Spring? Is that you?

OK- so even though the weather is definitely not Spring-like outside, I did manage to add a little bit of Spring to our home. On a trip to Lowe's yesterday to buy lighting for the weight room we are finishing in the basement, I came across a display of potted flowers.

I ended up buying some tulips and some hyacinths. It was a complete impulse purchase, but definitely warranted. Not only are they so refreshing to look at, but the Hyacinth's fragrance fills the whole house (although Andy says they smell like nasal spray to him...not sure what that's all about.)

Here are a couple of pictures of my Spring additions. I figured that I better take pictures of them now to preserve their beauty, because there is a good chance they won't survive long in my house!

Also- my in-laws came up this afternoon so we could all go out for lunch to celebrate Matt's and my birthdays. Scot's mom is a scrapbooking and card-making machine. She is so creative and very talented with her cards. I had to take a picture of the card that she made me, although the photo doesn't do it justice. Below is the envelope, yes the envelope. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the circles are 3-dimensional. Also- you'll notice in the corner is my favorite... a dragonfly! I actually think I am going to frame this and put it on my desk at work.

Here is the card. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but my name is spelled out in the flowers. It is just too cute, and totally fits the Spring-fever mood I am in! Thanks, Michele!

Haines Happy Birthdays!

As you know from my last post, yesterday (Thursday) was Matt's birthday. Since we don't have the boys on Thursday nights, today (Friday) was our first chance to give him his birthday gift. As you can see below, we did something a little different for his birthday this year.

Here is Matt posing with what he thinks are his birthday gifts (and of course, you can see that Harli thinks everything is always for her.)




However, before he had a chance to open any of them, we informed him that he had to pick half of the gifts and give them to his brother. Andy, who had previously been sitting and half-heartedly watching, all of a sudden became fully engaged in what was going on. We explained to them that they are both getting the same thing for their birthdays this year (Andy's birthday is next month). So in order to not ruin the surprise for Andy, he gets to share in the gift opening process. Matt, being the thinker that he is, took a nice long time to strategically decide which gifts to unload on his brother.

Andy grew quite impatient with his brother's dawdling. After much pleading from Andy, Matt finally finished allocating the boxes.

Then they got the green light to start opening the boxes. You can see from Matt's face in the picture below that he was quite confused about what he discovered after opening the first box.

What was in the box? 2 little Scrabble tiles!

That's right... every box contained 2 or 3 tiles each, for a total of 14.

So now it was on to the next phase. Trying to put the pieces together to figure out what their birthday gift was!

They begged and begged for hints, but Scot and I told them they had to work for it. They seemed to have a much better knack of spelling out inappropriate words, like "topless," than figuring out what the right answer was. But what do you expect with two teenage boys?

Finally, after about 10 minutes of deliberation, they figured it out!

Andy spelled out "Vegas" as a joke, but then Matt quickly put the rest of the words together. I'm not sure what they were more excited about- the fact that they were going to Vegas or that they finally finished indulging in my birthday torture puzzle! Here they are opening their own travel itineraries showing them the official details of their gift.

This is actually a birthday gift for all of us. Since all of our birthdays are relatively close to each other (Matt's was yesterday, mine was today, Scot's is the 27th, and Andy's is April 20th), we decided to do something different this year and do a big combined gift for all. So after the boys get out of school this summer, we will be heading out to my dad's house in Las Vegas for a week!

We purchased the tickets for the trip so long ago, and we've had to keep it a secret from the boys. It's been killing me! Even though today was MY birthday, I was most excited about getting home to give them THEIR birthday gifts and see their reactions. My mom said that means I am officially old. :) I am just really looking forward to us taking this vacation together. I know some of you may think Vegas is an odd place for a family vacation, but there is SO much to see and do in Vegas besides gambling. (Actually, Scot and I don't even gamble when we're there on our own.) Plus, as I mentioned before, I have family there, including my dad (although he's actually in Tulsa for work right now, but hopefully he can come back to LV while we're there), my step-mom, three of my brothers, and a niece and nephew. So I think this will definitely be a great birthday trip for all of us!

Breaking News...

Matt turned 16 today, and he successfully passed his driving test. He is officially official! (Well, at least until 10:00pm on weekdays/ 11:00pm on weekends.) That is the legal driving curfew in Illinois until you are 18. Not that this is a lot earlier than my parental curfew was, but thank goodness we didn't have these legal time restrictions on our driving when we were growing up. Although I am fully supportive of the law now. Guess that means I'm officially old. Wait, that's tomorrow...

Happy birthday, Matt...and congratulations!!!

Just what the doctor ordered...Part 2

Sunday was a happy day for Scot! It was an unseasonably warm 70 degrees in Peoria, which meant that enough of the snow melted for him to go on his first bike ride of the year.

He met up with his friend, "Mountain Man" Mike, (see previous post) to go out for a "quick" ride. I put "quick" in quotes because Scot said he would probably be gone for no more than a couple of hours. Well, almost five hours, 120 miles, (and I'm sure a couple of beers) later, Scot pulled back into the driveway. I can't really blame him for not being in any hurry to get home considering the gorgeous weather.

