a blast! His favorite were the tacos too! haha

Please ignore the fact that I look like Mickey Mouse in the this picture and let's get back to Whit's birthday! :-) So after a star studded filled day, she came home to rest her head on her pillow that now has been screen printed with Rob's face on it. I thought she'd think it was nuts, but she apparently likes to be close to him at night and actually sleeps on it! haha

4th of July on North Shore

2009-10-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

It's a tradition to spend 4th of July weekend in Chicago. Usually we go to the Taste and watch fireworks near the water. This year we switched it up a little bit. We went to North Shore beach. Now I'm not usually a fan of the beach. It has way too much of the one thing I hate most.......SAND! There's no good way to go to the beach! You lay down a blanket and you walk all around the edges and not actually on it and then some dumb kid comes by and kicks up sand onto your neatly sand free blanket! You go home home with sand in all your bags and crevices that you sometimes may not find out about till hours or days later! Yuck! But worst of all, you can't even wash off. Lake water is less than appealing or the ocean makes my just cleanly shaven legs burn like the dickens, so there you have my aversion to the beach.......BUT for some reason this year it sounded like fun! So Denise and I got some last minute reservations on Priceline and stayed downtown at the Congress Hotel literally right across the street from the Taste. Remember this sentence, "RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE TASTE"! It will come into play later on as you see pictures! :-)

So the plan was to go to the beach, out to dinner, down to the Taste and watch fireworks......this did not happen.

We waited for about a half hour till Lindsey and her friends got there. Denise wasn't sure if they would like the spot we picked out, so we sat with nothing spread out till they got there. Denise looked like she was doing a photo shoot with the blanket on top of the cooler!

Look at these hotties on the beach!

So remember when I said we were right across the street from the Taste? Well we left our hotel, hopped on the L and took that way over to Lincoln Park area to have dinner and watch fireworks from a friend's apartment that swore we could see them from his roof. First bummer, we weren't eating at Half Shell which is what we had been craving all day. I couldn't wait to dig into some crab legs and drawn butter. Second bummer, bad directions. We walked 10 minutes out of our way to find out that the restaurant was the other direction from the L. Third bummer, you CAN NOT, I repeat CAN NOT see the fireworks from this guy's roof! I mean if you would take down the entire Chicago city skyline then yes, we would have had like front row seats! Did I say that our hotel was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE TASTE?! haha

So we ended up at this barbecue joint. I hate barbecue and so does Denise but they assured us they had other stuff. Yeah, they have other stuff. You just ask for it without barbecue sauce and then it's bone dry! haha

Needless to say our 4th of July in Chicago was a smidge of a let down, but being in Chicago is always still fun.

D and I were tad bit annoyed though to find out that they all went to Half Shell the next night without us. Guess that parking issue wasn't an issue 24 hours later! haha

Olivers with Dietrichs

2009-10-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

So the bad news is I don't have a lot of luck in dating......the good news is I make lots of new friends with their families when the guy and I fall out! haha The Dietrichs and I try to do dinner about once a month. We take turns between Bloomington and Bourbonnais. I always tell them that they should come here because Bloomington is WAY better than Bourbonnais! haha This night we went to Olivers in Bourbonnais and then to go see My Sister's Keeper! Always a great time!

Why do we take pictures of people's food? Is it because I always want to remember Tiffany's salad?! haha

Karen is one of the most happenings moms I know! She's got the best style!

Tiff and I are like kindred spirits! We want kids someday, but someday isn't for a looooooong time! haha

I didn't know that taking a picture was so difficult. You know those new cameras where you look at the screen rather than through the lens, they're pretty tricky!

Maybe zooming in a bit works better! Just cut off half of my arm this time! haha

Lake Hamilton

2009-10-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

We don't get to spend a lot of time with the Hubers these days because everyone has kids and lives of their own that make things extremely busy, so when we had the chance to spend a weekend together, we all jumped at the chance. Rachel and Jason put together a lake weekend for us and it was a blast! We had a great time all being together and hope that it becomes a tradition because it was so fun!

Will apparently wakes up in the middle of the night and tells Jarod "yo dad, my exzema is bothering me!" :-) Amazing vocabulary that little guy has! haha

There is nothing about this angle that is flattering! I've got to remember that that hairstyle on me does NOT photograph well! haha

They were playing hide and seek in the tube! They almost fooled us!

Christen showed us all up with her mad wakeboarding skills!

Will tore it up out on the water on the jet ski! haha

He was a little natural skiing with Jarod. We were all terrified for him, but he was a trooper!

Having your dad ski with one hand and jostling you around isn't scary at all, but being safely secure back in the boat and watching your mom ski is deathly scary! :-)

I love those little chubby cheeks......Faye's that is! haha

No one believed me when I was lathering on 30spf. They all just ignored my warnings! Well they all got tan and I came home with nothing. Guess they showed me! haha

Jaret and Shar have the funniest kids!

This took about three tries to get one with everyone's eyes open.

Olive Garden over Fiesta?!

2009-06-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

It's always fun to get together with this group. Usually we spend half the evening in hysterics. Let me recap:

1. We were supposed to meet at 6pm which had been switched from 7pm originally.
2. Luke thought we were still meeting at 7pm, so he hadn't left his apartment when we called him at 6:30pm
3. Josh was late because the roof/ceiling was falling in on his plane and they spent more time on the runway to fix and he still FLEW home on that plane.
4. He wanted a welcome home party at the airport, but not like last time filled with balloons, a welcome home sign, brownies, clowns and a donkey(not to be confused with Chris)
5. Josh still doesn't wear navy and black together based on my fashion advice from 5 years ago!
6. Luke has unusually soft hands!
7. Luke has some hilarious hand gestures that kept us entertained all evening! They included rising taxes, a plane flying, "getting together", and sawing some limbs!
8. Luke has flown 3 times in his life and has an opposition to checking his luggage no matter what the size!
9. Josh is dating Jackie who went on a date with Luke 4 years ago, which apparently went downhill after Luke didn't call her till Thursday(they went out on Sunday) and she was out of town. He called her up mad on Saturday and that pretty much put an end to their potential relationship.
10. However, Jackie and Luke still are cordial and share an interest in John Wayne movies
11. Josh likes John and Kate Plus 8 and was upset to see them split up.
12. Josh has a girlfriend in Florida who says mmmm....when he walks into a room, and calls him her tender vitals!
13. Josh plays April Fools jokes on Luke and he can only tell some of them because others are inside jokes that he rudely wouldn't tell the rest of the table! :-)
14. Luke doesn't like Fiesta Ranchera, so we couldn't eat there. Then he ordered soup at Olive Garden! You can get soup anywhere! He has a thing with textures! I am with him on tomatos! Yuck!
15. Amanda was going to the New Kids on the Block concert that weekend and was going to be amongst the other 40 year olds that are still in love with them! haha

Never a dull moment with this crowd. Luke, you'll have to let me know if I recapped the evening well of if I'm leaving out key moments! :-)

From left to right: Luke, Chris, Amanda, me, Katie, Jackie, Josh

A guy from another table almost jumped in the picture with us and Josh was wondering about his hand placement in take 2!

Ashley and Caleb's Wedding 6-13-09

2009-06-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

Ashley was in two of my small group's a couple years ago. We've stayed in touch even after she moved and went to Trinity. She met her husband Caleb up there. She looked gorgeous and it was a sweet ceremony. Her dad didn't even make it one step into the sanctuary before he fell apart. He bawled and she sniffled all the way down the aisle. As Oprah would say, "I slipped into the ugly cry!" haha Congrats Ashley and Caleb!

Caleb stood up front and I sat there confused as to who that guy was. Caleb had chopped off all his curls and I didn't even recognize him!

We had a fun table. One of the guys was a pastor in training. He was very bummed at the dry wedding. He also doubles as a mosquito fogger at night. Yes, my thoughts exactly! I didn't know a job like that existed. I thought I'd be all smart and ask him if he thought lime disease was being kept under control. That's when he informed me that he wasn't sure since lime disease was from ticks and it was molaria that you have to worry about with mosquitos! haha

Instead of clanking glasses to get them to kiss, your table had to stand up and sing a song that had the word love in it. Our table opted out when we knew we couldn't compete with the table that sang the Oscar Myer weiner song!

When I went to the bathroom a lady complimented me on my dress. She said, "I love your dress! I saw you when you first walked and I thought, that dress is sooooo pretty! Looks like something that you see at prom!" Thanks......I think! So are you saying I'm trying to look 18?!

Denise's 30th Birthday! 5-29-09/5-30-09

2009-06-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

So I've been getting harassed about not having posted pictures for over a month, so here's what I've been up to! :-) This was Denise's birthday. We ended up celebrating two days. We had a blast! We ate at Swingers for dinner on Friday night and then went to The Loft for a martini and then on to Six Strings to hear a country band and do some dancing.

