Not So Wonderland

In spite of Phil's (the groundhog) prediction that spring would come early this year, winter seams to have finally arrived for the East Coast. I must say, Liz got out just in time. In our first major winter storm of the year, mother nature decided to be very cruel.

Highlights of the "Love Storm":

• We had approximately 36 hours of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
• What would have been 20" of snow has been compacted into 6-8" of snow and ice.
• It took Aaron more than an hour to shovel our 10' driveway (it usually takes him about 10-15 minutes)
• The nicely paved roads that we are used to, have been mutilated into ice roads. It's much like driving on stone/dirt road with multiple pot holes, except that they are much slipperier and dangerous. In some places its like driving an amusement park car on a track cause the tire have worn through the ice to the road, but a 6" thick slab of ice remains between your tires. I found this quite humorous.
• Accidents on the interstate highway 78 caused a 50 mile gridlock that for some lasted for more than 40 hours. Can you imagine being stuck on a highway, in your car for 40 hours. The National Guard took food and supplies to those left stranded.
• Highways are still closed in that area due to horrible road conditions that could not be remedied sooner.

It was a terrible storm and the aftermath is even worse cause of all the ice. I'll be glad when it warms up. Oh did I mention it hasn't been above 20 since like 2 weeks ago. It's very cold!

Anyone else ready for spring?!

We have arrived....

Well, it's official....Nathan and I both now reside in Michigan. As I said before, we're living with my parents until we find a purchase a house. Nathan likes his new job quite a lot, and I'm beginning to job hunt. It was quite a whirlwind getting here. Nathan was here for 2 weeks while I stayed in MA and finished work and packed up the apartment. Then my parents came out to help us move. It was hard to leave...harder than I thought it would be. We had definitely put down a lot of roots, so it was hard to leave the church, and especially our friends. When you hang out with the same people every weekend (several times), it's hard to get used to not being with them all the time. At least we know a few people here, so it's not like we have nothing and no one to hang out with on the weekends. Like I said, the move was a whirlwind, and I don't want to do it again for a very, very long time (except moving into a house soon). We had a 26ft. truck because the place didn't have a 22 footer, and that was an experience! But it's over now, and we're settling in as much as you can in your parents' house:) I'm definitely having more fun with the house hunt than the job hunt. I was thinking today that maybe I should look for a job half as hard as I look for a house:) Fortunately, the cost of living here is sooo much less than New England, so we'll get so much more for our money. So that's about it for us. Good luck Julie, with your own move and house selling/buying issues.

the match

Hey girls! Hope you all are doing well. We're fine. "The Match" came out today for Josh. This is the day we find out for sure where we will be living for the next 5 years. Josh put all of his residency choices into a computer system and all of the residency programs put their top student choices into the system and today all the choices were matched up in the order they were ranked. So we are absolutely for sure moving to Columbus, Ohio now. We still have the house on the market and we did get an offer yesterday. But it was low so we counter-offered... then they counter-offered... then we counter-offered again and said final offer. We're still waiting to hear back from them. I don't really care if they don't buy the house because we came down a lot for them and if they still can't afford our house, then they shouldn't be looking at houses in our price range. As it is, if they accept our last offer, we'll still lose like $200 on the total investment. We would really like to at least come close to breaking even. So anyways, that's that for us. Josh's sister, Vanessa, had her baby on Friday. She was 8 lb. 5 oz. and 20.5 inches long. She has lots of dark wavy hair and is really sturdy and strong. Her name is Victoria Elise. Vanessa had to have a C section, but she's recovering pretty well. Love you all!

They can find you anywhere

The ORU Alumni Association just called me. On the phone. Like, they actually tracked down my cell phone number. And they know I have a husband. What they don't know, though, is that I have no money to give them. So maybe they should do a little more research and figure that little tidbit out.

 

It appears that our dog is having some kind of back and/or liver trouble. We're getting back the full results tomorrow, so we'll know what to do. She may need to have a liver biopsy. She's been acting like she's in pain for a couple days, and is having some trouble getting around. Hopefully, we'll be able to get everything taken care of without having to take out a loan. But it's not looking good.

 

Ok, so some good news…let's see…it's sunny and 60 degrees here. That's pretty good. And…as Steph happily labeled it, it is Grey's Day.

 

So, I guess that's all for now. Much love to you all!

 

the deep south

If you've seen the weather reports for the Midwest lately, you know that it's been severely cold for the last week or so. Snowy weather I can handle just fine. Ice, we manage. But THIS cold is just unbearable. So this weekend, as we visit Kansas City, it feels like the deep south. We arrived yesterday and said "oh, it's like spring-time here!". Granted, it's 19 (feels like 9) degrees here. But when compared to 5 (feels like -11) back home, this is paradise!!!!
So, Chris is in a meeting on securities right now and I'm sitting in the hotel room watching TLC, which I don't get to do at home. Ah, this is the high life! We splurged on this trip and have requested valet service every chance we get :)
GO BEARS!!!!

house

Well girls, it's official. Our house is on the market for $133,000. We've done quite a bit to it and we are really hoping that it will sell quickly and for a good price. We don't want to come down on it too much. We absolutely have to sell for at least $130 in order to break even on our investment by the time you take out realtor fees and closing costs, etc. It costs a lot of money to sell a house! So, anyways, we would really really appreciate you girls' prayers for us right now that this selling process goes quickly and smoothly as well as the moving and house hunting process. Hope you all are well. Love you girls!

another one on the way!

yea, I just heard my brother and sister-in-law in Seattle are expecting. That's 10 neices and nephews with two on the way. this safely puts me far from the expectations of having children in the next year. whew!

Ice Queen

So, as Steph mentioned, it is icy and cold here in OK. I'm getting really sick of it. I have not left my house in like at least a week. I'm starting to get serious cabin fever. And I have PMS, so I'm in a lovely mood these days being cooped up with my kids by myself with nothing to look at but a frozen tundra. We have read all of Seth's books and I'm seriously considering hiding them all because I just don't think I can read them one more time. Seth has 2 or 3 favorites. And while I applaud his recent passion for reading (or listening to me read), I think I might start losing my mind the next time I read "9 Fruits Alive". I tried to go to the library today to get some new books to get us through the next big storm, but they were closed. I might try again tomorrow. Seth and Lilah are doing well. Lilah is getting really fat. It's pretty cute. And she's the smiliest baby I think I've ever seen. Seth was a laugher (still is), but Lilah just coos and smiles. Seth has started really noticing Lilah and is taking a serious interest in his role as big brother. Last night after we put Seth to bed, Lilah was crying. Seth hadn't fallen asleep yet and could hear her. So, then I could hear Seth on the baby monitor in his bed saying "is ok Lala, is ok Lala..." He loves to give her kisses and never enters or leaves a room without greeting her or bidding her farewell. I've also recently caught him trying to wipe her mouth with her burp cloth the way I do and covering her up with her blanket and giving her toys. This morning while I was changing Lilah's diaper, Seth went and got her teddy bear and one of his diapers and tried to change the teddy bear's diaper. It was a pretty rough attempt. Lilah loves Seth too and has started smiling whenever she sees him. They are definately developing a little bond just the two of them. Lilah is close to rolling over. I think she could do it by now if she wasn't kind of lazy. She's not the most motivated baby physically. But that's fine with me. I don't have the energy yet to chase after two of them. I 'll give you girls the tip on getting healthy. Have a baby, then have another one right away... and just try to survive, and you should burn off a pretty considerable amount of fat fairly quickly. Also, you'll probably stop eating because it's no fun to eat when you have a toddler. Everytime I get a snack or lunch or breakfast or even a freakin cup of coffee, Seth is right in front of me with his mouth open like a bird begging like a dog. By the time I share all of my food with him I have very little left. And what is left is always cold or soggy or melted. I often give up and just throw my food away or I don't eat in the first place simply to avoid the annoyance of having Seth draped all over me grabbing at my hands and mouth. Although I have to admit, I'm still working on my extra plumpness from Lilah. The weight is not coming off quite as easily this time. So, I have started trying to work out at least 4 times each week. Nothing super intense, but I've been doing pilates and a couple different aerobic workouts pretty consistently. My motivation is that I have to be in my brother's wedding on April 14 and all the other bridesmaids are like a size 2-4. I'll still look like a mammoth compared to them, but I'm hoping to at least not look like a flabby mammoth. I'm also trying to cut out regular soda, just diet now. But that's about it. I'm watching my portions and stuff but I'm not dieting. I can't live that way. But I figure at least working out regularly should help quite a bit. So, I guess I'm kind of joining Steph, Ang, and Jen on the healthier lifestyle thing. Yay for all of us! I don't know that I will be joining Jen in the bikini though, too much flabby baby skin. I'll just be happy if I'm not too jiggly everywhere in my swimsuit by this summer. Well girls, that's that for me. Miss you all! Oh yeah, congrats on the new job for Nathan and the move and all that Liz. We'll be praying for you guys during this big transition. Steph, let us know if you need any help moving when you can finally get into your new place. Happy puppy adopting Jen. =) Love you all!