When he finally did return to the homestead, we took Harli out for a nice walk around the neighborhood. While on our walk, I asked Scot how his bike ride was. He said, and I quote, "Just what the doctor ordered." I thought this was quite funny and ironic as that was exactly what I had titled the blog entry that I wrote while he was out riding!

Just what the doctor ordered...

First off, as a follow-up to my last post, I am feeling much better. Secondly, I apologize for the lack of posts recently. I had to travel to Mississippi for work a couple of weeks ago, and then last week was filled with all-day meetings at work. That means my evenings had to be spent working on my regular daily work at night from home. The last couple of weeks really have been pretty crappy. Thank God I have such a great husband. He has been cooking dinner in the evenings and taking care of most of the household duties since my work schedule has been so hectic.

So I figured this weekend would be another regular weekend- getting caught up on laundry, trying to get caught up on some projects at work, etc. Well, little did I know that Scot had something else in mind. And boy, was it just what the doctor ordered!

Here's the story: We went out to dinner on Friday night, and then came home to relax on the couch. I had 2 glasses of wine at dinner so I was feeling relaxed. After trying to fight the "sleepies" for 30 minutes or so, I decided to embrace it. I ended up stretching out across the couch (and Scot) and falling asleep around 9:30 while we were watching TV. I dozed in and out and assumed Scot had also fallen asleep. I was in a much-needed deep sleep when Harli let out a loud bark. I sat up, gasping for breath, as I was completely startled and disoriented. A split-second later, the doorbell rang. My heart was still racing from being woken up so abruptly, so this freaked me out even more. Not to mention that Harli was barking her fool-head off. I looked at the clock- 11:00pm. I said to Scot, "Who the hell is ringing our doorbell at 11:00 at night!?!"

Scot got up to answer the door. I figured it was probably someone at the wrong house, or a prankster, or something, so I laid back down on the couch. A few seconds later, I hear a group of people saying, "Happy early birthday, Kimmy Kay!" Still half asleep, I looked up to see my best friends standing in my living room! Heather, Sherry, and Charley had driven up from Columbia, MO to surprise me for an early birthday weekend! (My birthday's not until this Friday.) They even had birthday cake for me! I was completely shocked but excited! Turns out, Scot had been planning this surprise for me for weeks. He knows I LOVE surprises, but that I am also next to impossible to surprise. Well, mark another one down for Scot! I had NO clue!

So on Saturday night, along with our good friends from here in Peoria, we all went out for my birthday celebration evening. It was just what I needed after the past few weeks of being sick and being sick of work! We started out for dinner at a great Irish pub down on the riverfront.

Here is the group (sans me as I was the photographer.)



My best girls from back home, Heather and Sherry. It was so good to see them!





Our good friends, Rhonda and Denise. Scot has been best friends with their husbands since childhood.

One of the aforementioned childhood best friends, Mike (aka Mountain Man Mike), displaying a very rare moment of shyness.

After dinner, we headed to another bar for Karaoke. Our group got a little smaller, but we still had a blast. Here is a picture of the group posing with their glasses of Cherry Coke. :)

Not sure what to call this pose. Either "Fishy-face" or "Trying-to-look-thinner-than-you-really-are" pose.

Dennis and Heather

Sherry and her husband, Charley, displaying the fine art of "Skull face." Don't ask. It's a long story. However, this pose has become a tradition for us.

Kim and Scot taking their turn at "Skull face." Not our best effort. I look like I am in pain. By the way- thanks to Sherry for the bunny ears.

Much better with the happy faces. :)

Karaoke time!

Legends in our own minds.

The Master showing how it is really done. Charley is a great Karaoke-er. That's a word, right?

Heather, Sherry, and Charley left this morning to head back to Columbia. Although I'm exhausted and still have work and laundry left to do, I am so grateful to them and Scot for putting such effort into surprising me with such a great weekend for my birthday. It was a much needed break and distraction for me. Thanks to all that came out to help me ring in the big

3-1 (albeit a week early.) I am so blessed to have such great people in my life!

Animal Instinct

Do you think the animals can sense that their mommy is ill?

Memories...

This afternoon we have been watching the NFL Pro Bowl, which is being played in Honolulu. It reminded me that we never did finish posting the rest of our pics from our trip to Hawaii last fall! My work schedule got out of hand shortly after we returned, and my blogging went on hiatus for a period of time. Well, as I sit here battling a head cold/sinus infection/whatever it is, I thought it would be a great time to reminisce about our last two days on the island of Kauai.

Here is Scot on the morning of Day 7. We were on our way to breakfast and stopped to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery at the resort.

These swans were in a pond just outside the main entrance of the resort. I had never seen black swans before, so, of course, I had to stop to take their picture. They were so beautiful!

We drove to a small town a few miles from our resort for breakfast. The food prices in Hawaii are expensive to begin with so the prices at the hotel were especially outrageous. Therefore, we tried to eat outside of the resort whenever possible. We stopped at Tomkats for breakfast, a great little "Mom and Pop" type of establishment. They had great food and the locals were very nice.

Back at the hotel after breakfast. This was taken in the lobby- you can see how it looks out over the ocean in the background.

