Resolutions

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to begin blogging more.
I even set a goal for myself that I would blog at least three times per week.
I thought this seemed like a reasonable goal.

Apparently not.

So I decided that before I get halfway through the year without blogging, I should get a start on that resolution.

On the subject of resolutions, I have also decided to get back on the weight loss kick I was on last summer. I have realized that my life is just far too out of control from January through mid-April to be too hard on myself about losing weight. I'll be happy with maintaining through the craziness that is interview days and file review time. Now that it is summer and my work life is much less crazy, I'll be returning to my weekly weigh-ins in Tuesdays because that seemed to work really well last time. I have hired a trainer at the gym Matt and I joined a few months ago, and I am committed to reducing my portion sizes and focusing on more fruits, vegetables, good proteins, and whole grains. I am trying to shed processed foods, and junk from my diet. I will always have weaknesses (salt for me), but I can learn how to control them.

We enjoyed a fun-filled and very busy weekend. I joined my friend and co-worker Mackenzie for some sushi at the Urban Wine Company and then sat in the THIRD ROW for a performance of Wicked! It was phenomenal! Amazing show, incredible cast - I would have watched it twenty times if I could have!

Saturday we enjoyed a nice trip to the farmer's market for tomatoes, salsa, cottage bacon, and ciabatta roles - YUM! I love, love, love the farmer's market. After we walked around, made our purchases, and enjoyed a gorgeous spring/summer morning, we met up with Pell and Bren for a trip to the Urban Wine Festival (hosted by the Urban Wine Company - are you getting the weekend theme, here?). We were able to taste several different wines and enjoyed more of a gorgeous day. Our day of fun did not end there though - we enjoyed a late lunch at M's Pub (yes, I had to have some lavosh!) and then headed to Lincoln for some Ivanna Cone and to watch my friend Michelle compete in a women's rollerderby match. I can honestly say it was my first rollerderby match - and I am very thankful that they included a demonstration of how it all works prior to the start of the match. Those girls are viscious! There was one girl taken off on a stretcher during the match and Michelle told us that two girls on her team are out with broken legs, and one is out with a separated shoulder - all caused by roller derby! Michelle's team did not win, but it was a unique and interesting event to attend.

We hosted a small gathering at our house last night and had a great night celebrating the beginning of summer with friends and family. Matt made some homemade ice cream (vanilla and maple-grapenut) and we grilled hamburgers, chicken, and sausages and everyone brought something to share! Fun times!

My camera is out of commission at the moment so I don't have any photos of our fun weekend to share :(

Last day in Portland

Alice worked today, Nick nursed his hand and I headed out to enjoy my last day in Portland. Nick has been keeping ice on his hand pretty constantly since he burned it, but says that it is still bothering him. Alice and I both tried to convince him to go to the emergency room, but he says it is fine and just needs to heal.

I slept in a little and then walked up to the Rose Gardens that are about a mile from where Alice and Nick live. The Rose Garden is actually the International Rose Test Garden and features just about every variety of rose out there. It is incredible! I spent about an hour walking around admiring the roses and taking lots and lots and lots of pictures. I’ll post – I promise! The Rose Garden is a can’t miss in Portland!

I then headed to the Portland Saturday Market for some shopping. Now that I have been there a couple of times I started recognizing the vendors. I purchased Matt some of the honey roasted cashews that he loves and found a great sterling necklace for myself. I promise pictures soon! The Portland Saturday Market is basically a huge marketplace that assembles every Saturday and Sunday from Spring – December. There are food vendors, jewelry makers, clothing, pottery, woodworking, metalworkers – pretty much anything you could possibly want. I enjoy just walking around and people watching. I stayed for a little while and then began walking back – and got caught in a huge, sudden rainstorm. It absolutely poured and I wasn’t anywhere where I could jump under an overhang or anything like that. And, because it was Sunday, most of the office buildings were closed. So, I got soaked. Luckily it didn’t last too long and I was able to dry out while I waited for the streetcar to take me back to their house.