23 days

23 days until we hear of our little puppy being born! I just heard from the breeder today and they performed an ultrasound yesterday on the mommy. The pregnancy seems to be going perfectly and she is carrying 8-9 little pups! We have a guaranteed spot for a puppy but we are hoping and praying for a chocolate male. Please join with us in prayer for that :) Actually, Chris told me he was praying about our little puppy just the other day, and asking God to help the pup to be healthy, happy, and show us how to better love each other and our friends unconditionally. How sweet is that!?
It's been a while since i've posted, even on our personal blog so fortunately (or unfortunately) there is much to say! Here are the highlights in short form... Chris started a second job as a financial consultant for Primerica. He's currenly in training but will be going strong sometime in February. Christmas choir went really well and we've started rehearsals already for 2007. It's our goal this year to be up to singing once a month, whether that be a special song, or just with the worship team. I'm really busy with that. I've been scrapping a lot lately, catching up on 2006 events. Actually, I'm way behind and just finished Angie's wedding! Here at my office, December was a record breaking month. And we hit 4.5 million in funding at one of our banks, so they gave us a rebate, which i got a little piece of as a bonus, yea! We're going to Kansas City in a couple of weeks for training on Chris' job and to get away from it all and relax. Anyone know anything exciting to do in KC? eh, what am i saying, i'll probably sleep most of the time anyway. I'm good at sleeping. This monday night I'm leading worship at our women's ministry ladies night out (happens every year in January). I'm a bit nervous. Please pray that the women will have a wonderful time and be refreshed and ministered to. Speaking of church, it looks like we will be in our new building middle of March. Check out www.harvestbettendorf.org for details :) We are averaging over 1000 per sunday now and are really packed in there in the high school auditorium. My sister is pregnant with her third and they just heard they are having another girl. They currently have a boy and girl. This is the sister in Texas, Hanneke. She makes really cute kids. I think that's all the main points, I'm getting really excited about Seattle. I'm anxious to see all the sights and visit with all my friends! love you all!
Oh, one more thing... about being healthy... Chris and I have started the South Beach "diet". Chris lost 9 pounds during week one. I've lost 5 pounds now as week 2 comes to a close. But most importantly, we feel great, don't have any cravings, and my pants fit better! I'm so proud of Chris though too. He's been playing raquet ball at lunch with friends from the office, and swimming after work half of the week too. He's really dedicated to getting healthy. So there's my recommendation for a healthy lifestyle - South Beach! oh yeah, and my gut is shrinking! I'm excited for bikini season!

Love It

So I love the new look! It's fun to see pictures of everyone and remember how beautiful you all are.

I'm joining Steph on the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. If anyone wants to join in, let either one of us know. OR, if you have pointers on how to do it, i.e. self control tips, etc..., please let us know.

Ummm... i know i don't ever write, but you see, i don't ever feel like i have anything good enough to write. Sometimes i lay in bed at night and have these wonderful ideas of what I'm going to write in the blog, but somehow, between the bed and my computer the next day, those thought are erased. So I suppose you will have to just deal with the boring, non-exciting news of all is well in PA.

Love you girls tons and miss you lots.

Yay for the new look! :-)

So this is exciting...pictures on the page!

Just a quick update from the land of ice and cold weather - yes, Oklahoma.
Things are going pretty well here. The only thing that's on our plates is that we need to move and we can't. Stupid cold crappy weather. So our original date of Jan. 19, will be moved to Jan. 26 pending any other weather related issues. It's really just to icey to chance driving a huge truck into little areas, and we're supposed to get some more snow this weekend, so that put a huge damper on things.

Other than that, STILL working on trying to get some Thank You's out in the mail. Work is going well, although there are some changes within the company that I am not fond of. Don't get me started on that. :-)

Ang and I are trying to do a healthy lifestyle change to lose some of our plumpness. Hopefully we'll have good results. That's about all, I think.
Love to you all!

Yay for fun time wasting activities

Or, at least, I thought it was fun trying to guess whose survey I was reading before I got to the names. J

 

So … it looks like everyone is okay with doing a three-day weekend instead of two? Because I think an extra day would give us just the right amount of time to see everything, and still have some downtime for relaxing. So if it's okay with everyone, let's plan on doing the Friday to Tuesday stint. Of course, if anyone does need to leave early, that's fine too.

 

And based on responses (don't I sound so official), it looks like we'll try to keep the whole weekend pretty conservative in the cost department. Cheap meals and inexpensive activities, and such. Once it gets closer, I'll let you know specific costs for the different activities I'm planning.

 

If all the husbands do come that are planning on coming at this point (four of them!), we may just give them the house, and us girls will find a hotel or cabin to stay in.

 

I tried to talk Adam into making some invitations for the guys, but for some reason, he didn't want to. Oh well.

 

Since you all are paying for plane tickets getting here, I'll take care of the accommodations if the need arises. I'll start doing some poking around, just in case we do need to reserve something, since that is a popular tourist time and things fill up pretty quickly. How fun would it be to stay on a houseboat? Sleepless in Seattle, anyone?

 

Ok, well, hope you all have a great weekend!

 

Love ya!

 

Big News

Hey all...it seems to be that everyone is posting about their holidays, so I'll give a quick synopsis of ours. Our Christmas was wonderful. Nathan and I went into Boston and spent the night before Christmas Eve there. We stayed in the old Police Headquarters, which is now a nice hotel. We also saw The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve. Christmas day was nice, and I accomplished cooking my first turkey! That was exciting for me.
In answer to the gift question, I'd have to say my favorite gift was also a diamond necklace from Nathan, which was also very unexpected. We were not supposed to really be getting anything for each other since we had agreed upon a joint gift of a camcorder.
Anyway, in addition to all this, Nathan and I have some big news. It turns out that we are moving in less than a month! A little bit ago, Nathan put his resume out there in Oregon and Michigan just to see what would happen, since we know we won't settle down here, and it could take him a while to find a job. Well, it turns out that there was a company in Ann Arbor, MI that was very interested in him, and who pursued him quite aggressively. To make a long story short, they flew him out for an interview this week, and made an offer the next day! The offer was awesome, and everything really just fell into our laps quite unexpectedly. Seems like God's always got the good stuff for your when you are least expecting it. Anyway, they want him to start in 2 weeks, so he'll be gone from here by then. I'll follow about 2 weeks later, since we'll need more time. So, we're a bit overwhelmed right now to say the least, but very excited.
We'll stay with my parents for a time due to the expense of buying out of our lease when we leave here. But we'll be shopping for a house as well as a job for me once I get out there. So life is more crazy than ever, but very exciting as well. So much to do, so little time! :)

Christmas went fast

Hey guys! I figured it's time for an update. Christmas went really quickly. It was a nice Christmas though. We just stayed in Tulsa. It was kind of fun trying to start our own family traditions and stuff, but it was a little mellow for my taste too. I'm used to being with so many people for the holidays. I kind of missed the chaos of my family. It confirmed my decision that we want more than 2 children though. Two kids is just too quiet. We need at least 3. It just adds that extra touch of drama to family get-togethers. =) But Josh's sister and dad came over Christmas day, so that helped spice things up a bit. Although, Josh only has one sister, so it was still pretty low-key. But Christmas was good and it was watching Seth open his presents. Unfortunately, Seth was sick Christmas day. He had a horrible virus with runny, stuffy nose and coughing and then he got an ear infection. He was sick all week and then Lilah got it the next week, as did me and Josh. I think everyone has it though. It's just going around. We did end up getting to see my family for the holidays though because my grandpa died the Friday following Christmas. So my whole family flew in for New Years. (The funeral was here in Tulsa) I wasn't super close to the grandpa that died. He had an aortic annurism (sp?). He had been in the hospital for Christmas with pneumonia, so we did get to visit a couple days before he died. I'm very thankful for that. We had a very nice visit with him and he was doing well and was released from the hospital on Thursday, and then died Friday. He was a Christian and was passionate about Christ and I'm grateful for that. So, we know where he is now and that certainly makes death easier to deal with. It was sad circumstances, but it was still nice having all the family come in. So, that's about it for us. The kids are well and I'm just catching up from the holidays. Josh takes his next round of Board exams on Jan. 18th. So, we'd appreciate prayer for that to go well. He's been pretty busy studying. Hope you all are well. Love ya!

Digging out just in time for the next one!

Hey girls!!

Things here have been, well, snowy. I haven't seen this much snow since I was about eight. There are the upsides to this snow, like SNOW DAYS!! We've had 6 so far this year. Whoever thought we'd have so many. Plus a longer Christmas break, we had almost 3 weeks off.

Christmas was great. We made it to Denver between the blizzards and fresh snow. Our backyard had no snow, while our driveway had a 4 1/2 foot drift. Nick did all the shoveling during the first blizzard. It was lovely having only one shovel. We did only do one side of the driveway and used his car solely during Christmas.

We heard there was a 12 foot drift of snow on I-25, but as we drove up to Denver we never saw it. The road crews did an incredible job getting the snow off the highways and a horrible job on our street. It took a long time to get our road cleared.

Christmas was fun at my parents house. Everyone made it home. My sister, Carolyn and husband Jason, who live in Canada, surprised my parents the Monday before Christmas. So....it was a FULL house. We broke the toilet, garbage disposal and my sister, Tori, wrecked my dad's car. To say the least, our Christmas was not boring.

My favorite present is a tie between a Nintendo DS from my mother-in-law and new pots and pan from my husband. I love to cook.

Kimmy I read your blog about cooking, and I just want to throw out that I would LOVE to cook during the Sapphire weekend.

I miss you all!! I hope you have a great January. If any one needs some snow...I can send it to you in a box. :)

New year, new hole in my head

January is such a sad, little month. Coming right after such an exciting holiday as Christmas, it doesn’t really have much to offer. Add to that the grey skies and rainy season, and I’m pretty much ready to move to Hawaii. Anyone else?