We then headed out to the beach. Scot was very disappointed that he couldn't swim in the water at our hotel due to the undertow and rocky surf. The resort had pools and lagoons, including a large sandy-bottom pool, so he quickly got over his disappointment. Swimming or not, the beach was still beautiful.

Kim posing along the waves. Man, I wish I was there now instead of here in Peoria where it is 3 degrees outside!

Scot paying his dues by posing on the rocks.

A close-up of some of the beautiful orchids...

We did end up eating lunch at one of the restaurants at the resort. It was such a beautiful view. We are standing right next to our table in this picture. The beautiful view almost made up for the outrageous lunch bill... We had 2 appetizers and 4 Mai Tais (they were small, I promise). Grand total? $75.00 Ouch!

One of my favorite pictures from the trip- I think it looks like it could be a poster or greeting card or something. This, too, was at the restaurant we ate at for lunch.

That night we attended the Luau at the hotel. It was such a neat event. Included in the price was dinner and all-you-can-drink Mai Tais. This picture was taken of Scot and me at the beginning of the event.

I ended up taking TONS of pictures of the Luau (blame the Mai Tais.) Here are just a couple of the better ones... This guy was cool (and a little scary) with his Tribal tattoos.

Some of the lovely Luau ladies...

DAY 8: This was our final day in Hawaii. We had most of the day to do some more sight-seeing before flying out that evening. A final picture of the black swan as we were leaving the resort.

It is tradition to leave your lei on the pohaku stone when you are leaving as a remembrance of your trip.

After checking out of our resort, we headed to another quaint establishment for breakfast. Here is Scot about to devour his Macadamia Nut and Banana Pancakes. He was smiling ear-to-ear in anticipation. He said they were every bit as good as he hoped they would be!

After breakfast, we drove to the West part of the island to go to Waimea Canyon. This is the largest canyon in the Pacific and is referred to as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." It was truly breathtaking. There is a 40-mile scenic road that you can take to see all of the scenic stops. Unfortunately it is a very windy road. I ended up feeling quite queasy from all of the twists and turns. As a result, we ended up stopping at every possible stop so I could get some fresh air. Here are some pictures at the numerous stops...

Yes- that's us in the middle...

I'm not a flower expert, so I'm not sure what kind of flower this is. I just thought it was really pretty..

This is a picture of the final stop on the road- the Na'pali Coast. It was amazing. This is as close as you can get to the coast unless you go by boat or air.

A final picture of us in Hawaii...

You can see the waterfalls in this picture...

The dirt in Hawaii is this vibrant Red color. I loved this picture of the waterfall along the red dirt. This was taken as we were leaving Waimea Canyon.

After Waimea Canyon, it was time to head to the airport. We left Kauai in the evening and flew all night. Here is a picture of us at one of the airports that we had a connection at the next day. I don't think I knew where we were at the time, so I definitely don't remember now! As you can tell, we were quite exhausted, but it was well worth it!

Happy Birthday, crazy little dog!

Yes, in honor of Harli's 2nd birthday (does that mean that she's a teenager now in dog years?), I thought I would post the following video to show how disturbed our little baby truly is.


This video was filmed a couple of weeks ago, but I just haven't had the chance to post it. As you can see from this video, Harli is EXTREMELY jealous of our two cats, Alley and Sammy. Back story: Scot had picked up my prescription refill earlier in the day, and I simply picked it up off of the coffee table. Normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but the cats were sitting on the other side of me. Harli didn't necessarily know what the bottle of pills was, but all she knew was that she didn't want the cats to have it. She started doing her normal freak-out.



She is on her back because Scot put her in "time out" so she could calm down. Did I mention she hates being on her back (it's the whole submission thing.) OK- so I didn't help matters by shaking the bottle and saying the cats' names. However, I was trying to capture one of her freak-outs on film. I would never do that normally. :)

Continuing with the "Harli" themed post... Scot and I were sitting on the couch Monday night enjoying a glass of wine after dinner. Scot got up to answer the phone, and knocked his almost full glass over onto the floor. Thankfully we don't drink Red wine!! He quickly went to get towels to blot it up. He got as much as he could, but the floor was still damp. Well, Harli would NOT stop licking the carpet! We kept pulling her away, but every time we stopped paying attention to her she would sneak back to the spot! She loved her some wine! Perhaps Scot and I are bad influences on her.

You, alright! I learned it by watching you!

Happy Birthday, Harli... you little wino...

While the weather outside may be frightful...

The grill smelled so delightful! Yep, last week we decided that we weren't going to let a little cold weather stop us from grilling up some yummy New York Strip Steaks for dinner. Despite the 18 degree weather (which would be considered warm after this weekend's ridiculously cold temps), Scot headed outside to get down to business. I know that it doesn't look that cold since Scot is wearing shorts outside, but...

...here's proof that it was quite frigid. There is no grill under this grill cover. It was actually frozen when he removed it, so it retained the shape of the grill!

My Grill-Master at work.

