Friday, May 29, 2009

It was 20 years ago today

Actually, it was one year ago yesterday...

We brought this home...






And life has never been the same!







Thursday, May 28, 2009

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Man, it's been a while and I've done many things...so here's a recap of sorts:

-"Bon Voyage" party for some friends who are going on a 4 week trip to Europe. Just the two of them. I don't know if Danny and I could handle that, but it sounds like a great time.
-Took dog to vet...1 year old, 84 pounds, she's still the most popular dog there!
-New front door installed, looks fantastic...way to go hubby!
-I made a kick-ass lasagna on Sunday that is still only halfway eaten...this probably isn't noteworthy, but I will post the recipe on the other blog (it's one I stole from Pioneer Woman).
-Danny defended my honor, such a good husband.
-Memorial Day=No Work!
-Moved a mattress downstairs to sleep because the upstairs was SO HOT and I won't turn on the AC. Turned out to be really fun to sleep on the floor in front of the big tv with Harrison jumping all over the place.
-As a result of the above, we basically just hung out all weekend together, watching Jon & Kate plus 8 marathons, relaxing. I have to give my husband props for sucking it up and watching that show with me, plus I let him bitch about Kate as much as he wants...compromise.
-Band practice has been really fun lately!
-Yogilates (this is the correct spelling) kicked my butt on Tuesday, but it was still fun.
-Personal day Wednesday = 12 hours of house cleaning with help from Danny, Mom, and Dad...things are really coming to the finish.
-Realtor came today, looks like we can ask more than we thought for the house...he'll let us know the official number early next week (yay!)

We're just rolling along with life. I'll tell ya though, I'm ready to be done spending money on this house, I'm ready for someone to pay me big bucks for it, and I'm ready to move! I haven't even started packing...that just makes me shudder. But it's right around the corner.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Let me hear your body talk...

Mine says...ouch!

So, Mom and I went to our yogalates class last night. It was the two of us, two other ladies who are regulars, and an older gentleman named Ed, also a regular. I was next to him. I told myself that if Ed can handle this stuff, so could I...or so I hoped.

The class was not at all difficult, nor did I go home feeling dead tired and over-worked. A lot of the moves I'd done before in other yoga classes and there was seriously like 1 pilates move. So the whole time I was thinking, I am not paying $80 for 3 months of this class (plus gym membership)...not worth it! But by the end of the 45 minutes, I was feeling stretched and worked and slightly rejuvinated. Mom is hooked, as she is Mrs. Flexibility, USA and was even the star of the class with just how far she could reach past her toes. I, on the other hand, can't even get to my toes, let alone past them. Anyway, today my body is sore and in all the right places, so I'm going to give it a whirl. The next 6 week class starts in June, so we'll see. It's better than nothing, which was my alternative exercise plan.

Plus, I'm a big fan of Ed.

erin

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Let's Get Physical!

I am going to Yogilates class with my mom tonight. Yogalates? Yogilates? Whatever, I'm going.

Right now as I sit here at work I am so worn out! I had to help lead hikes today due to lack of volunteers and many many children. So I guess that little extra effort put forth by me today has completely worn me out! Lame.

Hopefully this will be a fun class, Mom and I are going to try to go every Tues/Thurs (after I join her health club that is). Tonight is a little preview to see what it's like. But I am looking forward to being a bit more active than I have been of late. Plus, it's only a 45 minutes class, so at least it won't last forever.

We'll see how it goes!

erin

Monday, May 18, 2009

Rollercoaster of Love

So, in a mere 3 weeks, I will no longer be a newlywed.

Or, at least I won't if you go by the whole "you're only a newlywed for the first year" thing. Our one year anniversary is quickly coming up on the 7th of June. I'm really looking forward to it and, of course I can't believe it's been a year already! So many things have happened that I never expected and so many things haven't that I totally did expect. Oh life, aren't you funny? Ha.

Anyway, to celebrate we've had a few ideas. This first...well I don't remember the first. There was some kind of plan, but it went by the wayside quickly, thus me not remembering what it was. Then we were going to get family pictures taken with Harrison. That was a cool idea as the first anniversary is the "paper anniversary" and photos are on paper, yada yada, how fitting! Well, for some reason that kind of went on the back burner and then Danny came home all pumped with his grand idea to celebrate....A weekend in St. Louis, including a trip to Six Flags and the St. Louis Zoo! Hell yes to this! I haven't been to either place in AT LEAST 14 years. The last time I remember going I was 12 and that was Six Flags, I think the last time I went to the zoo I was like 6...so, it's been a while.