We decided to cook tonight so Alice and I headed to the market when she got home from work. We picked up some pieces of sole that we breaded in potato chips, fried lightly on the stove and then finished in the oven. We had black pepper potato chips, spicy thai potato chips, and buffalo blue cheese potato chips that we used to coat the fish and then we shared. (The spicy thai proved to be the favorite, btw – and I’ll be making this sometime at home because it was super easy and delicious!). Alice also made a sage and mushroom risotto that was very good, and we made some broccoli. Alice also shared her secrets for using the a Kitchenaid mixer to make butter! We made dill butter that we used tonight on our bread and I found it to be really good on the broccoli, and we made honey butter to use later – especially on the English muffins we bought for breakfast tomorrow.

Wine Tasting

Nick, Alice, and I did not get as early of a start as we had hoped this morning. Alice is still recovering from a cold, and Nick is still recovering from his finals this week. I got up and went for a long walk/run this morning. I pretty much wandered the streets around where Nick and Alice live. It is a neat area and easy to get around in because the streets in one directions are numbered ( 20th, 21t, 22nd, etc) and the streets in the other direction are in alphabetical order (Hoyt, Irving, Johnson , etc). So, I can wander all I want and not really get lost. We headed out a little before noon for the Dundee Hills for wine tasting. Alice drove as she was taking cold medicine and didn’t want to drink. We visited Sokol Blosser first, which is not a winery we typically would have stopped at (we all like the smaller, more family-oriented wineries), but I love their Evolution blend wine and really wanted to go. The tasting room was crazy, but we did get to taste a couple of excellent wines and I purchased a bottle of the Evolution #12 to enjoy later.

We then continued down the road to Methven Family Winery – which was smaller, and we were the only ones there during our tasting. This was quite a contrast to SB which was packed. We again tried some wonderful wines and our pourer was a hilarious guy who kept us laughing the whole time. I love wine tasting in Oregon because they tend to have a good mix of white and red wines. I really only like white wines while Alice and Nick (and most other people) are partial to red wine. It makes tasting more fun for everyone. Methven has a winery cat (as opposed to a farm cat) who enjoyed visiting us.

We then visited one final winery whose name I cannot remember. This winery offered some very interesting wines including a Tempranilla Rose' that was very good. All three of us liked it and Alice and Nick ended up purchasing a bottle. We then took the recommendation of one of the guys at that winery and headed to DaVinci’s in Salem. DaVinci’s turned out to be a great recommendation – Italian food, but not traditional Italian. I had a seafood fettuccini that was wonderful (with shrimp and scallops), Nick enjoyed a pasta with sausage dish and Alice enjoyed a stuffed pork. We shared an appetizer of blue cheese scallops with pears that was incredible! The nice part about the restaurant is that they offered two different sizes of meals so Alice and I could get the smaller one that was more suited for us. All three dishes were incredible and I would add DaVinci’s to my list to visit again.

Nick and I were both in desperate need of haircuts so we decided to head to Alice’s salon to get that taken care of. I really wanted my hair shorter and darker and I totally trust Alice to take that explanation and do a good job. And she did a great job. My hair is now just below my shoulders and not as dark as I pictured it, but I think it was good that I did not do a drastic change – a gradual change will be better. And it is super easy to style and will dry much more quickly than my long hair! Before we got our hair cut, Nick and I walked down the street to grab some hot tea from a cute pastry place that just opened. As Nick tried to hand me my tea it tipped and he ended up burning his hand. It didn’t look that bad in the beginning, but got redder and more irritated as the night wore on.

Corvallis

I visited Oregon State University today. Unlike Salem, I have spent time in Corvallis before. Matt and I stayed there for a night when we were here last year, and I visited Oregon State last spring for Creighton. I met with two advisors in their exercise science department about Creighton. Both appointments went well. I met Stasi for lunch after my appointments and she took me to a fantastic Vietnamese Baguette restaurant. We enjoyed a great lunch and some fantastic conversation. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long, but it was great to catch up with her during my short time in town.

I drove back to Portland and returned my rental car. After I left the rental car facility I had to walk about 6 blocks to pick up the streetcar back to Alice and Nick's. As I was crossing a street, a car made a right turn around a corner and suddenly I was looking straight into the the front of a minivan, with a woman at the wheel who was looking at me like I was in the wrong. Regardless of the fact that the walk signal was lit and pedistrians ALWAYS have the right-of-way. After gathering my heart from the ground, I continued to walk across the street and a guy standing at the corner made several comments about how I had the right-of-way and how he didn't understand why she was so upset with me. Crazy...