I would like to recommend a cool website: http://www.charcoalbob.com/. It has a "Cookout Calculator" that is pretty slick. You put in the details of what you're cooking: type of meat, desired doneness, type of grill, even the outside temperature (which I guess can play a factor- especially if you're silly enough to grill when it's 18 degrees.) You can enter several different types of meat with varying degrees of doneness. This is great if you are having a big cookout to accommodate a lot of different people/tastes (or if you are like Scot and I and one of you prefers your steak Medium Rare and the other Medium Well.) It then gives you a detailed timeline of when you should start the grill, put each piece of meat on, flip each piece of meat, etc. I expected it to respond to our request with something like, "Um, it's 18 degrees out? Check back in the Spring, Dumba$$." Luckily it didn't, and our New York Strips turned out perfectly! Thank you, Charcoal Bob and Gassy Scot!

Merry Christmas?!

I know this posting is a little untimely since Christmas has come and gone. However, I have several pictures from our holiday that I wanted to post to share. Since the boys spend Christmas Eve with us and Christmas Day at their mom's, we celebrate our traditional Christmas morning on Christmas Eve each year. This was our first Christmas in our new house and as husband and wife, so it was definitely a special year for many reasons.

Wake up! It's time to see if Santa came!

But first, we enjoyed a yummy (but certainly not healthy) breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls! Having homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning has been one of my family's tradition for years. I wanted to continue this tradition with Scot and the boys. This was the second year I have made these on my own, and I must say that they were a success! I think the guys agreed since they seemed to gobble them up pretty quickly. Maybe they were just anxious to open their presents, though?

"Are all of these for me? See, I told you I wasn't a bad dog!"

"Wait- I think I just found mine!"

Notice the candy cane shaped bone hanging out of Harli's stocking. She became fixated on it and just sat there whimpering.

"Oh, my gosh, Oh, my gosh...this is not a drill."

I loved this picture because if you look closely you can see her little tongue sticking out in anticipation of her treats to come.

"Decisions, decisions!"

We layed out her presents and made her sit and wait to choose one. She was just shaking with excitement.




And the winner was... her new bone! She is an addict for these things, and didn't hestitate to grab it and run. We didn't see much of her for the rest of the morning as we opened our presents (which was why we opened her presents first!)





Don't worry. Santa Paws didn't forget about the cats. They received a new feather stick, and, as you can see here, it was a big hit with Allie. (Sammy doesn't come out much when the boys are here, so he decided to wait to play with his gift.)



After we finished with the silliness of the animals' presents, we moved on to the Main Event. The boys started by opening their stockings.

Here they are posing with their Stewart's Cream Sodas. This is another family tradition of Scot's.

Another tradition that my family has always had was that everyone got a new Christmas ornament each year. Even on the years that I wasn't at my dad's house for Christmas, they would still get me an ornament. When I became an "adult" and got my own place, I acquired all of my past ornaments- back to the year I was born. Hanging all of them on the tree is one of my favorite parts of Christmas- each ornament is labeled with the year it was from. This is another tradition that I want to continue with my family. Here are Matt and Andy finding a place to hang their new ornaments for the year. Andy got a snowman wearing Tampa Bay Buccanneers gear (his favorite team) and Matt got a classic Corvette (so he could say he got a car for Christmas.)

Scot with his new Hawaii WAC Championship T-shirt, courtesy of my brother and his family who live in Hawaii.

My dad had sent gift cards for the boys. Scot and I bought some of those gift card holders that look like stuffed animals. These had the velcro pockets in them so you can't really see the gift card unless you're really looking for them. We told them that they had gifts on the tree, but they had to find them. They finally found them, but were a little confused- thinking that my dad had sent them stuffed animals. Matt saw the pocket and thought it was a puppet! He put his hand in it and then he goes, "Oh!" They quickly discovered the gift cards, and I think they were quite happy to see that was their gift and not puppets. Not that they wouldn't have been appreciative of puppets, but I think Best Buy gift cards are a little more on target for 13 and 15 year olds. ;)

Matt's big gift was a new photo printer for his camera. (He recently spent an ungodly amount of money- his own money- but still a lot of money for a fancy new digital camera.) So we thought he would get good use out of a portable printer that he can hook his camera directly to without the need of a computer to print his own photos. It's pretty slick and he seemed to enjoy it.

Andy's main gift was Guitar Hero III. He has been talking about this game non-stop and was pretty stoked to get it. (I must admit that I've tried my hands at it a couple of times when he hasn't been here.) It's a neat game and I can see why it can become addicting.

After our Christmas (Eve) morning, we headed down to Scot's mom's house in Springfield, IL. When it comes to opening presents, Scot's mom, Michele, is as bad as a little kid. So it is always funny to see her at Christmas time. When my family has gotten together in the past, we have always had our meal, relaxed, and then opened presents. Not when you go to Michele's house! If she had it her way, we would be opening presents before we even get our coats off! It's kind of fun to torture her because of this. We wrapped all of her presents this year in paper that read, "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER 25TH," knowing full well that we would be there on the 24th. As you can probably guess, she didn't let that stop her one bit.

I liked this picture because of the confused look on Matt's face as he was trying to figure out what his gift might be. Michele is an absolute whiz at scrap-booking and card making. She is very talented and creative at this (of which I am completely jealous.) She made the boys some cool calendars- each month having pictures of them from different events over the past year.