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! Ours was spent doing a lot of traveling and visiting a lot of family. Miraculously, the bad weather everywhere didn’t affect any of our flights (although we were kind of hoping to be stranded in Philly so we could visit Angie and Aaron!), and we made it home yesterday morning safe and sound. Then we slept. Pretty much all day. Oh, how I missed our bed.

Now that the holidays are over, I can focus the part of my brain that likes to plan things on the Sapphires reunion. Because a tiny part of me is OCD, and also because sometimes I get bored at work, I’m going to send out a little survey for some ideas and suggestions for the weekend. I want to make sure everyone has a good time, or at least acts like they’re having a good time.

So I think my favorite Christmas present to get this year was … a diamond necklace from Adam. Not so much because it’s a diamond necklace, but because it was such a surprise.
Oh, and my new domain name: http://www.kimmysue.com/. Tee hee. Right now, it just points to my blog but maybe I’ll get creative and do something else eventually.

My favorite present to give was probably the little princess chair I bought for our Angel Tree girl – so cute.

How about you all? What were your favorite presents?


And here’s my delayed act of teenage rebellion in the form of teeny tiny, cubic zirconium. Not sure how long it’s going to last, but Adam is warming up to it.

Love you all mucho!

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to tell everyone that I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! Nathan and I are going into Boston today to spend the day and the night there. Our hotel used to be the old police headquarters, and now it's an Irish-owned hotel. It looks to be quite nice. For those of you that don't know, Boston (and all MA for that matter), is split between Irish and Italians. My town is still mostly that way, with the Italians living on one side of town and the Irish on the other. Anyway, tomorrow we're going to see the Nutcracker. I'm quite excited about it, as I've never been to see it before. I'm doing Christmas at my house this year, making the dinner and everything. I'm just a bit nervous about that, but it should be fun. It will be a good opportunity to try out our new video camera, which was our Christmas gift to each other this year.
The week after Christmas will find me in MI, helping my family move. We're both quite sad to see them go. Things definitely won't be the same without my family here. It will be good though too, to have an opportunity for Nathan and I to live away from family for a time.
Nathan and I wish you all a merry Christmas, and look forward to hearing about your holidays.

Wild weekend

Things have been kind of crazy around ol’ Seattle the past few days. We had an unbelievable windstorm last Thursday night with gusts over 100 miles per hour. It knocked out power for pretty much the entire region, including our neighborhood. So by Friday morning the temperature in our house was about 45 degrees.

Adam’s sister Kendra was in town visiting, so the three of us all huddled up on the couch together to keep warm, the animals snuggled in around us. I didn’t go to work on Friday for a few reasons, but mainly because until the afternoon the roads weren’t safe to drive on – there was debris everywhere. Our little storage shed in the back yard was torn to bits – quite a few pieces are missing. I imagine they’re in Montana by now.

We stayed at a friend’s apartment on Friday night so we could at least have heat and warm showers. Saturday morning the power came back on for our neighborhood, so we were able to go back home. A lot of people are still without power right now though, and let me tell you, it is cold here. Not just Seattle cold, but that biting type of cold that you do not want to be in without heat.

Adam’s mom and sister are going home today. It was a short trip, but it was great having them. We spent almost the whole weekend shopping. It was fun, but I’m so over Christmas shopping now. I only have a few stocking stuffers left to get, and they might just come from my office supply closet.

Love you girls!

nothing

Hey girls! I'm sorry you've all been sick lately. Yuk! I have a touch of a cold/cough too but it's not too bad. I hope everyone still has enough energy to enjoy the holiday festivities. We've got our house decprated for Christmas. Although it's not a whole lot, we go pretty mild on the decorations. I didn't even put a tree up this year because Seth would just try to pull the ornaments off all the time. Instead of a month of joy and holiday cheer, it would have turned into the month of weeping and gnashing of teeth from all the spankings Seth would have been getting for disobedience. So I decided to avoid that stress for all of our sake. Seth doesn't care yet anyways, we'll do a fun childproof tree next year when he's more into it. I pretty much have everyone's Christmas shopping done. I hit Toys R Us and then did everything else online. I love the internet at Christmas time! And if you do it right, you can pretty much avoid shipping too. So, speaking of Seth... he loves phones as some of you know. Well this morning I was rushing around to get the kids ready for Lilah's doctor's appointment and I had my cell phone on the kitchen table (we have no home phone). So when I wasn't looking, Seth grabbed my phone and hid it. I spent 20 minutes looking for it and was late to the doc app. So I called Josh from the doctor's phone and left a message for him to call me all day until I answered so that I could find the phone. After I got home, I was looking for the phone again and remembered that I had seen Seth walking around with a diaper wipe before we left. So I found the wipes container and opened it up... my cell phone was inside the diaper wipes container with the lid closed and buried under the entire stack of wipes. I don't even know how he did that.

So, Josh interviewed in Ohio last week for residency. The interview went very well. So, it looks like we will most likely be moving to Columbus. As long as they rank him, we'll be putting Columbus first on our list and that's where we'll go. Which is OK with me because Columbus is a very nice city. I'm just dreading moving. I hate moving and we are going to miss Tulsa and our churh and friends, etc. Well, that's about it for us. Miss you girls and love ya! Happy Holiday Season!

Shhhh!

This is a secret from my husband and I find myself having to tell everyone but him in order to keep it from him! Wednesday of next week I will be going to Galva IL to put a deposit down on our new puppy! Mom and Dad are making babies just this week - a black mama and chocolate papa. (We're shooting for a chocolate male) If the breeding takes, puppies will be born in February and ready to go home in April. The real test here, is trying to keep this a secret from Chris as long as I possibly can! the last time i tried to keep a secret from him, i lasted a whole 32 hours. So far, I've lasted over 48 hours so I'm doing pretty good!!! This sounds totally wrong, but ladies... pray fervently that I can keep this from Chris! My first goal is keeping it from him until after I pay the deposit. Short goals here... yea :)
http://www.crickethollowfarm.com/Puppypage.htm - we're expecting a puppy from Izzy and Boone!

I guess we share everything

Good gracious! We seem to share more than I thought. I spent the entire week after Steph's wedding, and part of Thanksgiving week sick as well. I finally got put on drugs a couple days before Thanksgiving so I could enjoy my holiday. Tis the season I guess.
Oh, and while Tulsa and the entire midwest has been buried in a snowstorm, it's been 70 degrees in Boston! What craziness is going on in the world? We're actually supposed to get our first snow this Monday. Gotta love that temperature change. Well, I'll just cross my fingers for a snow day. Well, I hope we are all back to good health very soon!

siiiiiiiick

here, here, kimmie - I'm sick too. And we have 8 inches of snow! If i were smart, i would have just stayed home today. but instead i made Chris plow our driveway so we could go to work, only to both return home at noon (me due to this blasted cold and Chris to take care of me). Anyway, I'm glad I live in the north, where people know how to drive in the winter-wonder-land conditions. oh, except I'm not thankful for the Florida driver who cut me off this morning and then continued to drive 15 miles an hour ON THE INTERSTATE!!! I'm also very thankful today for my husband who stopped by Blockbuster on his way home to bring me 'over the hedge', of which I've been dying to see for quite some time now. Ta ta, my nose is a faucet!

I'm sick. And it sucks.

Apparently, being sick not only turns me into a quivering puddle of whining and coughing, it also aggravates my emotional side a little bit.

I stayed home sick from work today because I had a fever of 102 this morning. Add that to the fact that the city of Seattle has turned into one giant ice skating rink, and there’s no way I’m leaving my warm pile of pets and blankets on my couch.

So I watched Akeelah and the Bee. And if it weren’t for my pitiful sick state, I probably still would have liked the movie. I mean, a cute little girl from South L.A. who can spell and who goes to the National Spelling Bee? That’s just heartwarming for everyone. But add to that a feverish, emotional girl, and I was practically crying my eyes out.

Then, I check out Jen’s blog today and find that she wrote the most beautiful things about me a few days ago, and I started the waterworks all over again. I miss you girls! I remember being sick in college, and knowing that a comforting hug or a cup of tea was just down the hall. If we were all together right now, I’d pop in You’ve Got Mail and sit back and enjoy the chitchat and laughter that always follow us wherever we go.

strange dream

Last night I dreamt that Liz and Nathan decided to have another wedding (out West this time). So there we all were at Liz's second wedding. The wedding was thrown together very quickly and we were all running around like headless chickens. But it was beautiful (and pink). Here's the strangest thing... I was the minister! I hadn't a clue what I was doing but there was lots of laughter. So, Congratulations Liz and Nathan! It was a beautiful wedding even if the minister was a bit crazy!

Back to Reality...

Hi ladies!
I want to let all of you know how special it was to me that you all came to the wedding. For some of you, I know it was a big deal to get there and I am so grateful to have great friends. I have a new appreciation for my friends and family now, after dealing with some situations that have arisen from Shawn's side (which aren't worth mentioning). I am so blessed!

Our honeymoon was perfect, aside from the fact that it was too short. I would love another week of doing nothing! That would be fantastic! We got back on Wednesday and got busy moving stuff and setting up our home - there is still a LOT of work to be done, but since we will be moving AGAIN in the next few months, we're trying not to get too settled.

Shawn is taking his time finding the right job, and even though it will be a financial struggle for a little while, I think it's for the best. I want him to be happy and truly have job satisfaction. We are just laying low and praying about direction now - enjoying just being with each other and not having a wedding to plan! :-)

I hope all is well with all of you and I plan to make phone calls to all of you in the next few weeks. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and you all get to spend time with loved ones. We are going to Lee and Kathy's for dinner and then putting up our Christmas decorations. Anyone can feel free to give us a call if you get a chance! Love you girls!!!