On the way back to Alice and Nicks I passed by Cupcake Jones - a wonderful cupcake shop I visited the last time I was in Portland. I picked up their Friday "Happy Hour" special - a set of 6 cupcakes, three of which have a "happy hour" theme. This time I got The Pearl, which is a vanilla cupcake, Chocolate, Chocolate Covered Pretzel, Grasshopper, Lime in a Coconut, and Mocha Mudslide. Nick, Alice and I shared two of the cupcakes tonight and they were heavenly. I'll post pictures once I have the ability to do so. The cupcakes are as pretty as they are delicious.

Nick and I met Alice at Laurelwood for happy hour. We shared nachos (cheap), and a beer, and then we all ended up order dinner as well. I had some chili and some parmesan garlic french fries. I ordered more than I could eat and ended up taking most of the fries home. It was a beautifull night in Portland and we were able to sit outside for happy hour and enjoy people watching and the wonderful Oregon climate.

We enjoyed a quiet night at home watching Michael Clayton - which I had seen but Nick and Alice had not. It is the type of movie that I could watch multiple times, though, because you catch something different everytime you watch.

We have planned a day of wine tasting tomorrow. Unfortunately all of us are tired, so we will have to see what time we get going in the morning.

Day 1 in Portland

Recruitment season has begun for me! I started with an appointment with an advisor at Portland State University this morning. PSU is located right in the heart of Portland - very accessible because the Portland Streetcar actually runs right through campus. This was very convenient for me as I did not pick up my rental car until this afternoon so I had a way to get around after my appointment was over. The meeting went really well - a great way to start of recruitment this year. Better to start off on a high note.

I've been trying to work on decorating my office at work, so I decided that I would pick up a postcard from each university I visit this fall and purchase a shadow box or something like that so I can display them in my office. I also pick up pins whenever I visit universities and I plan to display them in a glass container on my desk. That project is a little more pricey than the first :) I picked up my postcard at PSU this morning, but accidentally bent it so I'll have to pick up another.

After my appointment I took the streetcar, then the MAX lightrail, then the bus to where Alice works at Tiger Tiger on Alberta Street. I was proud that I took a look at a map of the public transportation available in Portland and figured out how to get to Tiger Tiger on my own. I ran down the street to pick up some lunch for Alice, myself, and one of her co-workers from a local bakery. I had a fantastic salad with fresh greens, apples, candied walnuts, blue cheese, and a creamy viniagrette. Fantastic! Alice was not working when I was there, but was having one of her co-workers color her hair. When she was done, she took me to pick up my rental car and I headed to the University of Portland, a Holy Cross school with a gorgeous campus. I took a couple of pictures but I don't have a way to get them off my camera right now so I will have to share later.

My visit at the University of Portland went really well. I saw a couple of very interested students and was able to share some information with some advisors. I love visiting college campuses. I think that is one of the way I know that I have choosen the correct career. I love to see the layout of campuses and see the environement where students are learning - I think it tells you so much about the school and the students who choose to attend school there. The University of Portland is situated just off of a cute little neighborhood in Portland fairly close to downtown, but campus does not feel like you are in a city. The soccer teams were practicing as I was walking through campus - there women's soccer team has won several D-1 National Championships, and the campus has tons of green space. I wasn't able to pick up a postcard here because the did not sell any, but I did take some photos. My cousin, Sam, is currently work at UP as an athletic trainer for the basketball team.

The University of Portland is definitely one of my favorite campuses so far. The most beautiful campus I have seen is Santa Clara University in California, but the University of Portland came in pretty close. I'll share photos of Santa Clara when I visit there next month.

After my visit at UP, I headed back to Nick and Alice's and met up with Alice for some shopping. She is in need of new shoes for her cousin Katie's wedding and has not been able to find any so we headed downtown to visit Macy's and a couple of other places. We did not have much luck, but did run into a completely crazy homeless guy on our way home who was standing in the middle of the street yelling at pretty much everyone. Alice and I had actually seen him earlier today when she dropped me off at PSU. He either walked or jumped on the streetcar at some point during the day because he was several miles from where we had first seen him. There are many homeless people in Portland - mostly because of the mild climate, and most of them mind their own business, sometimes taking money or food from people who walk or drive by. But there are some who are very loud and obviously disturbed. Alice and I have talked about this everytime that I am here because it is hard to see all of the homeless and not want to help each and every one of them. It is however, difficult to know how to react to the ones who are screaming at anyone and everyone in the middle of the street - especially when they are dropping the F-bomb and any number of other vile phrases incessently. I struggle internally with knowing what to do or how to react. I feel I fail miserably at being a compassionate human because it is just "easier" to walk on by.