Day 2 of Denise's birthday hoopla. Can you tell Keith was landscaping all day with his brother? He was a little tired....or drugged! :-)

Not sure what she was talking about, but it looks like she's really letting me have it! haha

Ok, we made up! :-)

Denise's basket of 30 things that represented her. She's showing off her shooters(those are mini alcohol bottles just for the record!) I like to call her Sir-mix-a-lot!

Steph is due in October. I'm not even pregnant and I look like I'm further along than she is! Philip says it's becuase her stomach was concave to begin with!

So my patio furniture is in the crapper, so we decided to WT it and sit outside with all plastic lawn chairs!

Hmm.....I could say multiple things about this picture starting with the height difference with these guys. Can you say Twins(Arnold Schwarteneger and Danny Devito)? Also, why is it that guys have such an opposition to standing "too close" together? :-)

Is there an AA type group for tanners? JK

Philip clearly thought he was out of the photo, but just in case he wasn't he smiled anyway!

Just getting in a little practice for the real thing. Who knew Jill's would be coming so soon? She just got engaged this past weekeend!

Our tennis crew. Were still working on being able to return the ball but we have fun!

Michael is dedicated. He went to 2 30th birthday parties that day. I think he just heard there was going to be cake!

Something about this makes me feel like we should be going to a circus not a birthday party.

Keith wanted to be able to stop traffic in his new shirt. He accomplished his goal!

The Yonkers

I teased Ash about how much she said she hated her outfit that night when I was the one that bought her that shirt, but she assured me she knew I had bought it and LOVES the shirt but she just wanted something more dressy to wear.

Shannon was so much fun. She's going to teach us how to salsa dance next week!

Denise was eating steak. That is a VERY rare ocurrence. I had to have proof. The cow farmers will be glad to know that Denmise may be back in the market again for beef someday soon!

Nothing like a fireworks display tableside. We kept a close eye on it though. With all the hairspray in that room, anyone could have gone up in flames at a moments notice! :-)

Can you tell Denise is a band instructor? She's the only one sitting up straight in her chair!

Thank you Denise for holding my shirt in the back, so I dont look like I'm wearing a potato sack for a shirt!

Pretty sure it looks like I have an intertube blown up and put around my chest underneath my shirt!

The beginning of one crazy night of dancing!

It's a silly posed picture D, not just lean over and tilt your head to the side and smile!

The party poopers. They were in bed by like 9pm!

More Yonkers

So the martini was sweet, but Jill's reaction was a little exaggerated! :-)

Luke - "Oh were we not supposed to smile?"

Keith - "No"

Luke - "Ok, ok, let's try it again!"

There we go!

It was a very intense game of trying to "stab" all the cherries at the bottom of the glass, and then show off your stem knotting skills!

32oz martini and she drank it all by herself!

I was having trouble getting my fingers in the "rock on" symbol. Looks a little more like I love you!

Denise was a natural cage dancer!

Denise and her tambourine debut!

Shannon didn't know I didn't dance, so it took the pressure off to be able to just go out and try it!

You're probably wondering why I have a reflector hanging from my ear the size of a coaster, but Disco is back baby! :-)

They weren't quite ready. They were still in planning mode to do...

THIS! So original!

Jill had never gone out with Keith. She was interested to see her brother outside of sibling mode. I think she was a bit surprised! We always tell her how funny he is.....she finally had proof! :-)

Keith dancing with the birthday girl!

Poor Luke! I'm two inches taller than him flatfooted. With three inch heels on, he didn't have a chance! :-)

We rode around in style all night in Shannon's minivan! There were even Cheez-its all over the floor just in case we got hungry for a snack!

Luke and I started making up dnaces because just line dancing was soooo following the crowd. Our dance was a little lord of the dance meets just flailing about!

Most of the time we didn't know what we were doing, but we just had fun doing it anyway!

Luke and I's second dance......the penguin dance!

Aww! Brother and sister slow dance!

The girls got pulled up on stage. Shannon and D were a toss up on the tambourine ability!

Obviously not ready. Even though D and I are smiling, not exactly our natural smiles!

Such a fun night with good friends!

Note to self.....if you're going dancing all night DON'T wear three inch heels! I'm pretty sure my feet still hurt!

We worked up a sweat! I went to the bathroom to towel off and had to laugh at being the only sober one in there. Everyone coming out of the stalls was having a hard time staying on their feet!

We had a brush with fame. This was the lead singer of Southern Cross. You laugh now, but when they are playing at Grand Ole Opry, you'll be jealous!

Memorial Day 5-25-09

2009-06-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

Holly and Tim invited us out for burgers and hot dogs on the grill. She said it was low key and that she already had all the food at her place, but it was far from low key. It was just Ash and Luke, Holly and Tim and me and there was enough food to feed an army. Felt like one of my cookouts! haha Holly had burgers and in her case a veggie burger. Easy to distinguish on the grill, because they are usually green or orange. Yum! The nice part about veggie burgers is there isn't really a way to screw them up. You just cook them till they're warm! She also had potato salad, pesto pasta salad, chips and dip, fruit, veggies, carrot casserole, beans, chips and salsa, and dessert. Chase loved the row boat and fishing. Ty had fun to just running around. He was covered in mud from head to toe literally by the end of the evening.

Ty thought he see if it was a finger shredder as well as a paper shredder!

I believe the rule is, when you run downhill, stick out your tongue. Helps give you balance!

Chase could NOT wait to go in the boat. He kept asking Luke when he could paddle!

Chase thought the boat should go faster. Luke was paddling as fast as he could!

Tim gave Ty a "tree" that he thought was soooooo cool to drag around or wave over his head!

I told you he was covered in mud from head to toe! Not sure how he got it on his face, but he was all over the place!

If an 18 month old can fit in your mailbox, IT'S TOO BIG!

The mailbox also doubles for a horse!

He was so proud of his fish! He had Luke and Tim digging up the yard to look for more worms!

Ty watched Chase from a distance while he fished but yelled loud enough for him to hear him all the way down at the lake! :-)

Ringer Dinner 5-23-09

2009-06-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

We did our monthly Ringger dinner again in May. David and Kate couldn't make it, so I should probably call it something else, but it's easier for me to remember if I refer to it as that. Otherwise I would have to call it the Ringger, Zeller, Huber, Studebaker, Betts, VanHoof, and Yonker dinner. That doesn't exactly roll easy off the tongue! We went to El Paso to Alex and Julie's and then all rode together to Tolouca where we ate at Capponi's. It's always funny to me how the most unlikely places have the best food! After dinner we headed back to Alex and Julie's and had some awesome cheesecake that Julie had made. It's always fun to hang out with this group!

Holly doesn't eat much of any meat which is a little tough at times when we eat out. After asking the waitress if they had 4 or 5 different entrees to which the answer was no, we suggested she consult the menu to maybe order something they actually do have! :-)

My ear looks like an elf in this picture for some reason. So I was trying really hard to be casual that night. I put on a black cotton sundress that I hadn't worn yet this year, threw on some flip flops and put my hair in a ponytail because I was too lazy to straighten or curl it. I walked into to Ash and Luke's and Ash met me on the steps and greeted me with "oooooh, are we going to prom?!" That's when I knew my attempt at a casual sundress didn't quite work. I took my earrings out to try to dress down the outfit but my bubbled hair was apparently adding to the dressiness! :-)

Jill's First Pub II Experience 5-21-09

2009-06-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

So we discovered a couple weeks that Jill had never eat at the Pub. Denise and I were horrified at the thought that she had never tasted the delectable fried greasy food that the Pub has to offer, so we introduced her to Pub's infamous cheese balls! She pretty much thought they were amazing like we do! She even missed her boyfriend's softball game to help us finish off the nachoes. Now that's committment! :-)

We had quite the spread: onion rings, popcorn chicken, nachos, and cheese balls!

We look like we coordinate and didn't even try to. I like the fact that I look tan next to Jill. I look tan until........

I get next to Denise! I'm pretty sure that she would make our african american friends look pale! haha

Dinner with the Dietrich's 5-20-09

2009-06-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

The Dietrich's came down last month to see me. They wanted to see the happening town of Bloomington-Normal and see why I think this place is so much cooler than Bourbonnais! haha I took them to Biaggis. Italian is always a safe choice. I don't think Karen would have agreed to come if I had chosen Mexican! Just teasing Karen! :-)

It was a little tight on their side of the booth. Tiff was having a little trouble seeing her entire menu!

Lydia was so good! She even missed her nap, but she was so cute all night! Such a good sport! She likes girls night out too!

She loves her Grandma. Hard to believe she's a Grandma! She looks like she could be her mom!

Lydia is such a ham! Always cheesin for the camera!