Whatcha got Scot?

Hmmm...a drill doctor! That will come in handy with our basement projects that we have planned!

Harli helps her mommy open her gifts. "Are there any more bones in there?"

Andy opens his Terranator remote control car- it's supposed to go over any type of terrain. A 13 year-old's dream.

Matt with his aforementioned fancy camera.

"Any more presents to open?"

After our festivities on Christmas Eve, Michele and Rob graciously drove the boys back to Peoria to their mom's house so Scot and I could continue our journey onto Missouri. We got to my mom's house late on Christmas Eve, and had our family celebration on Christmas Day. I didn't take as many pictures at my mom's house as I thought I had, which was kind of disappointing. I think this was party due to the fact that I was in a near coma after the meal my mom cooked, including her nearly world famous turkey and dumplings. I love Christmas, but thank God it only comes once a year or else I would be twice my size!

Here is a picture of my mom opening her gift from Harli. In case you can't read it, it says, "Min Pin Grandma."

Yay! A new drill! This was put to good use on Scot's New Year's Day project (see previous post.)

Once again, we had a very blessed and fortunate Christmas with our families. The only thing I would have wished differently would have been to be able to see all of our family during the Christmas season. But as my family is so spread out geographically, this just isn't a possibility. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and we hope to see everyone again soon!

Happy New Year, Happy Anniversary!

Sorry for the delay in postings recently. We have been busy with various holiday events and celebrations over the last few weeks- as I'm sure most of you have, as well. Although we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, we are kind of relieved to have it behind us. Now we are ready for Spring (especially considering the freakish 68 degree weather we had today!) I plan to post some pictures from the holidays in the next few posts.

But first- I will start with our New Year's Eve! As most of you know, this day also designated our one-year anniversary! The debate was whether to celebrate the evening on our own with the more traditional anniversary plans or to throw a party to celebrate the New Year. I was very indecisive on the subject, so Scot said he would take care of the plans and surprise me (he knows I love surprises!) We ended up celebrating the occasions with just each other, but it was a good blend of traditional anniversary plans and a New Year's celebration, as well.

Unfortunately, Scot had to work on New Year's Eve, but it was a holiday for me. I found out that Scot made me an appointment for a spa pedicure that morning. What a great start to the day! While my toes and I were enjoying the R&R, one of the attendants at the spa hand delivered to me the card that Scot had dropped off at the salon a few days earlier. All of the people there were oohing and aahing about how sweet that was. Of course, I had to agree.

I spent the rest of the afternoon hitting the Christmas Clearance sales. I can't remember the last time I went leisure shopping on my own. I found a few good sales, but nothing crazy. For dinner, Scot had made us reservations at a restaurant that both of us had been wanting to try. It is down on the Riverfront and it is an old train station that has been converted into a swanky restaurant. Our dinner was fabulous, and then we headed to the Martini bar next door to listen to some live music. Here is a picture of us at Martini's.



Turns out that Scot went to college with the owner of the Martini bar! This resulted in a free bottle of wine for us, which is always a plus. :)

After listening to the live band for a while, we headed home. We wanted to make sure that we got home before midnight so we weren't out on the road due to the snowy weather and drunk drivers. I'm not sure if that means we're smart or just old. Actually, I'm afraid I know exactly what that means. :) We got home around 11:30, and pulled out the top tier of our wedding cake that had been thawing. Not quite as pretty as it was on the big day, but one-year is a long time in cake-years!

We rang in the New Year with pieces of wedding cake and a Prosecco toast! We were quite amazed at how yummy the cake was! In fact, Scot continued to snack on it for the last week.

We've had this bottle of Prosecco for several months now. We bought it with a gift certificate we got for a wedding present from my co-workers. When we bought it, we had no idea what Prosecco was or if we would like it. I bought it purely because I loved the label. Not only do I love dragonflies, but this particular dragonfly looks almost identical to my tattoo!

The next day was back to work. Not normal work, but Scot and Kim house work. Kim spent the entire day taking down the Christmas decorations. Scot spent the day converting a long hall of our basement into a great storage area. He put in the wiring, installed the lighting, hung the drywall, and built the shelves. It was finished just in time to put all of decorations away! My weekend warrior never ceases to amaze me!

We hope you all had a wonderful New Year, as well, and wish you all the best for a great 2008!

Full House

Last weekend we hosted the family Christmas for my mom's side of the family. Despite the snow storm that came through on Saturday, everyone still managed to travel to our home safely. It had been a year since I had seen most of my aunts and uncles, and even two years for one aunt and uncle. So it was really great to see everyone and have us all together for our early White Christmas. Below are some pictures from the weekend...

My mom was a lifesaver in the kitchen. She worked really hard to prepare a feast for us, including our traditional Turkey and Dumplings... mmmm....

My step-dad, Greg, relaxing in the living room.

As always, Harli was especially nice to anyone who had food. Here she is cozying up to Aunt Shirley and her cookie.

Scot's mom, Michele, helping in the kitchen.

My step-son, Matt, graciously served as our photographer for the day.

Greg, Uncle Melvin, and Aunt Shirley watching the football games while the feast is prepared.