Our trip was unsuccessful (ie, no shoes for the wedding) and after a quick trip to Whole Foods for some miso for Alice (she has a cold and wanted some miso soup), some grilled veggies for Nick, and some brown rice for me to add with the leftover Thai. Alice did find a pair of shoes at Whole Foods so the trip was not completely unsuccessful. The leftover Thai might have been better than it was the first night :)

Wonderful

The wonderful smell of homemade banana bread in the oven is filling my house right now. Matt and I had some bananas that had moved beyond the edible point so I whipped up some banana bread for him while he was at the softball coach's meeting tonight. I'm not a huge fan of banana bread, but the smell filling my house right now is pretty incredible. I'm excited to see how the recipe turns out because it is a new one and I was intrigued because it includes plain yogurt. I guess we will know soon how it turns out.

I stayed home from work today. I woke up at about 4am this morning and felt like I was going to be sick. I never actually got sick, but I still wasn't feeling 100% when my alarm went off at 6am. Stephanie is 38 weeks pregnant and we have an agreement in our office that we will not come to work if we are sick, so I called in. The last thing I want to do is give Stephanie the stomach flu or something like that. The good news is I don't think I have the stomach flu, but I still don't know why my stomach was so upset in the middle of the night.

Matt and I spent Friday night watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. We decided to enjoy some Chinese food to keep with the theme of the evening and then spent the evening ohhing and ahhing over the opening ceremonies. I'm a huge sucker for the Olympic Games and I usually enjoy the opening ceremonies even though some people find them boring. Friday night's ceremonies did not disappoint. The Chinese put on a wonderful show for the world and it was fantastic to see all of the athletes together for the Olympics again.

As a Olympic junkie I've been pretty attached to the television for the last couple of days. However, a DVR is an Olympic junkie's best friend - as long as you can keep up with watching. The US women's basketball team played during my workout on Saturday morning (beating China handedly) and I tried to stay caught up until I picked up my mom for some shopping on Saturday afternoon. I was in desperate need of a new work shoes - both winter and summer and I managed to find a pair of each at Yonkers on Saturday and only spent $55! I found several items at Pottery Barn I could have purchased on the spot, but held off for the time being.

After shopping I came home, watched a little more of the Olympics and then Matt and I headed to Becky and Dan's for their annual fiesta. It was a little tamer this year that it has in the past and we had a great time chatting with them, Becky's mom and playing with Josie - their chihuhua who was absolutely thrilled with all the people at her house (insert sarcasm here). Poor Josie. Interestingly enough - it was the tamest fiesta I have been to, but apparently the cops paid them a visit after we left. Isn't that how it always goes?

Yesterday, my family attended Flip's memorial service. Flip's wife Kathleen, his daughter Rachael, and sister Phyllis all traveled up from Kentucky for the service and it was nice to see them. Ron's brother Richard also attended and while I've heard many stories about him, I had never met him before. We got the chance to laugh and share stories about Ron and his life. And, as would be fitting, we ended the evening at Pizza King in CB, which was Ron's absolutely favorite. I don't think he ever returned to the area without visiting Pizza King.

Matt and I are currently wtching the US Mens' Gymnastics Team in the team competition. Holy Cow! They totally rocked it on the high bar! I love when the underdog succeeds!

Weekend Recovery...

My houseguests have left and I have finally recovered from the weekend and have time to update. I got up early on Friday morning and headed for some pampering and a pedicure. It was absolutely wonderful. I have extremely ticklish feet and some parts of a pedicure are torture for me, but the scrubber that the girl I go to uses is really gentle and doesn't tickle at all. So, it was an hour of pure relaxation and a great way to start my day. Then I headed to HyVee, grabbed a decaf, non-fat iced caramel macchiato, and picked up all the items I needed for my salad and dessert for Friday night. Well - everything except for a yellow pepper, which looked horrible at HyVee so I had Matt pick one up for me at Target.