So we were all excited about planning the trip and all of a sudden I had a thought...what if I wuss out on the rollercoasters? See, the last few times I've done the six flags thing, I did, in fact, go on the Batman and some of the other rollercoasters, but I always had the safety net of choosing not to participate if I got nervous last minute. There were always enough people going to allow some to ride, some to watch or participate in some other way. Now though, it will just be us and if I don't want to go, he'll have to go by himself and who wants to do that? So I was trying to express this concern and all of a sudden, the whole trip was off. No one was mad, but the point was made that if we're not going to take full advantage of the trip, why spend the money to go? Good point! So, I'm going to just suck it up and ride! What a marital compromise!

We also booked a hotel room, a suite (for once in my life!), and we'll be taking our wedding cake top layer to eat. Wonder how that will turn out in reality. It's been sitting in my parent's freezer for this past year so it wouldn't be prematurely eaten by yours truly. I'm a cake fan, what can I say?

Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to this trip! A little getaway, but without the pressure/stress of going out of the country, catching trains and planes, going through customs, getting swine flu, getting stuck across the border, being sold into an underground prostitution ring, or whatever else we're warned about on the news.

Rollercoasters, here I come!

erin

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Rock Lobster.

I am meeting the husband at Red Lobster for dinner tonight, thanks to a gift card and a couple of meetings we both have after the work day. So date night: quick little dinner, followed by a quick trip to Menards to pick out a new front door (swoon!) and then back to work!

But...I'm excited to see him! And very excited for either apple chicken walnut salad, or a pasta dish....you see, I am in no way a seafood fan, but I still get included in the gift card usage!

Also, I had to run to Kroger for foodstuff for this meeting of mine tonight (food handlers unite!) and I parked right next to my Dad in the parking lot! But, I never saw him inside the store and by the time I got to the checkout, I could see he was already gone! Mysterious!

So, mystery day, red lobster night...it's the little things, I suppose.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Thunder, Lightening, the way you Love me is Frightening!

Whew! That was quite a little rain storm we had this morning...and I think it's gearing up to go again. And there goes some poor soul for a hike on the trails right now! Perhaps she should rethink her exercise routine today. Hit the elliptical instead today, folks...if it isn't raining, our trails are sure to be mud-packed messes.

I've heard it through the grapevine that "the bear" aka Harrison, got herself into some muddy fun in our backyard today. Something about the "entire left side of her body" and being "barricaded in the kitchen for a good long while." So she's been bathed, and was rolling her little heart out all around the house this afternoon...according to the husband. She manages to have fun no matter what the weather in the great outdoors! And she's only killed 3 bunnies this year!

On a different note entirely, I've been doing my fair share of keeping up with the "Jon & Kate Plus 8" dramailty news that's been circulating. This was one of my favorite shows back when it started. It was a great look into the lives of these seemingly normal folks with a crap load of children. They were down to earth and their imperfections at dealing with life, each other, the kids was a plesant alternative to so many other programs on at the time. Then it began to gain popularity and it became something different entirely. Don't get me wrong, I still watch the show and for the most part, I enjoy it, but man oh man, it got very glamorous and orchastrated and that Kate seemed pretty mean to Jon and that Jon seemed pretty short with his kids and now, all this crazy controversy is going on! What kind of happy, easy-going family is this? So, I guess you just can't really ever call being on tv "reality." Or maybe you can call it that, but you also have to realize your "reality" is going to get way ridiculous, way fast. Let that be a lesson to you Duggar family! Anyway, I'm going to keep watching the show and maybe that's wrong of me to do, invading the privacy of these kids who seem to look sad in many of their publicity photos, but until they start competing for cash prizes and giving each other weird nick names or striving for the attention of Flavor Flav and Bret Michaels, it still beats all the rest!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

In the Summertime when the Weather is Nice...

You should grill some turkey brats because those are good!

And I guess if you want to get technical, it's still the springtime, but it sure is nice! I just popped out of my office for a bit and hiked a trail and it was all I could do to come back inside.

And speaking of turkey brats (not an everyday sentence for me), that's exactly what my hubby and I enjoyed last night on our patio. We took Harrison on a walk through the park after I got home from work and then we had brats, fresh spinach salad and strawberries for dinner outside in our backyard. It was really nice! We talked about our plans for the new house, eventually we want to add on and reconfigure some stuff. We talked about our timeline of projects to finish on the current house so we can get it on the market asap...just a few to go! We talked about how much I would not let us have 2 dogs after we move. One goofball golden retriever princess baby dog is enough, especially when we were talking about adding a german shepard to the mix. Not happening.

All in all, it was a lovely evening at home, plain and simple. Looking forward to many more of those this season.