Tiff decided to move to our side of the table. It had a little more room! She and I were like two peas in a pod on the ride home sharing in the same views on child rearing.......not currently wanting any! :-)

It's a rarety that my sisters actually think me or my clothes are cool enough, but this night was the exception because this was my shirt Kate has on! haha

Lydia wanted to talk to her brother. She was a natural on the cell phone. Watch out mom! She's going to need a lot of minutes! At one point I heard her said, "I already did! I did it like clean up, clean up......." She's 3 going on like 18! :-)

Night in Bourbonnais 5-15-09

2009-06-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

So I spent the week in Vegas for our National BHPH convention. The trip home was pretty eventful seeing that I found out the night before that you CANNOT fly standby on any other day than the day you are supposed to fly home. I ended up having to buy a one way ticket home since my original flight was supposed to get home on Monday instead of Friday. American quoted $400 dollars and I wasn't about to pay that for a one way ticket home when my flight out was less than $250. So I opted for looking for something myself. That left me with a flight home going from Vegas, to Cleveland, Cleveland to Indy and Indy to Chicago. Not exactly the most ideal trip home. I figured I could fly standby on one of the flights to take out a leg but the morons at the airports weren't getting what I was saying or helping customers look up every flight combination to Amsterdam so I took the puddle jumper flight home. When I got to Indy they had cancelled my flight due to weather. At that point, I would have just had someone pick me up in Indy, but seeing that my car was still sitting at O'hare, and I was supposed to hang out in Bourbonnais, I had no choice but to get a rental car and drive to Bourbonnais. So $460 later, I made it home. Expensive early return cost and at that point I'm sure the American Airlines customer service rep was laughing at me since I spent more flying all over the country and re-enacting Planes, Trains and Automobiles when I could have spent $400, had a straight flight to Chicago and left out all the extra drama!

Even after the all over the country travel, I still made it to Bourbonnais about 20 minutes after Denise! If I had trusted my instinct on the directions to Bourbonnais, I might have gotten there even earlier, but I followed someone else's directions(they shall remain nameless :-)) and got stuck in construction traffic for at least 30 minutes!

Matt, Keith calls him his farmer friend. He was trying to prove that he had friends, so the joke of the evening was that he paid Matt to hang out with us all night. I think the evening was twofold: he had to prove to Matt that he had fun friends from Bloomington and he had to prove to us that he had friends in Bourbonnais.

We gave Keith a hard time all night about EVERYTHING! This is him saying "what now?" He was a really good sport though!

Matt was a pretty decent pool player. He however was not impressed with my skills! I did not help out our team much!

We still won both games but not really because were awesome but because Keith and Denise have a tendency to scratch on the 8 ball!

They were good sports about losing and even treated us to a victory shot!

Keith and Matt got D good. She left her wallet just sitting wide open at the restaurant so they took her drivers license. When she went to buy a drink at the next place, she totally panicked not knowing where she had left her license. It was pretty funny to see her scramble!

He was trying to shove me out of the picture! We went to this martini bar. It was a pretty happening place.............FOR Bourbonnais! :-)

Keith was ready for the photo even though he looks like he's been put on pause in this picture!

He was a really good host! He had pizza, pop, and the newest episode of the Office awaiting us when we got back. He knows the way to our hearts......a little Michael Smith and Dwight Schrute! haha

NABD 5-12-09 - 5-14-09

2009-06-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

The National Buy Here Pay Here convention is one of our biggest shows that we do every year. This was the first year I've gotten to go. Usually we have other people that work the booth, so it was fun to be able to go and actually see our big booth. The thing is massive. Not sure it's worth the expense to haul that thing all over the Vegas strip, but it looks cool nonetheless. The exhibit hall was open only certain hours a day so when we weren't in session, I took advantage of the Vegas sun and caught some rays. Not bad for a work trip! :-) I did however have to listen to this lady run her mouth the ENTIRE time I was at the pool. I'm not sure she ever took a breath! From stories about her grandson to trips to Mexico, she was full of all kinds of worthless information!

I lured people into our booth with candy. It only cost me about $25 in candy and $25 in a 4 minute cab ride to Walgreens and back!

David, Jeff, me and Greg. I could have sworn that Jeff had an earring the last time I saw him. Maybe it was just the highlights that threw me off for an IT guy! :-)

I asked Greg if we could get a picture together so I could prove that he actually was in our booth. The big joke is he comes to all the shows but spends no time in the booth to actually work it. From then on he refused to take a photo with me. Instead he would only take one of me!

EJ was slightly height challenged. I had to take my heels off and if you can tell in this picture he's practically hoisted himself up on the table behind us to look as tall as me!

Grandma's Funeral 5-11-09

2009-06-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

So Grandma Huber passed away in early May. She went peacefully. All her kids were in her room surrounding her. Aunt Pam and Aunt Cindy sang I'll Fly Away to her and on the last phrase of the song, she took her last breath. It was a special week for my dad and his siblings to spend the week together around Grandma's bedside. Never have they had that kind of bonding time together since they were kids. I got to spend two days with them during that week, and it was fun to be the only grandkid there hanging out with all the adults. I enjoyed seeing them interact and just laugh and giggle like they were kids again. It was very surreal to have Grandma back in her old house and my dad and Cindy sleeping in their old bedrooms. My dad said it took him back about 30's years to eat in the same kitchen, shower in the same bathroom, and polish his shoes in the same sink he did when he was a kid. He did say though that he and Aunt Cindy were wondering why Brian was sleeping in the living room(Uncle Brian and Aunt Jacki remodeled the house and turned the old living room into their master bedroom)! :-) So while we were sad to see Grandma go, we were happy for her to be able to meet Grandpa and Aunt Kathie in Heaven. Something that she'd been hoping and talking about for quite some time. I'm sure they were waiting for her with open arms and welcome home signs! :-)

Just this week, I saw one of the country stars on CMT wearing Whit's shirt in their music video. Typical that Whit would have celebrity taste! :-)

Hanging onto more than one thing at a time proved to be troublesome for little Faye!

Her little giggle is infectious!

They are checking out Claire, but can't remember what she was doing at the time. I'm pretty sure this was before her strip show! haha

These three became quite the buds that weekend! It was so cute to see them reconnect at Morgan and Kyra's wedding. It was like no time had passed. Well I guess much hadn't.....like a month! :-)

You know those newlyweds. You've got to keep an eye on them! ;-)

She had had enough of the strained carrots! She was outta there!

Rach ruined her planned escape and she was not happy about it!

Heidi thought her plate was out of the picture. Instead it looks like she's an italian beef spokesmodel! :-)

Were just so close that we stand around and chat with our arms around each other! :-)

Something about this picture cracks me up! Maybe you can guess! Yes, it's Tami's creepy glowing eyes! She looks like Superman or something!

This was when I looked around and noticed that we had all sat down in families.

Cubs Game 5-5-09

2009-06-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Ty was home the first two weeks of May on leave. Ironically, Tera and I both had bleacher seats for the Cubs game the same day. So we made a day of it and all went together. It was a great day! Great weather, great food, great company! We always love having Ty home because for one he's safe, he's that much closer to being home for good and he's hilarious to be around!

It was Tera's first Wrigley experience and she enjoyed every minute of it. She unfortunately wasn't feeling so good later in the day!

I love this guy! Like a brother to me and always has the funniest things to say. He's the first person I heard say "I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball"! haha

It was a fun game but the Cubs lost. They lost the last game I went to. I'm starting to see a pattern!

Keith and Ty's cousin Jason was off that day so he came with us. He bought that hat at the game. Looked like someone had beat the crap out of it and then sold it to him. What a sucker! haha

Looks almost like ballet out there!

Darn small forehead.......let's try this again!

I really need to put my hat on in front of a mirror! I can never see how far down it is until I see it in pictures! Keith was like um, yeah, we need to retake that. You can't see your eyes!

Ty had on the rally cap a little too long! Taking one for the team in hopes they'd pull out the win! Not this time!

What is it with people?! I say, can you take a picture of us with the field in the background. I don't mean that so literal. In my mind, the field is the stadium behind us. Apparently to everyone else that means the first 10 pactches of grass behind our heads!

See now THAT's a picture of the field behind. Fall all you know in that last photo, we could have been at a high school game!

Don't let them fool you! They're both teddy bears at heart! :-)

Picking out a t-shirt is a tough decision. When you are spending a whole $10 you want to make sure you don't have buyer's remorse!

It was after seeing this photo that I realized my gym workouts could be stepped up a bit! haha

My favorite Mexican restaurant in downtown Chicago. I don't like margaritas so I opted for water, however I didn't have a lot of choice when Keith mistakenly dumped his margarita back into the water pitcher instead of the margarita pitcher. Nothing like lime tequila flavored water!

These two were BBF's.......bathroom buddies forever. They maybe had a little too much to drink all day they were like on the 10 minute rotation to the bathroom the whole game!

Old Big Blue

2009-06-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

So my dad spent a week like I said with his siblings that last week before my Grandma passed away. Well as the saying goes, "you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy!" Same is true with my dad! He was actually excited about helping Uncle Brian on the farm. Didn't think I'd ever hear those words come out of his mouth but he really enjoyed being back on the farm and getting back in touch with his roots! :-)

I got a text from him that said, "look at the window! I'm the one that it's in old big blue!"