I spent all of last week craving chocolate pecan pie (which is strange considering that I had never had chocolate pecan pie before) so I decided to give it a try for dessert of Friday. The recipe for the pie was fairly easy, but I wanted to try making homemade pie crust for the first time. I checked several different recipes before finding one I felt comfortable with and gave it a try. I found it to be easier than I expected and will likely never buy pie crust again. The crust turned out flaky, buttery, and really good - and the filling wasn't bad either. I also made lemon bars and Matt made homemade vanilla ice cream. I was really excited about trying a salad recipe I found with lettuce, red pepper, yellow pepper, onions, artichokes, blue cheese, and a really good viniagrette dressing. It turned out really well and I'll definitely keep it on my list to make again. The artichokes and blue cheese made a really interesting flavor combination.

My mom's birthday party was a big success. It was a fairly small party, just my family, the Hoodys and the Witters. Matt's parents decided to not attend so Matt and his brother came over for a little while, but left before we ate. Brenda got her new fridge delivered about 2.5 hours before everyone was scheduled to arrive. Her old one had slowly been losing the ability to keep cold. Brenda felt that the situation was likely aggravated by the fact that they lost power in the storm in June and the fact that their fridge was over 20 years old. I headed over early to help her set up as her afternoon was a little topsy-turvy. We enjoyed great food (including fabulous bruchetta from a local Italian take-out place that I will be visiting soon!), with great friends. I didn't arrive home until almost midnight!

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed to the Farmer's Market with Matt's folks. I don't know what they really thought of it, but I enjoyed it as always. I picked up some fresh sweet basil, fantastic tomatoes, green beans, and we picked up some of the pre-made enchiladas that we love to keep on hand because they are easy to warm up when we don't feel like cooking. We grabbed some breakfast at the Parthenon. I had an elephant ear that was perfect - flaky, sweet, wonderful. I also enjoyed a fantastic cup of homemade root beer.

The farmer's market was really our only excitement during the rest of Matt's parents visit. We cooked them dinner on Saturday night and my parents joined us for dessert. Then we took them to Summer Kitchen Cafe for a great Sunday morning breakfast. They left soon after breakfast and then my mom, Sarah, and I took my grandma to see Momma Mia! It was a cute movie and I think Grandma enjoyed it.

Work has been crazy the past two days. I've received more emails than I can keep up with and I am trying to get everything set for travel this fall. There are just not enough hours in the day. I'm hoping to get completely caught up tomorrow, but I will likely have to shut myself in my office to make that happen.

Houseguests!

Matt and I are being invaded by houseguests! Matt sent me an email at work today to tell me that his brother would be staying with us tonight. He is supposed to pick up Lauren at a camp at KU on Saturday so he headed up this way today to stay with us for a few days. Matt's parents are scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon and will stay until Sunday. For two people who only had one houseguest between November and June, we have certainly had an increase this month. My parents stayed with us while their floor was being done, Brent stayed with us when he came to see The Dark Knight, and now Matt's family will be with us this week.

I took tomorrow off of work so I have time to prepare for my mom's birthday party. However, I start the day with a pedicure to pamper myself a little bit. I hate painting my toenails, and I love getting pedicures so I schedule myself for one every once in awhile just for a treat. Then I will head to the store and then home to make chocolate pecan pie, artichoke salad, and lemon bars - my contributions for the dinner. We are also having steak, pasta salad, bread, and homemade ice cream. I'm looking forward to the evening.

We celebrated Matt's birthday on Sunday with dinner at Zio's - Matt's choice. We enjoyed good pizza with my family (Mom, Dad, Sarah, Jim and my Grandma). Then we came back here for some birthday carrot cake. In general, it was a pretty low-key birthday. Matt liked the Scheell's gift card that I gave him.

Matt's parents confirmed that they will be visiting this weekend. We will have my mom's birthday party on Friday night and then entertaining for the weekend. Luckily, Matt's parents don't require much entertainment, but it will still be a busy weekend for us. I think we are going to head to the farmer's market on Saturday morning, possibly lunch at Jimmy John's (which Matt's dad informed us one time he really likes) and then dinner at our house with the item we purchase at the farmer's market (sweet corn, green beans, tomatoes) featured on the menu. We will likely head to Summer Kitchen or FarmHouse on Sunday as they have been to both and have mentioned many times that they like both. This works well for us as we like both as well, but hardly ever visit either one.