'Tis the season

So it might be more than like six months away, but it’s never too early to start planning the next Sapphire Reunion, right?
June 15 – 18 (Friday to Monday) is the weekend we’re shooting for. I’ve got some ideas in the works, but if anyone has any suggestions, I’m open to them!

We’re having a potluck at work today. So much good food – I’m going to have to roll home tonight. I made my cheesy corn casserole, the one dish I know how to cook, but had to use a new Corningware dish since I blew up my other casserole dish. So it doesn’t look quite right. But there’s enough cheese and sour cream in there to make cardboard taste good, so I think it will be okay.

I can’t believe the holidays are upon us already. Thanksgiving is next week. That’s just crazy. And that means I need to get going on the Christmas shopping, although thanks to Julie’s jewelry plus the fact that we’re flying and can’t take very much with us, I don’t have a whole lot to buy.

Anyway, just wanted to say hello. I miss you all so much. There always seems to be a sapphire-shaped hole inside of me after our weekends together.

Love you all!

Catch the last plane to Tulsa and I'll meet you at the station

Waiting at the airport in Denver. Got online to kill some time because we have a three hour layover.
So excited to see everyone, I can hardly wait!

Time is ticking away...

Can't wait to see everyone in a week!

speaking of loafers...

Ok so, speaking of loafers, I had to explain to my students what penny loafers are. So now I officially feel old. I've been enjoying being the cool, hip, young teacher who knows the jive and what new movies are out and all that. But the minute I explained penny loafers to my students, I knew I was dating myself. Oh well. At least for now I can appease myself with the knowledge that some of the teachers on my team were teaching the year i was born:)
I'm sorry you were unable to find fall colors Kimmie. You should take a visit out here. We've had some awesome ones this year. Other than enjoying the New England fall, all is status-quo out here. Just keeping busy as usual. Life at school is never dull. We're contantly inundated with new methods of school safety. My students are as unpredictable as New England weather. Today one bolted and ran out of the building, and another one refused to go to language arts. Never a dull moment. Ah well, this is the life they tell me I signed up for. What was I thinking? Naw, somewhere deep inside, I love it.

The brown loafers are sucking up all my creativity

Why is that weekends go by so fast while the workweek sometimes seems to drag by? Ugh.
I just finished munching on an apple that we got over the weekend during our little jaunt into the mountains with some friends. We were looking for some fall colors. But Washington, we forgot, is the Evergreen State. Meaning there are lots of evergreen trees. So there weren’t too many fall colors. But it was still a pretty drive.

Adam and I had our first appointment with the doctor last week to start this whole fertility process. She was really young, but very knowledgeable and easy to talk to. So we’re both getting tested (my test being a whole lot more pleasant than his), then if everything looks okay, I’ll start taking some drugs in a few months. It was an encouraging appointment – she was very positive about the whole process. But it was also a little scary just because we are going to be finding out some answers – and I’m a little worried about what those will be. Her main advice was just to keep trying and be patient. So that’s what we will do.

She asked me if I was doing anything to help along the process. And so, of course, I told her I’m trying to get healthier – i.e., working out, eating healthier, losing weight, the usual.
So she asked how much I wanted to lose. I told her I really just wanted to get fitter, but I wouldn’t mind losing around thirty pounds or so.
“Thirty pounds? Really?” she said. Then she left the room.

So I’m sitting there, thinking, “Oh my goodness. She thinks I need to lose even more weight than that. I’m fatter than I even thought I was. I’m so fat, I’m probably going to break the stirrups off this flimsy little table. Why do I even eat at all? I should just start one of those liquid diets. Or maybe just start eating celery. Nothing but celery.”

So at the point that my self-esteem was probably the lowest it’s ever been in my whole life, the doctor came back into the room with some good news.
She went through a list of things we could start doing now to help along the process (cut down on caffeine, alcohol – stuff we already knew) and then she said, “And it’s been my experience that women who lose around five to six pounds can jump-start their ovulation just by losing that little bit of weight. I don’t think you need to lose anything like thirty pounds, but five or six might help.”
Whew. Really? That’s all? What a relief. I thought she was going to say I needed to have my stomach filled with a saline balloon or something.

So I’m starting a new workout regime. Which basically means, I’m starting to workout. Adam already had been doing really well with the healthy eating and exercise, so now I’m hopping on board too. I still would like to lose a little more than five or six pounds in the long run, but that’s an easy goal I can start with. And I’m all about the attainable goals.

Love you girls!

Stay at home wife?

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I do get to read what you all write, and I love it!!

Steph -- I will be at the wedding for sure!! We are driving 1/2 way Thursday night and the rest of the way on Friday. I can't wait to see you on Saturday all dressed up. :) You are going to look so beautiful!!

Nothing much going on here. I've been on Fall Break for the past two weeks, and I have no idea what I've actually accomplished. That's not true...my house is mostly clean, laundry is almost done and I'm almost finished with a baby blanket I'm making. I'm not too sure about the baby blanket...but everything else is coming out ok. :) I definitely couldn't make this a full a time thing...I have too much down time. :)

My sister got married two weekends ago now. That was a beautiful wedding. Now...all the Marsh girls are married. I think my parents are grateful and now looking to moved. :)

Fall has seemed to disappear slightly here. We had our first winter storm Tuesday night. We got about 6 inches of snow, that of course by today is almost gone. Jen you would have pulled your mittens out, but don't put away the flip flops...they are calling for 70 next week. :) Ahh...weather in Colorado...you never know what it is going to be like.

another one bites the dust

My brother also got engaged this weekend (that's Jason in Michigan, in case you were wondering which one). They are shooting for a September wedding next year in Michigan. That leaves the youngest, Stephen, as the only un-wed of the family. Other news - my Dad is in the hospital with cellulitis in his leg. He also has pneumonia so please keep him in your prayers.
This thursday and friday I am taking my very first business trip to Marshall, MN! I'll be visiting my team at USBancorp, with whom i have worked with for the last 4.5 years and only met 2 of them face to face. I feel oh so professional.
I think we'll be getting a dog in the spring! I've had puppy fever for a while now and recently, I've passed the fever on to Chris. We just have to decide between a chocolate lab, yellow lab, or black lab. Chris doesn't know this for sure yet, but I'm pretty certain :) I want a big dog that will scare people away with his bark - WOOF!

so excited

Ok girls, I just have to say that I'm sitting here reading all of your blogs and I am SOOO excited to all be together in just a few short weeks for the blessed event of Stephanie's wedding! I cannot wait. First of all, Steph, it is ridiculous that we live in Tulsa and still do not see each other that much. PLEASE call me when you get a chance and tell me when we can get together. Because you are much busier than me. Don't forget that I am having a jewelry party on October 21st at 6pm. Please come. I'm actually selling the jewelry now and need you to come because I'm afraid nobody else will and it will be embarrassing. That's my news girls, I'm selling a quality fashion jewelry called Cookie Lee. It's kind of like Arbonne or Mary Kay except that it's really cute jewelry and there's no sales pitch or pressure. Just fun jewelry! Basically I just show it to my friends and when they have something they need new jewelry for they can buy it from me if I have something they like. I'm also doing some home shows and office parties and craft fairs to make some extra money. I thought this might be a fun thing I could do from home that could help provide some supplemental income for us. I keep some jewelry inventory in stock but you can also order anything out of the seasonal catalog. If any of you happen to be interested in seeing it, let me know and I'll mail you a catalog. No pressure! Just for fun. =) Anyways, enough about me. Liz, thanks for the Michigan tips, we'll take it to heart. I also want to add to Kim's blog that she was not only the one writing her crushes names in her journal with hearts around them, ... but I even remember a time when she wrote her love interest's name of the moment in the pockets of her jeans and I'm pretty sure that we could also find a variety of romantic infatuations listed on the inside of her closet door frame. hehehe =) So, quick update here. Seth has been sick all week. YUK! I haven't seen the light of day since Monday (5 days ago). I'm going crazy! Lilah is good. She's getting fat. But it's cute. My brother got engaged last weekend. I've attached a couple of his pictures from the evening of the big event. His fiance', Lauren, has threatend me with ugly bridesmaid dresses if I continue to laugh at Daniel's stupid attempts to woo her. (He's been calling her to recite messages of Love that he stole off the insides of all my Dove Promises chocolates.) He was attempting this last night at my house and she heard me laughing while he was on the phone with her. Anyways, that's it for us. Miss you all and love you!

My Fair Autumn

Where dost thou goest my fair autumn?! Autumn has slipped away. if you look closely, ah yes, there you go... snow pellets! It's freakin October people!!! The leaves on my two front trees are still green and fully intact. This is of utmost rediculous behavior! I wore my winter coat and mittens today... MITTENS! While this may be perfectly acceptable in climates such as Alaska, Colorado, and the North Pole... it certainly is not in Illinois. I'm really disappointed if you can't tell.
Oh, but i did get new tires today on my car, which makes a huge difference. So I guess I'm ready for the snow, whenever it comes. Now we'll be safe traveling to T-town next month. And this time, i've decided to have my tires regularly rotated because i did learn my lesson there. Oh, Chris and I just watched 'Stick It', that gymnastics movie that closely resembles 'Bring It On'. It was cute with some definate laugh-out-loud parts. I recommend it for a girls night... or if you, like me, have a husband who likes teen-age girl chick flicks. I love this man :)

Blast from the past

So I just upgraded my Yahoo e-mail account to the Beta version. And, for some reason, the little Yahoo gnomes re-sent some of my really, really old e-mails as new messages. My inbox was flooded with e-mails from around the time of our wedding, three and a half years ago.
It’s so weird. Like the me from the past was trying to communicate with the me of the future.