He even still has the farmer wave down! :-)

Eldora Iowa 4-25-09

2009-06-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

So Matt asked him to accompany him to a wedding. I committed before I knew where. Maybe I should have found that out before I said yes. It was in Iowa and not like on the border of Iowa and Illinois....way into Iowa like through a whole lot of nothingness and five hours later, you're in Eldora! JK We had a lot of fun! I told him he'd be sick of me by the end of the trip, because I was pretty sure I'd have no trouble filling 10 hours round trip of car time, and I was right. I think I wore him out. He couldn't get a word in edgewise the whole car ride! haha

Eldora is small town out in the middle of nowhere. Our directions weren't real clear and when our turn for 12th street looked iffy, we drove on to see if maybe we had gotten the wrong road, but seriously, in a town of 500 people, is it possible to have TWO 12th streets?! No, it's not!

Matt and the bride Krystal. She was bound determined that Matt had stolen her Cubs keychain and she wanted to settle the score. He pleaded the 5th all night!

Apparently it's a pre-requisite to be named Matt to work for CAT IT. That was Caterpillar IT. When you read it like it is, cat it sounds funny! :-) Matt works in a department of like 5 Matts. It's kind of funny, especially when he specifically hangs out with all the Matts because they're all good friends!

Texas Roadhouse 4-24-09

2009-06-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

I met up with Philip and Stephanie and Mandy at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was supposed to be Jon and Bekah as well, but they couldn't make it last minute because of the Cubs game. Lame! :-) Steph let us know that night that she was pregnant. Exciting news!

Philip and Stephanie are pretty traditional but when it comes to baby names they don't agree. Steph wants something a little different and Philip would like to stick with the John's, Paul's, Kristin's and Megan's. Steph was like you just named off all the kids I went to elementary school with!

Mandy and I have this pact. If we find Chad Michael Murray and Nathan look alikes from One Tree Hill we will help each other out with the set-ups! :-)

Dinner at Arbor

2009-04-18T15:40:00.001-07:00

It's good to be back! It has been a whirlwind week. From multiples meals out a day with friends, to work, Cubs games, visiting friends, it's been hectic. I think the lack of sleep and the time change are taking their toll on me. I thought I was staying on Central time the whole time I was home since I worked on Central time and my phone and computer didn't switch so that's what I had in my head all day, but waking up at 5:30am the other morning, seriously felt like I was getting up in the middle of the night!

I hadn't actually talked to Holly on the phone the whole time I was home. We may miss each other for a week with phone calls back and forth but that was extreme so between a few emails and text messages back and forth, we were LONG overdue to catch up. She asked me the first day I had free once I got back. I said the 17th. She wrote back and said, "put on your calendar, dinner at Arbor the 17th!!!!" :-) So I went to their place. Tim cooked us hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Well Hols doesn't eat meat so she had some kind of veggie bean burger that looked terrible but she said was good. Tim said, how do I know when it's done? She said, when it's soft inside. Yuck!

Great night to catch up with friends and see their wedding video. Funny when you're there the whole day the stuff you miss out on. I guess when you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off all day, you miss out on some key moments! haha

Um, this is the second time that I've worn this shirt/necklace combo where the necklace is wrapped around my boob. You would think that I would notice that before the flash goes off. Two bad it's not two strands so I could just act like it was part of the shirt! haha

These two make me laugh. Married life has not changed them a bit and their banter cracks me up. Some could call it bickering but they're not actually fighting because it always ends in laughter or eye rolling. I've missed this for the last 6 weeks! :-)

Holly looks like her hand has been chopped off, but thankfully she didn't ask me if I "wuv(love) them" like she usually does! haha

So I want my hair as long as Holly's. I aspire to be like the girls on The Hills! Long hair with flowing curls! :-)

Cubs/Cards Game

2009-04-16T21:28:00.001-07:00

Well I haven't been to a Cubs game in two years so I decided to do something about that. When tickets went on sale, I sat in a virtual waiting room for about 3 hours and was able to track down tickets for 4 different games. Today was the first of the 4 and it was Cubs vs. Cardinals.

Tami has never been to Wrigley and we've talked about going to a game for a couple years now so we decided to make it happen. We had a great time. Somehow we left town around 8:30am and didn't make it to the game till about 20minutes before, but we had a great time! It just felt like a long day when we didn't get home till about 13 hours later!

I should always trust my gut about the weather though. The last time I went to a game, someone told me I'd look dumb(they shall remain nameless) dragging blankets into the game and then we froze and had to sign up for credit cards to get free blankets to stay warm! So this time, I came prepared! I brought two blankets, but started questioning the need for them. Let's just say when you're not in the sun, and there's a breeze off the lake........TAKE THE BLANKETS! Always take the blankets! You can always sit on them if it's hot, but when in doubt, take the blankets! :-)

And you can't help but love a sporting even that brings out the worst in people! It's funny that in a normal setting when you're walking down the street, you wouldn't consider walking up to someone, get in their face and start yelling or trash talking but you throw on a jersey and it's a whole new ballgame! I love it that we get so offended when people say something not so nice about our team. Makes you want to throw down right in the street and show them who's boss, even if your team did just lose miserably! haha

I gave her one job......HOLD THE TICKETS!!!! I grabbed my phone, camera charger, two blankets, phone numbers for my conference call, directions to the train station and my purse. Two minutes down the road, I say, "do we have the tickets?" and Tami's like "oh no!" I think I left them on the counter! Geesh! haha Just teasing Tam!

All of our road trips have to start and end with pictures and a few weird ones mixed in! :-)

If you can't see what that says, it's a reminder that Tami is supposed to be babysitting for Heidi! About the time Heidi called to see where she was at was the time that the reminder went off! Oops!

Gotta love the 8am conference calls and all the dealers that don't know I have the day off that took up half my morning. My Jersey dealers are the best! When I call back, she always answers the phone "Hiiiiiiii, Tah-rah!" kind of drawn out like a southern accent but in Jersey terminology!

So we leave at 8:15am, the game is at 1:20pm. We got to the game at 1pm! How in the world does a drive to Joliet, a train to downtown, and the L over to the stadium take 4 hours?!?! You can tell the train ticket takers love their job too. Between all the incessant hole punching of tickets that they've already punched and yelling at people to keep their feet in, they were VERY pleasant!

So I was told that bleecher seats are the best. I bet they are if you show up more than 20 minutes before the game starts! It was packed so we settled for some seats by the tv cameras. We could ALMOST see third base!

Um, wasn't quite ready for this picture!

She caught me! Always checking email, Facebook, and rubbing it in to everyone I know with pictures and text that I was at the game while they were working!

A little game action. Looks like his arm is going to fly off with the ball!

It was a great game till the Cubs had the bases loaded and blew it!

The little man that lives in the scoreboard!

People walked in front of us ALL day! I thought I was more discrete when I was checking out their backsides as they passed by! haha

He was on the phone trying to track down C and U!

So did you know that after the game is over, you have about 2.5 seconds before they escort you out! Not a lot of tolerance for after game pictures. However, when you're one of the few sober in the crowd, I can understand the impatience.

We wanted a picture of the field behind us. Got four patches of grass! Awesome! But don't forget that amazing sign were standing in front of! The guy that took our picture insisted it was a good picture opp minus the bird poop between Keep and show! :-)

Seriously, how can you not like Wrigley? So much history!

The guys on the subway told me that I didn't look like I was going to a Cubs game the way I was dressed. I can't help it if my Cubs shirt shrunk!!! So I pulled out my baseball cap to prove I was a fan!

So something about me with my hat backwards seemed to strike us funny........

However, even funnier when this guy wanted to take a picture with me! Could I possibly look any more freaked out?! haha

My version of ghetto! :-)

I'm Back!

2009-04-15T23:57:00.001-07:00

So I've been home an entire day and a half and it's just been a whirlwind tour, but I'm loving every minute of it! I got in about noon and when I stopped off the plane in my flip flops, I knew I wasn't in California anymore! The cold 40 degree breeze made me about turn around and get back on the plane. I was thinking 4 hours from now I could be back in 80 degree weather, but I knew that my friends would start a revolt if I told them I was going to be gone any longer! :-)

Greg picked me up from the airport. He said I looked like a mess because I'm on the curb with my suitcase open, switching shoes, pulling out my make up bag, and trying to get situated before he pulls up. I hopped in and we headed to Bourbonnais to pick up my car. Poor Brandon and his roommate Caleb have had to stare at my car sitting on in front of his house for the last six weeks, I figured it was about time to give them a break! haha

I picked up my keys at the dealership and went and got my car. Thankfully it started and I headed on my way. I stopped in to see Keith at work without notice. I knew the ladies he works with have always wanted to know who this mystery Tara is because I have sent him stuff at work before. I figured I'd give them a reason to razz him, so I stopped in to say hi. As soon as I walked in, he knew exactly what I was doing and had this look on his face like, "oh no you didn't"! After I left he said they just looked at him and he put his head down and said, "that's Tara" and they just smiled and nodded. So I accomplished my goal. I'm sure they will be asking some questions.