My youngest cousin, Claire, posing for the camera.

Aunt Cheri also posing for the camera. :)

Uncle Barry and his daughter, Claire.

My step-son, Andy, hanging out with Allie on the stairs. Andy was under the weather last weekend (and still is), so he wasn't feeling overly sociable.





Harli and her new best girlfriend, Scarlett, posing under the Christmas tree. Scarlett is my Uncle Ed and Aunt Cheri's little pup. I wasn't sure how Harli would do having another dog in her home (she can be very territorial.) However, Scarlett and Harli had a lot of fun together and loved taking turns chasing each other around the house.

Aunt Glenda and her daughter, Claire.

Scot's mom, Michele, and her "man," Rob. :)

The Hanstein Clan.

All of the Hansteins stayed the night at our house on Saturday, and then we all went for an enjoyable brunch on Sunday morning. By then the roads had cleared enough for everyone to have safe travels home. It was a great weekend, and we really enjoyed seeing everyone. Hope to see everyone again soon!

Oh, Christmas Tree(s)

I have been a little neglectful (busy) lately so I apologize for the lack of postings. Since Christmas is only 5, count 'em, 5 days away, I thought I would post some pictures that are Christmas in nature. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we put up 3, count 'em 3, Christmas trees this year. So here are some pictures of our forest...

Here is the newest addition to our family. We splurged and bought a new tree for the living room this year. Since the ceilings are so high in our living room, our old trees would have looked like dwarf trees! The best part about the tree? It's pre-lit! I know they have been around for quite a while, but this is the first pre-lit tree we've ever had. Boy, was it great not to have to mess with the lights!

Here is the tree in the kitchen/dining room area. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it has (fake) sugared-fruits and grape bunches on it.

And here is the "girly glam" tree in the bar room. I got the idea from a Christmas tree I saw at a silent auction a few months ago (yes, the one that the lady cheated and outbid me after the time was up.) It is done in all purple, silver, and black. Not your traditional Christmas tree, but I love it (and as you can see, so does Harli!)

It has dragonfly ornaments. Most of you know that I love dragonflies, and that I always keep one very close to me. :)

And there are little black heels...

And sassy sparkly heels... These remind me of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, but in purple!

Merry Christmas to you all!

A little more holiday fun...


http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/rnUljSqgDznH0EgcPI7dJTFi

We've been elfed!

I've had a few other friends "elf" themselves, so I thought I would give it a try, too!

Click on the link below for a little holiday fun!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1483256416

All Aboard!

In my last entry, I mentioned that Scot and I (and Andy) were banished to our bedroom last night (watching the depressing Mizzou loss). So I felt that I should provide some additional explanation of our banishment.

Well, Matt's girlfriend, Jenny, recently had a birthday. Since Matt cannot drive yet, they've never been able to go to dinner just the two of them. Therefore, for her birthday gift we planned out a fun little date night for just the two of them last night. The theme: A Night on the Orient Express. So Matt and I made up something to look like a train ticket. It had the Orient Express insignia, her name, the departure date and time (last night, 6:30), the name of the terminal (her street name), the track (her house number), and the train, car, and seat numbers (the month, date, and year of their anniversary). It turned out really cute. So Matt gave this to Jenny at her birthday party last weekend, but wouldn't tell her what it was for.

So we/the train picked Jenny up last night (the train arrived closer to 6:40 due to the ice storm we got yesterday). We then dropped Matt and Jenny off at Kobe's Japanese Steakhouse so they could have dinner on their own. This is one of those restaurants where you sit around the grill and the chef prepares your meal in front of you. It's very interactive, and they said they really liked it. Meanwhile, Scot, Andy, and I went to Old Chicago for our dinner and to watch the first part of the Missouri game. Matt texted us when they were finished, and we went to pick them up. Oh yeah- at dinner he gave her a necklace. It was the Chinese symbol for Love. OK- so our theme had a few inconsistencies- Japanese restaurant, Chinese symbol. Get over it. :)

After dinner, we all returned back to our house so they could watch the classic movie, Murder on the Orient Express. We let them watch it in the living room on the big TV, which brings us back to why Scot, Andy, and I were banished to our bedroom. Their opinions were mixed about the Orient Express movie, but overall they said they really enjoyed the evening. Matt did good to keep everything a surprise, so Jenny didn't know what was going on until it happened. This allowed us to have some fun with her. On the way home from dinner we were teasing about the next part of the night- anywhere from watching the Japanese version of Godzilla to a subtitled Kung-Fu movie.

There was another "fun," but unplanned part of the evening. Due to the aforementioned ice storm, our driveway was a sheet of ice (the roads were fine, but the driveway hadn't melted yet.) So when we pulled into the driveway after dinner, our car stopped about halfway up and then started turning and sliding backwards. We ended up turning 90 degrees across the driveway, and then slid back down. It was a little scary, for fear that we were going to go forward into our ditch. However, Scot maneuvered it beautifully, and we just ended up turning a complete 180 degrees and drove back out of our driveway. So we drove once more around the street (we live on a circle), and then pulled back into our driveway and successfully made it into our garage! We joked and said it was a planned part of the theme of the night. Ever heard of the movie, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift"...