Anyway, I highly recommend this to anyone who’s a little bored – go back and read a couple e-mails you sent or received around three or four years ago. It’s really quite entertaining … and a little humiliating – sort of like reading your diary from jr. high where you wrote down a certain boy’s name over and over, surrounded by flocks of little hearts. Of course, I never did that – but I know some of you did.

Showers and weddings

Hi ladies!
So I thought I would post since I know it will be another long while before I'm on here again. I absolutely love reading all these posts - especially the ones about Grey's.

And, yes, Kimmie I am completely jealous, and that's honestly why I haven't been able to bring myself to call you lately! :) Just kidding. I am jealous though...the Grey's cast is SO much better than my incident with Garth. Thanks for the shoes for the wedding...I LOVE them and they'll be perfect for that day and after. They look way cute with jeans, too. :)

Liz - it's so good to hear a little from you! I hope we can connect tonight! I can't wait to hear your voice again. Too bad you can't meet me in Boston tomorrow!

Jen - I hope you're feeling better! You've been on my mind a lot, so give me a call when you get a minute.

Juls - Why is it that we live a matter of minutes from each other and we both seem to be too busy to get together. I have a shower gift for you and I want to see if you can do a trial run with the make up with me sometime soon. Of course, that means that we'll have to SHOP for make up. If you're ok with that. :)

Angie - I miss you mucho. I am so glad that we're getting better about our daily emails again, but somehow it's just not the same. Thanks for all the help you've been giving for the wedding! We'll chat about that soon.

Jamie - I CANNOT wait to see you and I am so glad you'll be able to make it in for the wedding! I hope school is going well with you and you have a great class this year! :) Have fun!!!

Ok, so as for me: I had two showers at the end of Sept / beginning of Oct. The second one was for my church and I got the best gift! They all got together and bought my mom a plane ticket to surprise me the night before the shower!! I was out bowling with church and my mom shows up at the bowling alley. Yeah, I freaked out. It was great. So she was here for about 3 days and that was wonderful.

Since then, I have been trying to do wedding stuff (32 days), but I was scheduled at Pottery Barn last week and I put in a bunch of overtime at SPARKS, so I didn't get much done until Sunday. It's coming along, but I still feel pretty far behind. This week, however, is dedicated to Jacqueline and her wedding. I will be out in New Hampshire (and Boston) until Saturday morning. I can't wait and I think it will be very fun.

Anyhooo...I can't think of much else to say, so keep in touch - keep blogging. Let me know when ya'll are getting into town so I can plan accordingly!

Love you girls and miss you lots!!!

Just a tip

Just a tip Juls, if you guys end up with the position in MI, move as far outside of Detroit as possible. Common sense, I know. But the further you get from those suburbs, the better off you are (especially for the value of your home in the long run). However, cheer up. I can't even get my mind around thinking of the cost of living in MI as being high after living out here. But, it's a buyers market in MI right now(it kind of is everywhere, but especially there).
Anyway, hello to everyone else as well. I miss you girls and am looking forward to seeing you all in about a month. Life here has been good. Nathan and I have been completely bogged down with work...grad classes, freelance work, church work, etc. But it keep us out of trouble. Although I'm enjoying my grad program, I'll be glad when it's over. It's quite a lot of work. Work is going well, although the school shootings of course change the atmosphere of school these days, especially in middle and high schools. Our schools is as locked down as possible these days. Yesterday afternoon, we had 2 high schoolers arrested on our school property with a loaded gun. Scary. Other than that, I'm settling into a routine with my new kiddos. I've got some tough ones this year, but what else is new. Ok well, I'm having a big fondu party this evening, so I had better go prepare:) Gotta love entertaining. It's been good hearing from everyone, and I hope the weekend goes well!

Wow!

Wow is all I have to say for you Kim. I am so very happy for you that you got to meet some of Grey's Anatomy. I am a little bit in love with Dr. McDreamy myself. Although, I have to admit that for the first time in my life, I have actually given Josh a goofy and embarrassingly cheesy nickname... I'm sure you can guess that it is "Dr. McDreamy." So, I have my own Dr. McDreamy now. There is something awfully sexy about a handsome, brooding, intelligent man. Especially in scrubs when he's saving a person's life. Josh does seem hotter to me when he comes home and talks about an intense case where he made a difficult diagnosis or scrubbed into a surgery and held a human heart in his hands. He also seems just as goofy and retarded as he always has when he burps right before he kisses me or picks his nose while he's watching football. Oh well, I try to cling to the sexier moments. Anyways, speaking of Josh... he's been in Michigan and Ohio for interviews this week for residency. They went pretty well. He interviewd in Garden City, MI (basically Detroit), and they offered him a position at their program. He also interviewd in Toledo and it seemed to go well. They said they would be contacting him in a few days to tell him whether they will be matching him for that proram or not. We're still waiting for a couple more interviews in Ohio to make our final decisions. However, all of these programs are good and it looks like we may have our pick or at least several good options. So, we will definately be moving this summer somewhere north. Probably to Detroit, Columbus or Toledo. It will be one of those three locations. This is a huge relief for us because we know that Josh will absolutely match at a surgical residency program no matter what now. We won't have to scramble into an empty, crappy program and Josh will definately be a surgeon which is what he very much wants to do. Big weight off our shoulders. The only thing now is that I'm nervous about finding a new house because the cost of living is pretty high in Detroit compared to Tulsa. I'm nervous we won't be able to sell our house in Tulsa. I'm scared to make all new friends and I'm sad to leave our church and friends and home here in Tulsa. I thought I'd only be excited to leave Tulsa and be closer to family, but I definately have mixed emotions. Although I will say that I have been feeling recently that our time in Tulsa and this phase of our lives is coming to a close. So it will be a new adventure to move and start all over somewhere else next year. Other than that, all is normal here. Seth and Lilah are good and we can't wait to see you guys for Steph's wedding. Love you all!

Fight, Fight, Fight!

I'm at work. For those of you who don't know exactly what company i work for, it's a software company for auto dealers. Well, in our new location, we are the second floor of our very own dealership (Quad City Suzuki). It just so happens that the dealership is filming an infomercial today. Have you seen one before? the kind that introduce you to the top players at the dealerships, give you a phone number to call, and tell you about their awesome deals for 30 entire minutes?
So right now, they are filming and it seems they are using a high school marching band in the infomercial. SO, there is a 15-20 member marching band playing school fight songs right outside my window. oh. my. goodness... YMCA!
Sounds like I've found my afternoon entertainment! wish i had a camera!

The proof

Ok, I was waiting until my friend sent me these pictures before I finished the whole story. I’m really not trying to drag this out to ridiculous lengths. I just felt I needed the evidence first.
So Grey’s Anatomy was filming in Seattle on Tuesday, and my friend and I hightailed it downtown to catch the very end of it. We got to see the end of one scene. Three of the actors from the show were there: the Chief, Burke, and McDreamy.


I don’t have a good picture of Patrick Dempsey because when he started walking toward me, I completely froze like a deer caught in the headlights. In his headlights, I should say. But he smiled at me and said, “hey” and then got on his phone to talk to someone more important. In my mind, it was the show’s producers and he was telling them that they should hire this cute little blonde he saw in Seattle. But that’s probably not really who he was calling.

If you’re not obsessed with Grey’s, this probably isn’t such a big deal. But if you’re like me, and have had dreams about working at Seattle Grace, then you’ll be excited about these photos (Steph, I’m talking to you.) .
You think you’ll be all cool and relaxed in situations like this, but then when they really happen, you stand there and gawk like a little teenage girl.


Anyway, just wanted to share my little brush with Hollywood. Love you all!

More to come...

I’m sure I can vouch for all of us when I say we’re all keeping the PA situation in our thoughts and prayers. What a horrible tragedy. I only hope this results in better security and safety for our teachers and students nationwide.

Ok, allow me a moment of complete shallow-headedness. I already told Steph about this, but yesterday I met some of the cast of Grey’s Anatomy. I’m not going to tell you which ones, or where, or how…you’ll have to stay tuned. But let me just say “yyyyyiiiiiiiiaaaaawwwwwwpppppiiiiieeeee!”
(That means yay.)

Also, I’ve been writing on my own blog lately, and for anyone interested, here’s the link: http://kaylind.blogspot.com
You should all go read it and post at least one or two comments just because if you asked me to post a comment on your blog, I would. So there.
It’s nothing amazing. Just a way for me to express myself on the scary Internet. And also a good way for me to waste a lot of company time during the day.

Anyway…gotta run. Love you all and miss you bunches!

Amish School Shooting

The words just don't go together. The community here has been overwhelmed with shock, grief and even fear. It is so hard to imagine what goes through a person's mind causing them to do such a horrific act on innocent children. Not to mention, he was a church going, normal person with 3 kids of his own. The whole thing is simply unthinkable. I can't imagine having to explain this to my own school age children, confronting their fears of going back to school. How do you assure a child that they are safe at school? In the past week there have been 3 school shootings: 1 in Colorado that was very similar to this one, one in Nebraska or Wisconsin where a principle was shot and killed by a student and now this. The question on my mind is - do I want to bring a child into this God-forsaken world? How do we stop these things from happening? It's all so overwhelming.
Now that that is off my chest - As far as I know, none of my relatives or family were immediately affected by this tragedy. However, I do have family in the Amish community here and prayers for them and those involved are appreciated. The Amish are now faced with so many things that they never even gave a thought to, such as security at school and at home. It is a community that is against any kind of violence and lives in peace with each other and the rest of the community. It is beyond their comprehension that something like this could happen to them. I just hope and pray that the same bitterness that caused this man to do this does not take root in the hearts of the Amish and the community.
Please pray...