Then I met up with Karen and Erika. We went to the Brickstone and had some drinks and appetizers. It was great to catch up with them, and now they want to be put on my monthly rotation! :-)

Tonight I went to dinner with Amy(ton :-)). It felt like it had been 6 months since I had seen her! Thankfully she and Adam are nightowls because I was there till almost 1am, but it's always great to see them and hang out. Adam was so sweet and stopped by the Big Foot and brought me back a polar pop.

I had been up since 2am but was pretty much on an adrenaline high by this point!

Karen has got to be one of the most stylish and hippest moms I know!

I love this little guy! He says the funniest stuff. We played catch with that shark for quite a long time. He's got quite an arm!

Amy and I had both gotten our hair highlighted today. She hates me for always wanting to take pictures, but she looks great no matter what, so I figure she won't hate me for long! :-)

Saying Goodbye

2009-04-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

So after 6 1/2 weeks of being in California, it's finally time to say goodbye and head home. It's been a great time for work, relaxation, shopping, sun and spending time with my parents. Some of the funny things and highlights from my stay have been:

1. Going to the gym with my dad after work or in the mornings.

2. Watching Kutcher back up onto the wedge every night. She needs a beeper!

3. Listening to the caller ID try to pronounce the names of whose calling. It's terrible but entertaining. When Future Films for families called and and it came up as FFFF, the caller ID said that fuuuuuuuuuf was calling! When CDC called, it was kaduck!

4. Mom - "This guy called the office today trying to get information."
Dad - "Was it Oscar Montoya?"
Mom - "Um, I don't think so. His name was Adrienne."
Dad - "Well if his name was Adrienne, then his name wasn't Oscar Montoya."
Mom - "Oh yeah, you're right."

5. Dad - "What time do services start at Costa Meca(supposed to be Costa Mesa)?"
Me - "Is that Calvary Chapel in Mexico?"

6. When Heidi called me and mom left her on hold for minutes on end while she shrieked while trying to give me the phone because she thought she saw a rat run under the bush. As she said, you didn't see that tail!

7. Watching the Masters or any golf for that matter with my dad and laughing at how the announcers seem to have a microphone in our house because they repeat my dad word for word seconds after he does a running commentary on what's going on.

8. Laying out almost every day after work and then making dinner for mom and dad afterwards.

9. Finding some great deals and revamping my spring wardrobe

10. Having Denise out for a week and catching me up on all my girl chat time!

11. Walking out to the parking lot and my dad informing me that he parked on an angle because the car next to him had parked crooked. When I asked why he told me that he said he knew I was going to make fun of him, so he was just being proactive!

12. Mom telling me that with different groups of people she acts differently because with certain people they actually think she's funny! :-)

13. Going golfing with my dad.

14. Trying new restaurants to eat out.

15. Taking Kutcher on walks and seeing her bark to let the neighborhood know she's out and about!

16. And last but not least.......when my mom told me that I needed to help Kate with her WD-40 to get her taxes filed. You mean 1040 mom? :-)

Starting to pack.

My home away from home for the last 6 weeks.

My last meal. That makes it sound like I'm death row! Guess I should say, my last meal in California. I love Daphne's!

One last chance to have fro-yo!

We laugh every night when she does this. She's like a garbage truck backing up. We say she needs a little beeping noise!

Easter

2009-04-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

It was a gorgeous Easter Sunday! Mom sang for all four services at church starting at 5am for Sunrise. They actually do sunrise here when the sun rises! Dad and I weren't too interested in seeing the sun rise this morning so we chose first service at 7:45am instead. :-)

After church, we headed to the club to get in some golf. I hadn't picked up a club in about a year and it just drives my dad nuts when I play "well" for not having played in so long. He can't understand why I don't play more often. He's bound determined that if I played with some regularity that I could go pro and he'd carry my bag! His dream......not mine! :-)

We only played after we hooked up with another couple on the course. My dad knew them, surprise surprise! He knows EVERYONE at the club! It's funny. He's so well liked and they all call him Hubie. We were trying to figure out if what I was wearing, I could wear into the clubhouse for Easter brunch. The wife of the couple we were playing with politely said that she thought the club preferred a more modest top than what I had on, but quickly ended with, "not saying your top isn't modest!" :-) So it's a smidge big! I didn't realize how big until I started trying to play golf in it! :-)

After golf, we headed home and I caught some rays out by the pool, before coming in and watching the Masters with my dad. He was way more upset for Phil than Phil was over his mistakes on 15 and 17 and was still heartbroken for Kenny Perry when we were at dinner over his loss to Angel Cabrera. You would have thought he had lost the Masters! :-)

We went to Beach Fire for dinner where we had the funniest waiter. He was one of those types that was fun to joke around with. My parents were contemplating setting me up with him. Then he told us he was really into dancing and theatre and I think they changed their tune! haha

It was a great Easter! I head home Tuesday and I have mixed emotions about leaving. I'm ready to see all my friends and get back into a routine but will be sad to say goodbye to my parents.

First hole went better than expected.

Form is good.....ball didn't quite as far or high as I would have liked, but it was straight! :-)

He taught me everything I know!

It was further than it looks......

And I made it! You could also see right down my top so I used paint and spray painted myself a little black tank underneath my tank just for this picture! haha Maybe it wasn't modest!

Too bad you can't see a video. He hits it so long and hard. Looks like it should hurt!

So someone asked me if I made it over the water.........the answer is NO! :-)

Our last hole. My eyes were going nuts! Should have taken some allergy meds before we started.

Dad said I had to hold a club so I could prove to my friends I actually played! :-)

This is out of order, but this was after church. We went backstage to see mom.

Dad told me that mom would talk about how much she loved the porch at this restaurant and that if she ever built a house this is the kind of porch she would want. It was funny, because we had barely sat down before she started in on how great the porch was! :-)

Dad doesn't like this photo. He looks a little tired I guess. He said, we already have lots of pictures of you and me. I said, I know, but not of me in this shirt! He said, then let's just take a picture of the shirt! It doesn't quite work that way! :-)

Goodbye Denise/Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-04-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

So Denise headed home yesterday begrudgingly. Who would want to go back to 44 degree weather when you could stay in the sunshine?! :-) It was a great week though! I'm pretty sure she had a relaxing spring break filled with sun, shopping, eating out, new sights, girl talk, and working out. What more could you want from a vacation, right?

My dad asked me if I was sad to see her go. I said, well yeah, but I'll see her in four days so I think I'll survive till then! :-) He immediately said, well when are you going to see ME again?!
:-)

So today is my mom's birthday! My aunt Cheryl gave me a great suggestion for my mom on some Versace perfume that she had tried of Cheryl's over spring break. Mom had totally forgotten about it, so it was a nice little surprise. Whit and Kate and I also went in on a gift card to American Airlines for her so we can all take a trip together to NYC. Mom has never been and has always wanted to go. She was VERY excited about that.

So we spent the day doing what girls love to do.......SHOP! Surprisingly, we made it to some stores I had not gone to yet with Denise! That's why I love California. You can shop everyday for an entire week and still have more to see! haha After that we had lunch at Maggianos. Yum!

I about had to push her onto the plane! :-)

So pictures when your hair is in a ponytail just never looks as good as it did in the mirror that morning! :-)

Our waitress was in a bit of a hurry, so were lucky to have even gotten this picture!

Denise's Last Day in California

2009-04-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well it was Denise's last day in California, so we started it out by getting more sun. Just what she needs right? She was darking than me when she got here and I've here for 5 weeks! haha Well she laid out while I worked and then I joined her in the afternoon. We got a few more rays in before we had to get ready for dinner.

We realized that Denise has now spent three birthdays with my mom. Her spring break seems to fall around Easter a lot and my mom's birthday is the 11th, so this is the third birthday she's been here for. We went to San Clemente on the pier and ate at this restaurant called Fisherman's Restaurant. Real original! But they had great crab legs and some of the best clam chowder I've ever eaten. My dad said at one point, how have we been here 8 years and never known about this place?! Well let me take a stab at it.........YOU GUYS NEVER TRY NEW THINGS! :-)

It was a little windy and chilly by the water and the two small heaters that the waitress assured us would keep us warm did not convince me so we ate inside. Still great view and actual warmth. Plus I had spent so much time on my hair, why sit outside and have it blown to pieces? haha

So Denise leaves this morning. Were heading out to the airport in about an hour. It will be nice to have a few more days with my parents before I actually go home. I think I might actually golf with my dad Saturday! I've been here 6 weeks now and have yet to go. Wish me luck! I haven't picked up a club in about a year! Could be scary! :-)

I talked Denise into buying this shirt. It's out of her norm. No lace and not exactly a tank and not fitted. She actually loved it and it looked great on her! I can be very convincing when I want to be. haha

So it was a little windy! That would not by pregnant mother pose.......I was trying to make sure my shirt didn't blow away!