The last two days at work have been crazy for me. Our phone and email volume has been up significantly this week. I'm also trying to work on some travel arrangements, and finish up some other projects. Additionally, I'm moving offices (just down one office) on Thursday. Stephanie completed her move across the hallway so I am taking her old office which is closer to the front desk, next door to Mackenzie, across from Stephanie and allows our new admission counselor to be next to Kim. I came home yesterday exhausted from everything that has been going on, and I am exhausted again tonight.

Matt called while I was at work today to tell me he hurt his knee playing basketball at the gym. He was at home at the time icing it, but wanted to know if I thought he should go to have it checked out. I told him I would rather him have it checked out and find out that nothing is wrong instead of not getting it checked out and having major problems later. He went to the urgent care place not far from where we lived and came home with a knee brace, a prescription for some painkillers, and instructions to return in 4-5 days if it still hurts. X-rays did not show any major tears or anything like that, but she also said that x-ray would only indicate major problems which is why he has instructions to return if it continues to bother him. Hopefully, he just needs to stay off of it for a few days.

I'm exhausted today so my post will likely not be too long. I had a terrible case of insomnia last night and definitely remember 1am coming and going before I finally fell asleep. Needless to say, the 6am alarm was not very welcoming.

I'm not sure what caused this as my weekend was pretty calm. Matt and I went out for Date Nite on Friday. We decided to eat a Granite City, one of our favorites when we lived in Lincoln, but we had not yet been to the one here. The menu is different and my favorite salad, the buffalo chicken one, is gone. I had to settle for a dinner salad and a cup of Cheddar and Ale soup. Matt really likes their Chicken Parmesan and must have been craving it because he didn't even look at the menu when we got there.

I went to work out on Saturday morning then met a friend for lunch, shopped for a baby gift, and went to the baby shower. It was incredibly hot out on Saturday - we defintely experienced a typical July day in the midwest.

Matt and went to see Hancock on Saturday night. I was aware of the basic plot of the movie, but was surprised by the direction it took. I won't give any more away, but I thought it was good. It is funny, serious, and a little dark at times.

We had family dinner at my parent's last night. Jim and Matt were both missing so we invited Grandma along. We enjoyed my favorite Cajun Shrimp and had pound cake, peaches and ice cream for dessert - the first good peaches I have had this year. We also pulled out old family pictures and had a great time looking through them.

Although tomorrow is Tuesday I will not be posting my new weight because Mackenzie and I will be at the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Qwest. I have never seen/heard DMB in person and I am really excited. However, I checked my weight tonight to see where I was at, and I am expecting a good number on Wednesday when I check in!

I'm headed to bed - let's hope that tonight is a better night than last night!

I'll likely be MIA for the next couple of days as Matt and I are headed to Saint Louis for Laura and Matt's wedding. It will be a quick trip from us (we will leave late Friday afternoon/early evening and return on Sunday) but I'm looking forward to it. All of my roommates will be there and we will get to dance the night away! I wish that I had taken tomorrow off from work so we could leave earlier, but tomorrow is a little crazy at work with a huge upgrade occurring with our database program, and the fact that our director and administrative assistant will both be gone for the whole day or part of the day. Monday will likely be a rough day, but I'll make it through.

Our garage door was replaced this week, which was exciting because the door company predicted it might be a few weeks until they could fit us in. For some reason they had a cancellation on Tuesday and called to see if they could come. Having the garage door fixed is great only because it was somewhat inconvenient when it was broken. We were able to put the door up and down manually, but it made horrible sounds and actually buckled when it was lifted all the way up, so we usually only put the cars in when bad weather was in the forcast.

My entire family celebrated my Grandma Johnson's 84th birthday with dinner at Barley's last night. All of us who live in Omaha/CB were able to make it which is incredible considering that the planning started on Monday night. We all got the chance to meet/see Ruby Rae. She is a pretty laid back kid - she slept the entire time we were there. Beckett seems to be adjusting well to having a sister - he pretty much just ignores that she even exists.

Ruby Rae

A quick congratulations to my cousin Matt, his wife Jill, and big brother Beckett, on the birth of Ruby Rae today!