Update

Hi girls! Just a quick update on life in Steph's world:

The countdown is upon us - 47 days until the wedding. AH! Things were coming together pretty smoothly until last week. Shawn's Grandma has been suffering with cancer for a while, but doing really well. She seemed fine until one day she just couldn't get out of bed. After that, things progressed pretty quickly. In two weeks, she went from being almost normal, to being bed-ridden and unconscious. So, we went to Chickasha to visit - thinking it would be just a little birthday party (Grandpa turned 86) but it ended up that she passed away about 12 hours after we arrived. No one was really thinking she would go that quickly. Shawn is extremely close to his grandparents so he's taking this pretty hard. He hasn't let too much out yet, but I know it's coming. We are leaving to go back to Chickasha tonight for the funeral tomorrow morning. It's really hard for us to focus on anything wedding-oriented right now, but there is still so much to do. SO, that being said - any prayers are much appreciated. I think this weekend will be good - I have two showers to get me back in wedding mode.

Most of you know Jacqueline is getting married in New Hampshire in a less than three weeks as well, and her father passed away in late April. Well, she ended up in the hospital late last week with appendicitis (sp?) and had her appendix out. 3 weeks before her wedding!

Ok, so other than that, I am SOOOO excited to see all you guys and to have a great time at the wedding. Just so you know - you're all invited to the rehearsal dinner on Friday night at 6:30. I'll get you more info as it comes in. Oh, and make sure to reserve hotel rooms ASAP so we can see if we need to block more. All that info is on the website : www.rohdeandcobb.weddings.com

As for your stories about bad gifts...I can't think of any, but yours made me laugh so hard in my quiet little office, that I almost had to leave.

Julie - I am going to try to make it to Lilah's dedication on Sunday - Shawn said he wanted to come as well, so we'll try to be there! I can't wait to see you!

As for everyone else - I miss you dearly! I love you, too! Keep writing - even though I don't write a lot, I still check it everyday to see what's going on with you guys! Love you!

big underpants

Hey girls! I don't have much to say. Other than having a baby, there's not anything new happening in my life. Lilah is good and pretty much just sleeps and eats all the time. She seems to be hungriest at night. I'm very tired. Oh, so very tired. Seth is good. He doesn't care at all about the new baby. He pretty much just thinks she's a nuisance. The only real interaction he tends to have with her is when she is in her bouncy seat. Seth is not allowed to play in the bouncy seat anymore. So anytime Lilah is in it, he squats down in front of her and hits her on the head and says, "no, no, no." He doesn't seem to understand why she's allowed to sit in the bouncy seat and he's not. He's very confused. Seth has also hit a new stage of terror. He is becoming a horribly unpleasant child. I feel bad saying it, but I rarely enjoy my son these days. I love him more than life itself, but I don't really enjoy his company these days. He is barrelling into the terrible twos and it's driving me crazy. Temper tantrums, whining all the time, rebellion and defiance. We have started spanking a little bit for certain things that Seth knows are wrong. He promptly responds by hitting us back and telling us "no, no, no." He does the same thing anytime we touch the oven or the dog bowl or anything else that he is not allowed to touch. Needless to say, I'm not completely sure spanking is going to be our most effective method of punishment. Although timeouts are equally ineffective as we have to hold Seth on our laps for timeouts because he's too young to understand sitting on a chair and he really does just love to cuddle. Anyways, enough of all that. I'm just praying Seth is going through a normal phase and that he hasn't actually been possessed by a demon. In response to Jen's post about wierd gifts... Josh gave me a pair of giant granny panties and a box of Raisinettes for my birthday 2 years ago. I still don't get it... but I just smiled and said thank you because he clearly thought it was hilarious. Well, I'd better go. Josh and I are having a date night tonight because his mom has Seth. Yippee! Love you girls!
By the way, Kim, if you do fly in for Steph's bridal shower, Lilah is being dedicated at church the next day (Oct. 1) and her baby shower is going to be after church that day around like 2pm just in case you can hang around in Tulsa that day. Just thought you'd want to know. Steph, you'll be getting an invite this week sometime.

You can say that again

Normally I would succumb to that old cliché, “It’s the thought that counts”. But what exactly was the thought there? Strange…very strange. But at least it wasn’t an embarrassing gift – unless you and Chris have abnormally oily hair or something… which I’ve never noticed, so I think we can rule that idea out.
Still, even that isn’t as embarrassing as having YOUR OWN MOTHER hand you a gift bag with a bottle of KY Jelly inside. Oh, there were other things inside, too…boring, mundane things like lip gloss and hand lotion.
I won’t even go into the conversation that surrounded that little exchange. Let’s just say I try not to think about it…ever.

To be honest, things have been a bit tumultuous with us lately. Between this whole issue of getting pregnant (or not getting pregnant, I should say) and our job stresses, other family issues, and now our ever-present houseguests, Adam and I were both feeling a little claustrophobic. But life being as it is, we hadn’t really gotten to talk lately…so things escalated over the weekend. Let me just say it all started with my ordering the wrong kind of pizza. Yeah, I know – it is the same as my attempting to murder his best friend.
Luckily, we were able to work it out before things got too ugly. Of course, having this be my not-so-favorite time of the month doesn’t help my emotional stability. At all. But I am blessed with a husband who enjoys working out our issues. We both can get pretty emotional…and, well, bitchy. It seems that the weaknesses we see in ourselves are the things we have issues with in each other. So, on that note, I have been looking for some good books on communication in marriage – anyone have any suggestions?

I’m so glad you posted, Jen. I’m bored at work and trying to stay motivated to make it until 5:00. Not that I really have any other choice…well, besides self-inflicted stapler wounds – which would probably get me excused from work…but also checked into a mental hospital.

Love you and miss you all so much! (Julie, I've been thinking of you! I'll try to give you call sometime soon! Steph, I'm a horrible person and haven't been to the post office yet. But I promise I will go today or tomorrow...or the next day.)

odd gifts

So yesterday Chris and I are at our nephew's (Landon) birthday party. He's 3 now. My sister-in-law gave Chris and I our birthday gifts as they are coming up soon. It was a box with a card. I'm not even going to mention how the card was made out just to Chirs, because indeed his birthday this year is much more special than mine (he'll be 30!) so i'll let that slide. But I will mention to you what was inside the box... Shampoo and Conditioner. I'll just let you sit on that for a minute... ... ... SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER!!!! Chris (straightfaced) says, "oh, shampoo...". At this point, we're both thinking there may be something else inside the boxes of shampoo and conditioner as many people reuse boxes, right?! But no, there's shampoo and conditioner bottles in the boxes. And my sister-in-law says "sorry, it's practical!"
OK, so Chris and I stuff our gift in my purse so no one else will make a strange/rude comment (or indeed say exactly what's on our mind). When we leave the party and settle in the car, we both look at each other and just bust out laughing. We laugh most of the 2 hour drive home. Who buys someone shampoo for their joint birthday gift!?
To top things off, the shampoo is stinky!!!
So, this brings up a discussion i think we should have some fun with... what's the strangest gift you've ever gotten? And while you're writing that post, go ahead and fill us in on what else is up with your life!

Nothing New - well let's see...

Ok... So like I said, nothing new here. I don't even know why I'm blogging cause I really don't know what to write.
I'm currently at my mom's house cause I had to help her with an invitation. Well, let me tell you, I love when my mom wants me to come over on Saturdays... You see, Saturday is my laundry day and today happens to be 2 weeks worth of laundry day cause last weekend Joe & Ryan (Aaron's brother) were in town and I had to entertain them on Saturday so the laundry did not get done. Ok, back to my point. While doing laundry at my house, it takes me all day to get 4-5 loads done, but when I come to my mother's house, I get so much more done in less time. She has a magnificent dryer that spits the loads out in under 45 minutes. Just one of the perks of owning a brand new house I guess. So yea... All that to say I love to do laundry at my mom's. The little things in life.
Ok... So a little more about last weekend with the boys. One of these days I'm going to invite all of you girls down for a weekend and see how Aaron likes it. I'm tired of only having boys to visit. Last weekend was suppose to be a weekend with boys AND girls, but the girls bailed on me and once again I was stuck with the boys... Help! Somehow, I did have fun. Not sure how that happened. But I was also ready for them to leave. It's hard being the only girl cause you end up being the only one conscious of the fact that the house is getting dirty. On another note... It is hard to have anyone here over the weekends cause it invades on Aaron and I's time to be together. When you have a husband that works almost every night of the week, you begin to cherish the weekend time that you get to spend together and despise anyone that would try and infringe on that time. Ok... So it's not that bad, unless of course it happends weekend after weekend and then all of a sudden you are without time together at all.
So is anyone else looking forward to Steph's wedding? I'm so excited.
I guess Julie is in the hospital today birthing the first of the Sapphire's next generation... How exciting... Can't wait to see pictures.
Umm... Guess that's about it. Just one more thing... I know I don't write that often, but I do check it almost everyday. I love to see what is going on in your lives and I'm so glad I have friends like you all. Can't wait to see you in November!