That's a little better. My dad said, "try not to make it look like you're freezing!" I thought we pulled it off!

Mom is turning 55 this year! Can you believe it?! She doesn't look it at all! Now her memory at times gives away her age! haha

It looks like I'm sitting in the backseat for this picture! :-)

The dessert was huge. We forgot to check later if that's actually what they give away for birthdays or if we got charged for that monster happy birthday dessert. It was mocha and Dad and I hate coffee, so Denise and Mom had a hay day. Mom kept trying to say that you couldn't taste the coffee! I said, "you're immune to it! Believe me, I can taste it!" :-)

For my Faithful Blog Readers!

2009-04-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

So I was recently told that if I didn't post soon they one of my readers was going to file a complaint to the Adventures of Tyke! :-) So here you have it! This is what I've been up to for the last couple weeks!

I'm still in California. Winding down my last few days here. By the time I leave, I will have been out here over 6 weeks! My friends are revolting back home at my absence and have let me know that they will no longer let me go home to California because I always stay longer than I say I'm going to! :-)

It has been awesome to be home! The weather has been great for a majority of the time I've been here. The change of scenery and change of pace was much needed when I left. It's been VERY relaxing! I went from doing something every night of the week almost, to doing absolutely nothing which has been nice but I'm ready to get back to my fast paced life! haha I come here to get recharged after I've run myself down for too long.

I always get these brainiac ideas that seem like a good idea at the time but after I start them sometimes I realize I'm in over my head! I always keep hair products and toilietries here so I don't have to pack them when I come home. Well this time I decided why not have pajamas, workout clothes, socks, underwear, tennis shoes, a full set of make up, etc.? For the first 4 weeks I hadn't bought anything fun besides "necessity" stuff. People would ask me if I've been shopping. "Well as a matter of fact, I have been! I just bought some bronzer beads yesterday! Woo hoo!" So good idea in theory, but not probably the best idea overall. Oh well, now I have two of most everything. I will just have to make myself a list before I leave so I can remember what to still bring with me next time. Kate has also been sending me packages while I've been here. More clothes because I got VERY sick of the 5 shirts that I packed(I thought I was going to do a lot of shopping, didn't happen at the beginning of my trip! :-)), and sending back stuff to keep here rather than in IL.

Denise came out last Saturday. It's been great to have her here. She's game for whatever. Totally easy to please. Give her a little sun, shopping and some place she can eat fish/sushi, she's a happy camper! :-) She leaves tomorrow and I'm a little sad about that but my walled will be glad for a break. We've been doing a lot of shopping! haha

This is Mom and I at Laguna beach. Can you tell were looking straight into the sun?

I just happened to have two pairs of sunglasses in my purse! Ahh, much better!

I thought I would be funny and send a message to all my friends back home that I was at the beach while they were in the snow. Karma.......well you know what they say! As soon as the camera went off, the wave came in and got my pants soaked, erased my message and washed away my mom's shoe!

We had a great time people watching! Ever look at couples and wonder how they got together or why people thought that that outfit seemed like a good choice when they picked it out of their closet that morning? I know I'm terrible, but seriously who wears a gold dress with lime green shoes?!

I hadn't been out of the house in a week. Mom and Dad took pity on me and treated me to dinner out! One of our favorite steakhouses. If you wear a tie in there, they cut it off your neck and staple it to the wall!

Dad found the sign above his head more interesting then the picture!

There we go!

Yeah, Denise is here! We were playing soccer mom for the day. With only two cars and four people, we had to drop my mom off at her meeting and pick her back up! Oh to be 15 again! :-)

We look like were glowing! It's because were so angelic! haha

I told Denise that the lines on her face match the lines on her shirt!

Why are table pictures always so awkward? No one knows where to put their hands, or tilt their heads, and do we only take pictures when we eat?! APPARENTLY! :-)

Our first night we sat on the back patio, lit up the gazebo, turned on some tunes and caught up on some much needed long overdue girl talk!

While she was doing that........

I was.......taking pictures of myself feeling sorry for myself because I had to work! haha I've been here almost 6 weeks and just discovered I could work outside?!?! Are you kidding me? What was I thinking?! :-)

Denise got a little red her first day out! Little being the key word! I don't know how many times I tell people the sun is more intense here, they just don't believe me. It's always, "well I lay out at home with no sunscreen for 5 hours, blah, blah, blah! Well this isn't home, and here you're going to fry! I hate to tell ya I told ya so! haha

I stole Kate's signature "hand on the hip" pose, but I've discovered it makes my arms look WAY skinnier this way, so get ready to see it more often! :-)

Please excuse my horribly manicured nails. I did get them done the next day. I think I could have passed for one of those ladies that wears like 3 inch long fake nails. They were definitely daggers. Oh and someone told me that my watch was too big and that a blind man would be able to tell time off it from across the room. Now that may be a BIT of a stretch, but it is large! :-) Oh and the watched stopped working around 4:45!

Denise had had a rough night. The sun had apparently fried her brain. Here's some examples: In H&M she shows me a dress and says she likes it but she's not sure about the size, but couldn't find anymore of them in the store. I said you mean the dress that's directly in front of us about 20 feet away?

Example 2: Same dress, asks an employee about the sizing and finds out that it's women's and not juniors. She says ok, well then I need a 4 and starts rummaging through the rack. I said, wasn't a 4 what you had in your hand when you first showed it to me? She was like, oh yeah it was!

Example 3: We were trying to figure out a place to eat. I stopped in front of a directory to look at our choices. She says, do you think there's a directory around here? I look at her kind of funny and say, "why yes there is! Behold!" And did the whole Vanna White/Bob Barker girls reveal of the directory to her. She says, "oh is that why you stopped right here?" "Um, yes it is!" :-)

She laid off the sun the next day. The break has brought her back to her senses! haha

Another awkward dinner picture! Seriously, it's a mix between me trying to flex to show off my oh so huge muscles or trying to hoist myself out of the booth! You decide! :-)

The martinis were great. I got a Sweet Tart. Appropriately named. At first it's sweet kind of like cough syrup and then the after taste is tart. The inventor of the name is genius! :-)

Denise with her infamous directory!

"Is there a directory around here somewhere?"

One of my favorite spots! I've always wanted to go on this ferris wheel so I suggested it to Denise. After giving me the pity nod like she thought it might be a good idea, she casually mentioned that it might be more fun to do with a boy! Well if I had a boy to go on it with, do you think I'd be asking you to go on it with me?! haha Maybe another time! :-)

We went to 4 malls, in 4 cities, in ONE DAY! It was nuts but we had a blast! This was our second mall AND our second time at this mall this week. Fashion Island definitely gets it's name honestly. Why do people think they can charge $100 for a t-shirt?!

By dinner, we were exhausted AND I realized I had forgotten my camera that day! Talk about annoyed! Denise had hers but we had no upload cord for hers, so this is how hardcore I am. I couldn't possibly wait to post these pictures to Facebook until we get back. They would be all out of order with our days if we did that, and we have faithful fans following our shopping treks daily! haha So we go to CVS pharmacy after dinner to download her pics to a CD so I could save them to my computer! Now aren't you glad you have these photos to be able to see today and not next Wednesday? :-)

Denise has a theme going on. Stripes and solids! It's either a striped cardigan with a solid tank underneath or a striped tank with a solid cardigan over. I'm trying to break her out of her shell this trip. And to those of you that know her well I have outlawed her from buying any lacy tanks! haha

So the waitress took our picture three times and we liked the first one the best....go figure!

So this is a bit exaggerated. This is from multiple days and about one item per bag, but you get the idea. We've made our rounds and we've enjoyed EVERY minute of it! Heidi if you're reading this, I will probably have some clothes for you when I get home after I clean out my closet from last year with what I'm replacing it with! :-)

All that shopping really takes it out of you! :-) Oh and is it just me or does Denise look like that guy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the white eyebrows?! This picture makes her eyelids look like they're glowing! haha

Ok so maybe the sun brain damage hasn't full worn off. Example 4:

Me: "The Buckle sells Ed Hardy"

D: "What's Ed Hardy?"

Me: "You know, the trucker hats and those really wild, rhinestoned shirts that have like skulls and hearts and stuff on them?"

D: "Oh yeah, I think I have that perfume. It's Ed Hardy by Christina Aguilera"

Me: "Oh really? I didn't know she was a spokesperson for Ed Hardy."