Hopefully, I'll have the priviledge of meeting Ruby Rae soon!

First Post of 2008!

Happy New Year!

Matt and I just returned for a wonderful, story-filled weekend in Missouri. We departed early Saturday morning after a quick stop-off at Starbucks for an Eggnog Latte for me (I never know when they are going to stop carrying Eggnog!). We arrived in Shelbina during the middle of the afternoon, spent a little time with Matt's parents and Eric and then headed back into town to visit Jason, Sara, Samuel, and their parents for the evening. We enjoyed pizza, football and good conversation. Samuel entertained us all.

Sunday brought a little bit of sleeping in, visiting Matt's grandma, and celebrating Christmas with the Caldwell's. The entire family was able to make it and we had a great time. The kids ripped into their gifts and had a blast playing with them and we had a great time enjoying the time together - it doesn't happen often. We were able to meet Rebecca and Kade (the woman that Mike is dating and her son) and spend a little bit of time with them. It will be nice to get to know them better sometime when things are a little less hectic.

On Monday Matt and I took off for Bren's parent's house outside of Maryville. The wind was really beginning to blow by the time we arrived and some of the snow that had fallen was blowing back onto the roads. I was glad to be out of the car for the evening. It was great to see Pell, Bren, Andrew and Amy. The six of us used to spend so much time together and it is hard now that we are so spread out. It sound like Pell and Bren will be putting their house up for sale soon in anticipation of a possible move back to the midwest - or at least closer than they are now! It would be great to have them closer so we could get together for fun more often.

Pell made a huge batch of pizza dough and we all helped getting ingredients together for pizza. It was the best homeade pizza I have ever had and we enjoying being about to have six different combinations of toppings. Bren and her mom also made a gorgeous salad ( I don't know where they find such fresh ingredients in the middle of winter) and we sat around the table and enjoyed our time together. After dinner everyone else joined in a ping-pong tournament, but I was taking it easy because my back started hurting the moment I got out of the car. By the time the tournament was over I couldn't stand, sit, or do anything comfortably. Luckily, Pell has some experience with manipulation and massage and was able to eliminate a huge knot that had wedged itself between my spine and my hip bone and was also able to relieve some pain I was feeling in other parts of my right side because of the spot on my back that was sending me out-of-whack. Thankfully, after a couple of days of recovery by back is finally back to normal, and I am thankful for a friend who is so talented :)

On New Year's Eve we also played Apples to Apples before toasting in the New Year
(with champagne!) and then played Catchphrase before heading to bed. Pell proved himself as an excellent cook again the next morning by making fantastic pancakes that we enjoyed with cinnamon rolls and coffee. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon playing more ping-pong and working on a puzzle that Bren's family had started. It was great to be able to be together before we returned to Omaha and Andrew and Amy returned to KC.

I returned to work yesterday (a little late because I couldn't sleep on Tuesday night because my back was really stiff and painful) and am very grateful that this is a short week. We are swamped at work and I'm looking forward to being able to use the weekend to catch up a little and get some things done at home before a full work-week.

An ice cream themed post....

I enjoyed a delicious double scoop of Honey Cornbread Ice Cream from Ivanna Cone today. Sounds strange, but it was truly wonderful. Ivanna Cone is a local place that makes their own ice cream in house - all sorts of creative flavors and combinations. Today we could choose from, amongst other things: Mango Chili Sorbet, Lychee Mandarin, Raspberry Creme Fraiche ( I think that is how it is spelled), German Chocolate Cake, Cinnamon, Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, Pink Lemonade Sherbet, Pistachio, etc. I ate mine in a homemade waffle cone - they were making the cones when we were there and the smell was fantastic! Matt enjoyed a scoop of the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake and a scoop of the Cinnamon. We sat outside in the Haymarket and enjoyed our ice cream and watched everyone go by. The Haymarket was full of people tonight - lots of families getting ice cream, couples walking around after dinner, people walking their dogs, all on a beautiful evening in Lincoln.
We are headed to Omaha tomorrow. Matt is playing golf with my dad while my mom, Sarah and I are going to a fundraiser luncheon with my grandma. On Sunday we plan to cook dinner for my mom for Mother's Day and we are going to test our own skills at making homemade ice cream. Matt and I received an ice cream maker as a wedding gift and we have been wanting to try it out. Wish us luck!!