Promotion

Hey gals. I was reading the blog yesterday wishing i had something to write about and realized i forgot to tell you about my promotion! My new position of Funding Manager started on Monday the 4th. It's a glorified title if you ask me... i didn't even get a manager's parking spot, but I'm ok with that :) It's a salary position which is a big blessing for Chris and I. Nice to know i can go to the dentist and not loose 2 hours of pay, ya know?
So other than that, I guess Chris and I are going through some other changes right now too... we had our last small group gathering at our home a week ago. This fall we are joining a young married small group and won't be leading at all. I've also joined the women's ministry and will be an apprentice leader for a table group. Chris has joined the set up team for sunday mornings. And starting at Christmas time, I hope to have the choir on a schedule at 6 weeks between performances!
My parents are in some sort of arguement with my oldest step brother's family. please pray for that situation. Meanwhile, they are considering more and more to move closer to us so I've been busy scoping out homes :)
oh, and I have recently started a blog for Chris and I. I basically put the same info on it as i do here, but if you ever want to check it out, i do have some cute pictures on it... chrisandjenakers@blogspot.com
I'm anxious to hear about our first second generation Sapphire, Julie!!

baby update

Hey girls! Just wanted to fill you in on the latest with baby #2. I had a doctors appointment yesterday and everything looks good. My doctor thinks I'm getting pretty big and I'm full-term now, so he has decided to induce me on Saturday, September 9th. He also did something at my appointment that has a good chance of inducing labor naturally. So I really could go at any time. Anyways, that's the update. Hope you all are doing well. We'll keep you posted when the baby arrives. Love you all! =)

It should be Friday

Not much new out here in Seattle. I was just thinking about you all and wanted to post a quick hello.
We’re leaving for Ohio tomorrow night. To save a little on the plane tickets, we’ve opted to fly a red-eye, which puts us in Columbus at around 11:30 in the morning. I’m planning on drugging myself with large quantities of Dramamine and alcohol in order to sleep the whole way. Either that, or Adam and I will duel it out on the computer Scrabble game we were nerdy enough to buy.
I’m looking forward to seeing my family – especially my sister and her kids, who I haven’t seen in quite a while. It’s always a little tiring being there though – family tensions and all. But we’ve got a jam-packed schedule already full of plenty of picnics, shopping, and golf outings, which should keep everyone happy.

Adam and I got lost in the ghetto last weekend. I’ve been trying to keep the whole experience on the DL, just because it was completely his fault and I didn’t want to embarrass him. But enough time has now passed that I think it’s safe to really blame the whole traumatizing experience on him.
We had gone downtown for the day, and Adam decided we should try taking a different bus home than the one we normally ride so as to avoid being smooshed into the back against the wall between two stinky homeless people. Yeah, I’m really that insensitive.
The bus he chose, however, took us far, far away from our home and dropped us off in the middle of a construction zone on the loneliest, most crime-infiltrated street in the city. There were no bus stops nearby, so we walked. And walked. And walked. Until we reached a gas station and a bus stop. Not a normal bus stop, though, where buses actually visit – but a bus stop so far away from civilization that a bus stops there about once every seventeen days.
Not willing to wait in the ghetto for seventeen days, I decided to call a cab. But no, cabs don’t even frequent this part of the city – it’s that bad. So we sat there, waiting for a bus, a cab, or a drive by shooting for over an hour.
Well, a bus finally showed up and took us closer to our home, though still on the edge of the ghetto. So we walked some more. And finally made it home almost three hours after we had left downtown.
The moral of the story is that being smooshed in the back of a stinky bus is much better than being stranded in the ghetto with whores and crack dealers. Remember that, girls.

Love you all!

Craziest Summer Ever

Ok, I thought it was high time I blogged again. I enjoyed reading all of the recent posts. I'm so glad to hear that everyone seems to be doing well as the summer winds down. My summer has been absolutely insane! We kicked off by going to Michigan for the 4th of July, then to Maine the following weekend for our anniversary. After that, Cally came into town for a week and a half. Then about a week to focus on stuff here. Off to Oregon for a week (which was amazing), and now Lisa is here. I start school on Monday and can't believe my summer is over! Somehow I squeezed in grad classes and community outreach work for our new church (I'm now the coordinator). I have an outreach planned for this Saturday, so that's added to the insanity of getting ready for the new school year. Maybe a little too much going on, but it's definitely been a blast. A summer to remember for sure. I think I've taken more pictures this summer than I have in the whole past year. Oh, and I also have a new nephew. My older brother had his baby boy July 28th. So all in all, it's been awesome. I've tried to send out pictures to keep in touch. We have more from recent activities that I'll send out soon. Lisa and I went to New York this week, and she's convinced she needs to move there, despite the fact that she didn't quite care for the public transportation and the overall stench of the city (can you tell it's not my favorite city?) But we had so much fun. It's fun to do stuff with people who have never done it and are so excited.
So now it's time for school to start, which I think I'm actually looking forward to. My focus now is there, with my classes, and on the community outreach. I should be taking a pretty intense course this term, and am a little nervous about it. But so far school has been going well. I've got about 4 classes under my belt, and probably will be done in a year and a half or so. Ok well, I've got to get working on the outreach for this weekend, and Lisa will be up soon. I'm glad to hear you're all doing so well.

Blog-iversary

This August marks the one year anniversary of our little blog. To commemorate this momentous occasion, I've decided to repost some snippets from the past year.

August 2005

From Angie:
I had a fab time with Steph this past weekend in Chicago - giving me a glimpse of the fun in store for our Sapphire weekend there. There is so much to do and everything is so much fun. By the way Steph, I love the area you live in, it is so cute, and your apartment - in spite of not being all that you invision it to be yet - is very cute and comfortable.

From Jen:
There are these tiny whitish-green bugs flying all around in the air today. They somehow sneak inside your car also so end up flying around your head, up your nose, etc. it’s very annoying and I just felt the need to share my annoyance.

From Julie:
Hey girls! Not to be rude or bitter... but it's still 100 degrees here in the scorching wasteland that is Tulsa. I don't even want to here about how you got to wear sweatshirts, or how you can feel Fall in the air, yada yada yada... It won't be like that in Tulsa for 2 more months!

From Steph:
Not to sound weird or anything, but does anyone else find that Tuesdays are just sort of a "filler" day? It like the day that kind of gets shoved in there because there's space and we need another day to get stuff done.

September 2005

From Angie:
This girl is nice... She is going to fix everything up for me. Ok... Nextel isn't so bad. Although I wouldn't recommend it cause it cuts out way more than it should.So yea... Tonight is veg in front of the TV night - although I have been doing that all week and really should be doing things that are productive - oh well... I have no plans for Saturday.

October 2005

From Liz:
I had Tuesday off, and thought I'd try this awesome new recipe for butternut squash soup. Well let me tell you, I had never cut up a butternut squash before, and although the soup was delicious, I don't know that I ever will again. It's the hardest thing to cut in the world, and so slimy after you peel it. And it smells like watermelon. Weird.

From Jen:
There was another spider in my bathroom this morning. Just as I was noticing him, he jumped right down at me! You know, how they can string down so quickly from just one little strand of web. Yeah, I screamed. stupid spiders!!

From Jamie:
Right now I'm on my fall break; two weeks of no school!! We had our first snow Sunday night/Monday. It was so pretty! Nick stayed home from work on Monday, so we just got to hang out. He even took me shopping. :)

November 2005

From Angie:
It's turkey day here, which means lots of time of relaxing and eating. My dad is away on a trip and all of my siblings are with the in-laws today, so its just me, Aaron, my mom, and Joe. It's kinda fun cause its quiet and my mom is teaching me how to make a turkey today, which is easier than expected. My turkey is coming along quite nicely.

December 2005

From Steph:
There's been drama on the romantic front as well. I've been talking to a guy named Shawn for the past few weeks. He's from Tulsa, though, so I haven't actually met him yet. He's a good friend of Danie (Erika's sister) and their family. We have really hit it off so far, and we are planning to meet the weekend of Dec. 16th. I think i am going there, just because it will be a little easier to coordinate...AND...he is trying to come to Angie's wedding as well so he can meet all of you. So, I guess that gives you an idea of how much we are interested in each other without having met, so we'll see what happens and if we're really compatible when we do meet.

January 2006

From Kim:
Happy 2006, everyone! I just want to say how great it was to see you girls over the holidays (we missed you, Jamie!). It's always so amazing to me how we can all just sort of pick up where we left off last time. I truly believe we have something special in our little group. I hope all of you know how much you mean to me. And Angie, I'm sure you won't be reading this any time soon (hope you had fun in Mexico!) but the wedding was truly gorgeous. It was so you and so classy. The whole weekend was such a huge whirlwind of fun. I'm so glad we were able to be there.

From Jen:
We even sat naked in the swim-up bar and held conversation with a group of nude people. I just felt so free!! no sunburn!

From Julie:
I just found out that I'm pregnant again. In case you're wondering, it wasn't planned at all. Quite the accident actually. But we'll just call it a surprise blessing.

From Liz:
We've also taken up snowboarding as a hobby (or I should say I have taken it up since Nathan did long ago). I am quite banged up from my first time going last weekend. I could hardly move the day after. But Nathan tells me I have a good "center of balance". Somehow I'm not feeling it as I'm continually falling on my tailbone.