So except for the Missouri loss, the evening seemed to be a success!

Happy December!

I know, you must be thinking... Wow, that was one hell of a long 6th day in Hawaii! Sorry, I've been out of the blogosphere for almost a month. This past month has been very hectic, and somehow updating the blog never made it to the top of my "to-do" list. I'll try to do better...I promise! Scot and I are banished to our bedroom tonight (more on that in another entry), so I thought it would be a good time to type up an entry. As I type, Scot, Andy, and I are sitting on our bed watching the Mizzou/Oklahoma game. Go Mizzou!

So, what "excuses" do I have for being so neglectful to my blogging duties? During the last month, I had to do some traveling to Mississippi for work. Taking the time to get ready to leave town, then being out of town, really put me behind on my normal tasks in life. Then, on top of that, I've been super busy at work when I've been in town, too. As most of you know, I received a promotion in October. Well, that's the "good news." I put "good" in quotes, because I accepted the position under the pretense that they would be hiring someone to take over my old position. Well, basically that has been put on hold until at least the first of the year. Not to mention that it will take a minimum of three months to get someone trained and functional once they are even hired. So, I've not only been trying to keep up with all of the responsibilities from my old position, but I've also been thrust into the responsibilities of my new position, including travel. And who doesn't love doing two jobs for an extended period of time with no definite end in sight? Well, I'll answer that question, "Not me!" Sorry to sound so disgruntled. But the truth is, I am! But I'll stay positive, and hope that things will get better soon before I'm 100% burned out.

We've also been in full-on Christmas mode. I say "we" as this means "me," but Scot has been willingly dragged along for the ride! This holiday season we've done two things we've never done before:

1) We put up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving this year. This has always been a no-no in our opinions. Well, due to our schedule, it was the only practical time to do it. On top of that, we also put up 3 trees this year! I love it! We bought a new tree for the living room since we have such high ceilings in there. Then we put up the two trees that he and I each had, one in the kitchen and one in the bar room. Scot and the boys have given me a hard time for having so much "Christmas cheer" all over the house, but I know they secretly love it! There is one place by the kitchen table where you have a line of sight to all three trees. Scot will stand there and say he feels like he's in a forest. :) Maybe I'll post pictures of our "forest" soon.

2) We also went shopping the day after Thanksgiving this year. This is something I had never done and said I would never do. However, we happened to be back at my mom's in Mexico, so Scot and I decided to drive over to Columbia to get ahead on our Christmas shopping. No, we didn't do the doorbusters at 4am. We went for the afternoonbusters around 1pm. OK- so I think I just made that term up. Either way, we still got really good deals, and the crowds were no where near what I was expecting. Toys R Us was the most crowded place. And, I'm happy to report that except for finishing up Matt and Andy's shopping, we are ALL finished with our Christmas shopping. AND everything is wrapped and under the tree! Woo-hoo! Go me!

Well, those are the "hi-lights" of the past month's craziness. I have to travel for work again this week. The "fortunate" part, however, is that it is to Boonville, MO. So at least I can see family and friends in Mexico and Columbia while I'm there.

Wow- I just noticed I have an excessive amount of "quotes" in this entry. :)

Back to Hawaii: Day 6

Now that the weather is starting to cool off, I thought it would be a good time to finish posting pictures from our Hawaii trip... Ahh, the memories...

On Wednesday morning we headed to the airport early to catch our flight to Kauai. We sadly said goodbye to my brother and his family. They were such gracious hosts and tour-guides. It had been over two years since I had seen my brother and his family, so it was great to have five days to visit with them. However, I always hate saying goodbye as I never know how long it will be until our next visit.

One last picture of the mountains on Oahu. Kind of looks like Jurassic Park, don't you think?

After a quick 37 minute flight, we were off to explore Kauai!




Since we couldn't check into our hotel until later in the afternoon, we decided to drive to the north part of the island. Our first stop was in the small town of Hanalei. After some shopping, we stopped at this quaint little place called the Gourmet Deli for some lunch (and pina coladas!)




After lunch, we continued driving along the shoreline to Lumaha'i Beach. It was very secluded with only a couple other people there. It was absolutely beautiful. Here's Kim "striking a pose."

The waves crashing at Lumaha'i Beach... Looks like one of those motivational posters. :) By the way, this beach was the backdrop for the movie, South Pacific.

A few miles further to Wainiha Bay...

The entire drive around the north part of the island was on windy, rural roads. There were several one-lane bridges along the way.

There is not a road that goes entirely around the island. Once you get to the Na'pali Coast on the West side, the terrain is too mountainous for roads. You can only view that part of the island by water or air or hiking. Therefore, we had to "retrace" our route back. On the return trip through Hanalei, we took a picture of this beautiful church- the Wai'oli Hui'ia Church. I absolutely love the architecture of this building, as well as the colors.

Just outside of Hanalei was this National Wildlife Refuge.

These wetlands serve as a sanctuary for endangered Hawaiian waterbirds. From above, it looks like a field of assorted crops. However, those are all swampy areas filled with lily pads, etc to serve as a home for the waterbirds.