LOOK VERY CLOSELY AT THE PICTURE!!!! Christina Aguilera......Christian Audigier.......ALMOST the same thing! :-)

More Cali

2009-03-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

As they say, "all good things must come to an end"! Whit and Kate's California spring break was nearing its end, so we spent their last night in San Diego at our local favorite Coyote Grill. They have the best pork tacos! We also got to watch some interesting old people dancing. Can you say no rhythm? :-)

While they were eating "fro-yo", sun bathing, beaching it up, shopping and going to the zoo, I was sitting in front of a computer all day talking to crazy dealers! Doesn't quite seem fair, but I can't complain. I was staying 6 weeks and they were only here for 1. I think I win! :-)

Whit's diet went out the window a few days into the trip. No one can resist the "fro-yo" that they have on every street corner!

Something about the puff sleeves on this jacket make it look like I have my shoulders up near my ears!

Whit and Isaac went to the San Diego Zoo. We decided that Isaac's hair looks like the cockatoos. Were not sure who copied who!

Hmm......Phil kind of looks like he has matching black eyes in this picture. I thought he and Isaac were getting along all week! :-)

Yes Kate, you got a ton and yes those are sunglass lines on your nose! :-)

No mom, we will not use this picture as our Christmas card photo! You wait, she will suggest it! :-)

Whit has now taken on Kate's trademark "hand on the hip" Hollywood pose. It supposed makes your arm look smaller. Who knew?

Mom somehow thinks we want pictures where no one is looking at the camera. Like how it looks like I pushed my chest out as far as it would go in this picture? :-)

Pictures from Cali

2009-03-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

So I've been in California for a week already. Feels like longer. When you work all week, doesn't feel much more like any other week. Just waiting for Friday to arrive. Whit and Kate flew in on Saturday with their boyfriends Phil and Isaac. I was a little late getting to the airport because mom insisted that I wash her car and then when they took over an hour to wash it, she was telling me to let them know I needed to go! That's a little difficult when 8 other cars are blocking yours in! I think I'll wait! They all got in safely and we headed down to the condo that afternoon after a short stint at the house to kill time.

Whit decided to go on a diet before she came out for spring break, which I'm in total support of. However, she has decided to stay on it while she's on spring break! I mean isn't that the point of vacation......to eat a lot of good food and gain back all the weight you lost before you came?! :-) She would say to us before she was eating something she wasn't supposed to, "I'm not supposed to be eating this" as if her our own conscience was getting to her! :-)

We were going to eat at Rubios for dinner, but after 3 circles around the Stater Bros.(grocery store) parking lot not being able to find it, we ended up at El Torito instead. I'm sporting my favorite coat. Whit and Kate think I look like Paddington Bear in it, but I think I look like the Morton salt girl!

It looks like Phil is sitting on Kate's lap, but they just like to sit close when they eat! Kate kept reminding me that she got her hair straightened and how straight it was. She had me check it out when it was dry, when it was wet, when she had just dried it and after she straightened it! I get it Kate, it's STRAIGHT! :-)

We learned that mild guacomole in California means hot to the rest of the world! Our mouths were on fire!

Aunt Cheryl came out to keep mom company all week.

FINALLY in Cali!

2009-03-02T08:32:00.001-08:00

So I don't have any fun pictures YET, but I've only been here two days, so cut me some slack! I have to say though that I love it here! Sometimes I ask myself why I don't live here permanently? Well the answer is because of all of you! I love Illinois and that's home but I love coming "home" to California as well.

There's something about this house that takes all your troubles away! :-) We always joke and call it the house of restoration! Something about being at home, stressed out and just needing a break makes coming here all the more fun.

So even though I'm working the whole time I'm home, I love being here because it's WARM(it was 85 yesterday), the food is better AND different, the shopping is AMAZING and most importantly, my parents are here! I love spending time with them and catching up! My dad said this morning "I hate going to work when you're here"! Aww! That's so sweet! I said, well I'm working too so what's the difference? :-)

So anyway, that's my greetings from Cali! I will be here pretty much the entire month of March so if any of you get a wild hair and would like to come visit me, please do so! :-)

Mini House Church Reunion

2009-02-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

So Lindsey set up dinner because it had been so long since we had all seen each other. We met at Denny's which was a regular hang out after house church back in the day. I had already eaten at Bob Evans that morning after church so I was frequenting all of the senior citizens establishments yesterday! It was great seeing everyone and I hope we do it more often than once every three years! :-) Josh facebooked me from the table asking me to blog this dinner, so I hope I did it up to your standards Josh! I explained that they only way I post is if I have pictures so if wanted this on my blog, we were going to have to take some photos!

The first thing Luke said to me was, "Tara, I don't know if you remember me or not, but I was in your house church!" I did remember him but he was a lot more talkative at dinner than he was in the two times he came to house church! :-)

In our email trail, we decided to do dinner yesterday because I was leaving for Cali for three weeks, Josh was going to Hawaii for 2, so Amanda and Chris said they were going to Australia for 7 weeks and Jerrod said he was visiting the international space station. Lindsey believed all of us. Only two of us were telling the truth! :-)

I'm always enlightened when I'm around Jerrod. He's a wealth of knowledge. However when I said that last night it came out "I'm always enlightened around Jerrod. He's a wealth of knowledge that you'll never use in a lifetime" or something like that! I didn't mean it the way it came out!

We discovered that Luke is one of those people that falls for all the gimmicks! Gets store credit cards for the 10% discount, buys F&I products at dealerships because the dealer told him he was getting a deal, getting a transmission flush at the oil change place because it was "needed" and buying a bowflex off the tv because it might really give you a six pack! We got a good laugh out of him. Not to mention his most outrageous thing he's ever done.......jumping out at cars when he was 8 with his friends asking if they loved Jesus! He was a real rebel child! :-)

Great seeing all of you! Hope you enjoy all your vacations and space station escapades! :-) Let's do it again soon!

Marissa's 30th Birthday

2009-02-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

Marissa's 30th birthday is Tuesday so we celebrated Saturday night at Alexanders in Peoria and then went out for drinks at Martinis. Marissa loves butterflies, dragonflies, flowers and anything colorful, so I tried to make it special by incorporating all those things into the evening. Down the name cards had dragonfly stickers on them. It was a fun evening. We had some great food, yummy cake and great company!

Marissa and Denise checking out the picture placemats. I took pictures from young to present and made collages and then laminated them for each place setting.

Even our waiter kept saying like 4 times that we had brought our A game. That in his 7 years of working there, he'd never seen a table like it. It was funny!

The birthday girl

Andrew and Mallory. They just set the date for their wedding in July. Andy even got recognized at Steak-N-Shake recently. Some kid yelled "aren't you the guy from the Kansas City Chiefs?"

Daniel with cutie Caleb. I kept thinking there was something different about Daniel. Well he's lost 30 pounds and changed his hair. Yep, that's what it was! :-)

Jennessa didn't feel well after dinner so she didn't get to hang out with us.

They were going for the serious pose, however Daniel kind of ruined it by trying to get food out of his teeth instead!

Poor Adair. We harass this kid so bad, but he takes it well. I walked up and asked if he'd just been to Hawaii because of his puca shell bracelet his was wearing. That end of the table errupted in laughter. Apparently, Ben had been giving him a hard time about it all evening!

Mark and Becky, he cooked her steak a little long because he said she ALWAYS makes him put it back on the grill. He said, "I don't really like re-cooking your food after I've started eating mine, so I cooked it extra long so I wouldn't have to get back up"! It was definitely cooked all the way through! :-)

Becky asked for a class of hot water to warm up Caleb's bottle. They brought her a beer glass. We said it looked like one of those car bomb shots. We were calling it a breast milk car bomb!

Andy was having a little trouble lighting the candles and then got burnt. This response was a smidge dramatic though! :-)

All the guys broke out into a Michael Smith(from The Office) rendition version of happy birthday that had everyone around us laughing!

"I hope I got that bicycle Ben was supposed to be getting me for my birthday"!

Everytime I see these earrings in pictures, they look like coasters. They might be a little large!

D went and did the Ultrabronz that day before dinner. It gives you the equivalent of three tans! On a "white" day, Denise is darker than 90% of America. Just what she needs to do is get 3x as dark! :-)

Mallory was great at rounding up bar stools from all over the place. Everytime you saw her she was collecting another one! Don't know where she kept finding them! :-)

Denise thought she needed to squat down in front of Daniel for fear that we might not be able to see his face. When he's a foot taller than you are, I think you're good! :-)

Ben and his harem. Marissa always calls me Ben's girlfriend because he and I get along so well, which helps Marissa when I think Ben is out of line because she "sicks" me on Ben as she puts in, so I can get him to straighten up! :-)

We look like a color wheel, winter, spring, summer and I don't mean our clothes!

"4 Doors Down" Concert

2009-02-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

So Ash hooked us up with tickets to the 3 Doors Down concert. They were in a suite and everything. As Tim put it best, "you know we would be the type of people that would go and watch a concert in a suite when none of us really are that big of fans of any of the bands"! I couldn't have even told you in advance a song that 3 Doors Down plays. I mean I knew I would recognize their songs but couldn't name any off the top of my head. The concert was fun, just a lot of opening bands. 3 opening bands for a group that you're not THAT excited about is a little much! :-)

They started out at Maguires for food and drink before the concert. Ash and Holly ran into Susan from 101.5 in the bathroom and Holly said she made a joke about the old paper towel dispenser like "What's with the 1984 paper towel dispenser?" Holly was like she stole my joke! I always say stuff like 1912 called and wants that back! I said, you make comments about the victorian era a lot?! :-)

Poor Jen, she didn't feel well that night and had to leave a couple songs into 3 Doors Down playing.