March 2006

From Julie:
My doctor is very nice, but let me tell you girls, I am apparently not naming and claiming my healing from pregnancy nausea nearly enough because Dr. Ross (who is a very high strung, holy roller, Christian) told me yesterday that it is not God's will for me to be vomiting all the time...But I can tell you, by the time my quick checkup had turned into a 2 hour church service with Seth sitting in his stroller the whole time crying, I was about ready to shove the speculum down my doctor's throat. Seth handled things pretty well though by pulling an entire tray of sterilized equipment over onto the floor.

April 2006

From Jamie:
This time of year reminds me of you all so much. I was thinking about making Easter dinner, which brought back memories of the Easter dinner we had at my apartment my senior year. You guys are so special to me!

From Jen:
My tulips are in full bloom and they are gorgeous. On Easter morning I walked around the corner of the house to see the first red tulips blooming. I was so excited, Chris thought I wet myself.

From Julie:
Based on the view we got with the ultrasound (and it was a pretty wide-open angle if you know what I mean), it looks like we can pretty confidently expect the first member of the Sapphires Club, the next generation. It's a girl!

May 2006

From Liz:
And my goodness, is my little godson adorable. He's now saying a couple words at not even 9 months, and standing. I love it! It's an amazing feeling to put a little person down, and ee them cry until they make their way crawling and walking back to you.

June 2006

From Jamie:
I'm so excited. I need some good hugs from you all. I miss you so much!! I can't wait to see you in less than a day!! WAHOO!!

Hoping and praying our next blog-year is full of even more joy and happy memories. Love you all!

Scrapbookers unite

Jen, I have thought about doing the exact same thing! We could go into business together – you taking on the Midwest/Eastern sector, and I could handle the West. We could be Scappers for Hire or some other name that’s actually cute. We could have a website and everything. Oh, the possibilities.
Can you believe I haven’t actually done any scrapbooking since we moved – over a month ago? Yeah, all my supplies are buried in a box still somewhere. Even more appalling is the fact that I still have boxes. Many, many boxes. They taunt me every day with their haphazardly thrown together contents. And yet I wonder, what can possibly be in these boxes that I haven’t needed in the past month? Nothing that important, I suppose. Well, except my scrapbook supplies.

Love to you all!

Michaels

Today for lunch, I ventured over to Michael's to see what was on sale. Ok, I'm planning my next purchase at this store because if truth be told, I could spend hundreds of dollars there every week and still want more scrap book supplies! This week they just so happen to be having a really good sale... paper 4 for $1, paper packs marked down 35%, ribbon wheels for $1... it's a scrapper's dream! I am euphoric every time I think of visiting this store. My reaction got me thinking today - this can't be healthy! I really need to get out more if simply the thought of a craft store brings me to total relaxation. Someone help me!
Outside of freaking myself out about my obsession, I think my perfect job right now would be making scrap books for other people. Any thoughts on this?

My assistant, Gretchen, has left me. I have a new girl, April. I hate training. April's doing well but i still hate training...

In other news, everyone is currently healthy. We're on a nearly 2 week stretch of no one being in the hospital!

Julie, those pics of you and Seth you recently sent are so beautiful! thanks for sending them!

I miss you girls - Kimmie thanks for breaking the silence, I was about to go insane :)

update

Hey girls! I will join Kim in breaking the silence. I also don't have much new to say, but I'll try. Things have been kind of busy here the past week. I went with Josh to Philadelphia last week for his clinical board exam. We had a good time and very much enjoyed eating authentic philly cheese steaks with Angie and Aaron and Joe Caswell and his girlfriend. =) Josh is back in Columbus this week for his last week of surgery in Ohio. We'll be heading back to Tulsa this weekend with Lauren (my brother's new girlfriend) in tow. She's coming with to spend the week with Daniel because they're dying being apart. They're talking about a May wedding, so it's moving along quite quickly. I've been busy this week helping my other brother, Ben, move into his new house. Mostly I've been watching the kids so everyone else can move things. But I did spend the last couple of days helping Sarah unpack. They have a bit of a family crisis happening so they need all the help they can get. Sarah's prents came into town to help them move and her dad was having horrible headaches and vomiting. He finally went to the ER with my dad for a work up. My dad found a small tumor in his brain that was causing some minor hemoraging (spelling?). They think that the tumor is non-cancerous. But they are doing surgery next week to remove it and stop the brain bleeding. Sarah's parents will be staying with them now for at least a month because he has to be near this hospital for his treatment. He's kind of stranded here. In the meantime, Ben and Sarah's house is an absolute disaster because they just moved in on Saturday and nothing's unpacked. Now Sarah's sibling are all coming in to stay for a couple weeks too to be with her dad. Ben and Sarah are pretty overwhelmed. They could all use your prayers for sanity and her dad's health. It's a pretty scary situation. Unfortunately, I am not able to help out quite as effectively as I normally would. I'm slower and and can't lift anything heavy and I have to rest like every 20 minutes. I feel useless! I'm getting quite large and am ready to have the baby. I hope I have her a little early because I don't think I can make it 4 more weeks. But I just realized something quite exciting. The baby is due in September, which means her birthstone will be a sapphire! Anyways, love you all and miss you and can't wait to see most of you in November for Steph's wedding. Later!

Breaking the silence

You'd think that after not having written for such a long time, I'd have lots of insightful, important things to say. But I don't. So here's what we've been up to.
We bought a new bed over the weekend – we’d been sleeping on a king sized mattress on the floor for a couple weeks and decided it was time to upgrade. It’s a really pretty wrought iron frame that we bought at Ikea. I was so excited to find it, since my given budget for buying a bed didn’t really give me any alternative besides Ikea. The only problem is it didn’t exactly fit into the back of our Jeep once we got it out of the store. We unpacked it from the box, and tried fitting only the frame inside. But it still didn’t work. We tried a few different angles, thought about tying it on top of the Jeep…still no dice. By now, everyone had left Ikea, including the employees, and it was almost midnight and pitch black. So I stood around the empty parking lot and watched while my husband, the MacGyver genius he is, rigged up some kind of closure system so we could drive home twenty-five miles without the metal frame crashing out onto the highway. It worked, and now I don’t have to sleep on the floor any more.
I also got my hair done over the weekend. It’s a little redder than I had first wanted. But I’ve gotten a few compliments about it, so I guess it can’t be too bad. But it is fun being a redhead.
Work’s going well – just more shoes. And bags. And shoes. And bags. And occasionally some apparel here and there. I’m thinking about enrolling part time in a master’s course at the UW next spring. My company does a small tuition reimbursement. But thinking about it is about as far as I’ve gotten so far.
Well, I should get back to my shoes…Love you all and miss you bunches!

Condolences

Jen, I am so sorry about Nipper - as you know, I can identify! Also, I am keeping your grandparents in my prayers always. Thanks for keeping us posted! And, I had a feeling you guys would make it down for the wedding, but thanks for confirming! :) Give me a call sometime and we'll chat.
As for the rest of you girls - I miss you all dearly and I hope all is well with you!

Nipper

Nipper is the name of our dog... my brother's dog actually. the summer before the 7th grade, my mom and I went on a mission to find my brother a miniature schnauzer. We found one, took her home, and named her Nipper. Tonight, I said goodbye to Nipper. She will be put at rest monday morning. I hurt for my brother. I am sad, and surprised that I cared that much for this dog. She was a good dog.
Thanks for listening!
More news... Grandma went in yesterday for an angiogram. They put two stints in one bloodvessel. though the surgeon was happy with the outcome of the proceedure, once again as she recovered, something else went bad. This morning, she had a slight stroke. The left side of her body has been effected. Everyone seems optimistic at this point, but there's also not much they know yet. there was no bleeding in the brain and for that we are so thankful. more to come as i get updates. I went to visit as soon as i heard today. Grandpa is taking this really hard. I've never seen my grandpa cry before today, it was heart-wrenching.
other than than, things are going well. The tomato plants are going wild right now and we've gotten to taste sweet cherry and grape tomatoes. Some large yellow ones should be just about ready too, yum!!
much love to you all.
Yes, Steph, Chris and I are coming to your wedding... but you knew that :)

My Girls

I just wanted to let you girls know that I have been thinking about you and praying for you! Juls - I hope you're doing better with your back! You're in my prayers with everything that you're going through and feeling right now - emotional and physical.
Jen, it's been a while! I hope the granparents are doing better! Kimmie - I missed your call last night, too! I'll try to call you tonight or this weekend sometime.
My life is pretty much the same. It's pretty full with wedding stuff and work. We have our site booked and I have my dress in my possession and the flower girl dress is purchased. We are ordering our cake today, I think. There are just the details to work out. We have our website up, sort of, but it's still a work in progress. We just got internet at Shawn's house, so hopefully I can work on things a little more there. Our RSVP page isn't popping up the way it should, so I have to figure that out.
Other than that, there are a few health issues that I am trying to figure out. I have to go in for a colonoscopy (sp?) sometime soon, but I am hoping that it can wait until after the wedding. They're expensive! Mom only has one treatment left (next Wednesday), so that's really cool. The bad part is that the chemicals are really getting to her now. She is pretty much sick all the time now. On top of that, she had to put our dog to sleep yesterday. It was SO sad. I cried and I wasn't even there. My dad was super upset about it - it's the only pet that he had ever been attached to. So rough times at the MN Rohde household this week.
Anyway, I hope to get the info up and correct on the website soon, then I'll give you the address so you can check it out. Also - if you guys could let me know if you're really planning on being here for the wedding, it will help me see how many rooms I am gonna have to get blocked. I have to sign the contract next week, so I better get on the ball with that.
Love you girls and I think about you all often!