After our day of driving, shopping, and beach walking along the north shore, we headed to our resort to get checked in. The place was breath-taking! We were glad that we had seen so many sights that day, because after we got to the resort we didn't want to leave! Here is a picture of the main lobby.

The entire place had lagoons, small pools, and rivers going through it. After getting checked in, we headed to one of the bars for a cocktail. This was the view from our table. You can see all of the small swimming pools and hot tubs throughout the grounds. In the distance is the ocean. It was by far the most beautiful place either of us had ever been to. We were also pleasantly surprised by how uncrowded the place was. I'm not sure if it was due to the time of year or what. However, we never had any problem finding an empty swimming pool or hot tub. This was nice in comparison to some places we've been to in the past that were filled with screaming kids splashing around. Don't get me wrong- I love kids. However, there are definitely some places and times that it's nice to have some solitude.

Scot posing on one of the bridges at the hotel.

We ended the day going to dinner in a nearby town. The food was really good, but compared to the bill- nothing could taste that good! We had been spoiled by eating dinner at my brother's house for the rest of the trip. Everything is just so outrageously expensive in Hawaii. Scot and I had to suppress the tight-wads in both of us to just splurge and enjoy the experience. Afterall, who knows if we'll ever make it back to Hawaii again.

Happy Halloween!

What was on the menu for dinner? Why, witch hands, green witch brains, and blood sauce, of course! :)


Andy was invited to a boy/girl party on Halloween night, so for some reason he opted to go there instead of hanging out with Scot and me. So we let Matt invite his girlfriend over for dinner. She lives out in the country, so they don't get trick-or-treaters. She was happy to come help pass out candy at our house. Here they are humoring me and enjoying their creepy dinner.

If you can't tell from dinner, I got a little more into Halloween than I normally do. It has been a couple of years since I've had trick-or-treaters, so I was looking forward to it this year. Scot helped me to get the house decorated, too. We turned our plant bed into a little graveyard and our walk-way lights into pumpkin luminaries.

Here's a shot of the front door. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but there is "blood" coming out of the glass in the door, and there are spiderwebs all over. The neighborhood kids really seemed to enjoy the decorations. Well, all except for one little girl who wouldn't come to the door because she was scared of the spider hanging from the light!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Quick catch-up

Sorry for the delay between blog entries. We have been busy the last couple of weekends, and last week I had events for work during several of the evenings. I still have pictures from Hawaii to post, but thought I would do a quick catch-up of what has been going on with us here in Peoria.

Two weekends ago, my dad was able to come stay a few nights with us. He has been doing some work in the Pennsylvania/New York area since May. His project wrapped up, and he was heading back to Las Vegas by way of Peoria. We were glad he was able to come spend some time with us. As you can see, Harli and him turned out to be good buddies on this trip, too!

Scot and I had a black tie event on Saturday night. It was a charity event for a local hospital. It was our weekend to have the boys, so Dad took them to dinner and the movies. They all seemed to have a good time. Here is a picture of Scot and me. This was Scot's first chance to wear his new tuxedo. He looked so handsome!

There was a silent auction as part of the fundraising events. During the first group of auction items, I set my sights on a goal. It was a Christmas tree with the theme "Out on the Town." It was fully decorated with the coolest ornaments- mini high heel shoes, little evening gowns, etc plus it had gift certificates for restaurants, spas, etc. It was decorated in purple and silver, and it would have gone perfectly in our bar room. After a strategically timed bid, the bell rang and I was the winning bidder! Well, until some trashy lady walked up well after the bell rang and outbid me! Needless to say, I was a little "peeved." Thanks to some liquid encouragement, I was all ready to give her a piece of my mind or to call the "auction cops" on her. However, Scot helped me to calm down. I remembered that it all goes to a good cause, and we moved on to the next room of bidding. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and decided that I just saved some money and got some cool ideas for Christmas tree decorating!

I did have a little more luck in the next room of bidding. Here I am with our "winnings" below. I would love to say that I immediately fell in love with it and feverishly bid until it was mine. The truth is, however, that it was really the only thing on the bidding tables that we could afford! Oh well, I still do really like it, and it matches our bar room perfectly. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it's amber/yellow in the center and purple around the outside.

This past weekend Scot and I attended a neighbor's Halloween party. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the event. Nothing too exciting. We decided to go with outfits that we could make out of stuff we already had... Voila! Rabbit and the Rabbit Hunter. I've had a bunny costume from years past, and Scot just wore his hunting gear. We thought about adding some blood to my rabbit costume to make it a little more "Halloweenish." However, I overruled it for fear of offending someone- like me!

Andy had his last football game of the season on Sunday. He had recently missed out on playing three games in a row due to a rib injury. They won their last game of the year 36-8, and finished with a 5-3 record. On a side note- they were 5-0 when Andy played. Coincidence? Scot certainly doesn't think so! :)

Scot's mom, Michele, was able to come to the game on Sunday. It had been awhile since we had seen her so it was great to visit with her. Here is Andy with Grandma Haines. Looks like Andy already has a few inches on her! :)

That's about it for the last couple of weeks. I have a couple more postings from Hawaii still. I hope to get those out soon as I think we still have the most beautiful pictures left to post.