Ash and Jen were telling everyone that they were going to the 4 Doors Down concert. People were asking them when the 4th door was added!

Ash thought it was a little cold in the suite so she broke out the gloves. She thought it was because of the ice rink, but I think it was because of the ice cold drink in her hands! :-)

Luke thought that Hoobastank was called Oopastake. We pretty much butchered EVERY band name!

Yes, Jen really is trying to climb on top of Ash! :-)

Tim and I caught up on some Jessica Simpson celebrity gossip. I was so impressed he knew so much! It must be his new wife's influence! :-)

Holly and Ash really getting into "Sleether" as Denise called them, or their real name Seether!

3 Doors Down

This was shortly before the main singer jumped into the crowd and crowd surfed.

We had a great time even though we couldn't get any of the band names right. We had SafetySuit that Ash thought was the Red Cross, Hoobstank aka Oopastake, Oobastick, Hoobastink, Seether aka Sleether, and 3 Doors Down aka 4 Doors Down!

Hols and I liked the first pictre better. Ash and Denise liked the second one better, so I posted both. You decide! :-)

So you had to have a "suite" stamp on your hand AND on your ticket. We were told that EITHER one would get you in and out, but NOOOOOOOO.......the 80 year old nazi woman at the door required that you have not only the stamp on your hand and your stamped ticket if you wanted to get in and out. She ran a tight ship! I'm pretty sure we could have taken her but we decided to just be nice! :-)

Water Street

2009-02-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

We(well it was my first time, the rest of them had been there before) tried out a new fondue place in Peoria. It's called Water Street. They don't have meat fondue yet, but apparently that is soon to come. It was great catching up with these girls. There was a lot of PCS talk that brought back a lot of memories because I remember spending countless hours at Marissa's house with Marissa and these girls at times hearing about all these classmates. Felt like old times!

The window seat they were sitting on looked cute but wasn't quite as comfy as it was cute!

If ever a lull in conversation, Courtney and I always have plenty of reality tv to talk about! :-)

The fondue was very good, but we all agreed there could have been just a bit more cheese!

Valentine's Day Coffee

2009-02-22T20:25:00.001-08:00

Ashley and I(more Ashley than me) had a Valentine's Day coffee at her house for all of our friends. It all began with some heart shaped valentine's cookies that Elsa had and didn't need. I was glad she did! It was great to get everyone together! It was even better because Margaret was there and did all the set up and clean-up which allowed Ashley and I to mingle the entire time.

If Amy hasn't noticed this on Facebook yet, she will probably kill me that I put this picture on my blog as well. However, I don't think she ever takes a bad picture!

Candice doesn't like her picture taken either but she doesn't have Facebook and it doesn't sound like she's on the computer a lot, so I'm good! :-)

Ash's cousin Georgia said she needed some new cute jeans after being around everyone at the coffee. Too cute! I thought her jeans looked just fine!

Haley had just gotten back from Florida!

Katie and Carmella, Katie made this awesome salmon egg salad things! Not sure what all was in them(well obviously salmon and egg salad), but they were good!

Kate was loving the fact that Holly was totally washing her out!

The pink was totally planned, but the picture of the girls in pink was not. They were just all coincidentally all standing talking together!

Allison is showing off the cookies that inspired the whole coffee.

Haley waited as long as she could before she had to leave to go feed the baby!

Old buds

Ashley said that if you can see the skin between your eyebrows then you know the picture is too close, and I think that is a good rule of thumb to live by! :-)

Yes, Heidi, you do look like Sarah Palin with the bangs and glasses, but I still like the bangs! :-)

How is it that I was wearing flats, Ash is on heels and I'm still a foot taller than everyone?! I think Holly was slauching! :-)

An Evening with the Van Hoofs!

2009-02-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Holly has fallen off the face of the Earth since she got married, so it was nice to be able to catch up with her, Tim and the girls. Al was cheering so we went to the Epiphany 8th grade boys sectional game. It was a close game and they ended up winning by 6 I believe it was. Very close until the last couple of minutes!

Funny how things change since we were 8th graders. First, no one seems to care what they wear. I remember being so particular about what I wore to a game. You HAD to be decked! Come on, you had to impress the boys! These girls were as Hols called it "in the hoodie club". North Face, Uggs, ponytails and hooded sweatshirts flooded the gym.

After the game, they all rushed the floor to cheer and scream with the team for the win! 8th grade boys apparently don't shower after a game because the cute cheerleaders awaiting them outside their locker room was more important! :-)

After dinner we headed to our favorite new mexican restaurant in town, El Toro. I just wish it wasn't on the COMPLETE opposite corner of town from my house. I might as well drive to Morton for dinner! :-)

Tim didn't even bauk at having his picture taken! He usually tells me that they don't look any different since the last time I took their picture!

The girls were filling me in on their first Hollywood experience where they got to meet Selena Gomez from Disney Channel. Sadly, I know who she is! I had to confess that I watch Disney Channel occasionally! Don't judge! :-)

Hols, for the record.....a Chalupa is a crunchy taco with beans, lettuce and cheese. Make a mental note to self so you don't have to ask the next time we go there! She asks EVERYTIME and we go there A LOT! :-)

Rascal Flatts Concert

2009-02-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

Rascal Flatts were in town last night and Brandon's sister got us tickets. Jessica Simpson opened for them which was a little odd since you think of her as being a powerhouse on her own rather than an opening act. She did well. She definitely can pull off country. Not sure why the media has been all over her about her weight either. She looked great. I think they just take the worst picture they can find and say it looks like she's gained 20 pounds. I mean seriously.....who looks good in high waisted jeans?! They give you a butt a mile long, a pooch for a stomach and make you look like you have huge hips!

Rascal Flatts were great in concert! Probably one of the few bands that I could sit and listen to every song and like it and not be bored at their concert. They are good entertainers as well. Very entertaining concert. We had a lot of fun. I met Darren, Erika and Brandon in Champaign and had a quick dinner and then headed to the concert.

If you can truly gain 20 pounds when you're 5'3" and still wear daisy duke shorts, then I would say you look pretty good!

A little dark but close up of her on the jumbotron. She didn't look like she tried very hard on her hair. It was kind of stringy! She did say she was nervous which I was surprised by. However, she apparently had a meltdown the night before forgetting some of the words to her songs, so maybe that was it.

Darren and Erika, Erika told Darren she'd let him wear flannel shirts and cowboy boots if he'd spike his hair rather than as she calls it, "the combover"!

We had all kinds of time to take this picture when Brandon went to find the restroom. He was gone 20 minutes! Apparently they shut down one of the men's bathrooms for the girls to use and shut it down right as he walked up. The next one was on the opposite end of the arena!

I told him I was wearing navy as a joke, but I noticed once I saw the pictures later that he had actually worn navy too! A boy that likes to match, I tell ya! :-)

The stage and graphics were pretty cool! You can tell from this picture that our seats were not that close. Darren kept complaining of nose bleeds!

Thankfully my camera zooms in pretty decent

This guitar player was from Kankakee. It looks like Gary is grabbing his butt but I don't think that was actually the case!

He was an amazing violinist!

One of the few that I was able to get of all three of them without it being blurry!

Zooming in on the jumbotron again!

Made it feel like we were so close! :-)

One of the few times that having two first names works: Joe Don! :-)

I think that Joe Don looks like Kate's boyfriend, Phil. Whit and Kate don't agree!

I was trying to get my arm behind Brandon's shoulder, but the girl took it before I accomplished that, so instead I decided to just show off my chest! :-)

Superbowl

2009-02-02T06:52:00.001-08:00

Ben and Marissa had us over for Superbowl again this year. Good game but disappointed that the Cardinals didn't win. You can always count on Superbowl to be good food, good company and you hope some good commercials. My favorite were the E-trade commercials. I think that little baby is hilarious!

Andy is now home after his season ended with Kansas City. He still supports his Wheaton Thunder! Avery decided to pee all over her changing table so she got a last minute bath before bed!

Becky Reese holding Mark and Becky's little guy Caleb. Such a cutie. He came about a month early, but Becky was glad to get off of bed rest.

Oh Daniel! Always such a character! He called on one of my old clients from BSC and dropped my name as a reference to get a quote! :-)

You may ask why I was wearing a Rams jersey. Well you see.....I have two of them and I never get to wear them except for Superbowl, so I figure I would show my support for Kurt Warner's old team and wear it. However, I didn't know that Kurt Warner was an old Rams player until about 2pm yesterday! :-)