Deliciousness

Last night, Greg and I went on a hot date to Cold Stone Creamery, I had a gift card (from college! and it still worked!).  Oh my word I forgot how good their ice cream is!  My roommate in college and I used to take mini dates there all the time, and we'd split a giant one, I'm pretty sure it was cheesecake ice cream with raspberries and oreos, and it was always fantastic.
Greg and I got one of the signatures, it was an oreo something, and it was incredible.  So if you haven't been out for ice cream lately, I highly suggest a date night =)

Sunday Evening Thoughts

It's 8:09, I'm babysitting for great friends whose 3 boys are all passed out and I'm pretty bored, I don't think they'll be home for awhile, so I thought I'd visit my long lost friend, the blog.

1)  It got dark here by 5:30, I'm not really sure I like this whole time change
2) Speaking of time change, I thought grown-ups cope with an hour difference easily, apparently not me, I was wide awake at 6am, although it could have something to do with just how close I am to the end of Harry Potter 7, even though I know what's going to happen, I can't help but be way too into it.
3)  I'm getting really excited about the birth of our baby, it's still quite a ways away, but the more I learn different techniques for dealing with labor, the more I think I'm totally up to this challenge.  I mean, I'm glad that we have the technology to save women and babies these days, but I honestly think there is something really cool about having a natural child birth.
4) I'm leaving for the Cayman Islands in 2 weeks, and I am so excited!  It'll be fun to hang out with my family for a few days, and perhaps soak up a little sun, anyone have any book recommendations?  Greg's not coming with, so that's kind of a bummer, but it's only a few days.
5) The Poppes (who I am babysitting for) have this awesome book "My Quotable Kid" I definitely recommend it for anyone who has kids that tend to ramble off the most hilarious things, which is pretty much all children that can talk, where do they come up with this stuff?
6)  One time when I was babysitting for some kids at church, we were playing restaurant and my server (a 4 yr. old girl) brought me my food, along with a cupcake, and the following conversation ensued:
Me:  Excuse me, miss?
Super cute adorable waitress:  Can I help you?
Me:  It seems you brought me my dessert and my meal at the same time, do you think you could bring my dessert back when I'm finished my dinner
Adorable 4 yr old:  Ma'am I am so sorry!  This will never happen again!

I love it, I can't wait to have my own! 

Orchards!

One of the best things about fall are trips to orchards, fun mornings full of apple picking and checking out all of different types of pumpkins and gourds.
A couple of weekends ago, we drove over to the Peoria area to Tanner's Orchard.  It was a really fun morning, they have lots of free samples (apple butter, pumpkin butter, cider, and other yummy treats), along with the ever popular apple cider donuts (are they even legal?!)

And I went apple picking for the first time, Greg had planned to be with us but woke up with a terrible migraine the morning we were going.  I had so much fun tasting which apples I wanted right off the tree, and then filling up my bag, some of the favorites from the day were Golden Delicious and Johnagolds.  So yummy!

Our super awesome friends daughter, Tilly, she loved those apples!

We also enjoyed checking out the different kinds of pumpkins and gourds.  The lumpy pumpkins were my favorite...

Seriously, how do they even do that?

Tilly loved the pumpkins!  And that's her dad, Ben, he's pretty cool too

phone calls

I realized today just how much I miss talking on the phone!

I was laying in bed reading Harry Potter 3 (that's right, I finished Harry Potter 2 in one day.. on Wednesday, I'm so impressed) and I got a phone call from a good friend of mine at church.  She called to see if Greg and I could babysit, and we ended up talking for at least 30 minutes.  It was awesome.  I've been pretty holed up at home with a super sore right cheek, and I'm getting another shot today, that I am NOT looking forward too.

But it was great to just talk about life with a good friend for a little while.  I love seeing people so much that I often forget you can have a great conversation without sitting face to face when it's not a feasible option.

Oh, and to anyone in DE who reads this, it made me miss all of you!  You guys are definitely awesome to talk to =)

Tuesday Ramblings

1.  I haven't had to make dinner the last two nights, and tonight is a freebie too... I love free food!
2.  Today I have to get another shot, this time in the right cheek, hopefully it won't be too sore... I'm planning on not moving from my heating pad for the evening
3.  I started reading Harry Potter this weekend in an effort to finish the 7th book before November 19th, and I realized this is about the 7th time I've read through the series... does that seem excessive?  I don't think so.
4.  Greg and I are taking The Bradley Method classes to prepare for baby Schmeer, it's awesome but...
5.  Trying to eat 100 grams of protein a day is turning into a much harder task than I thought, all I want to eat is salt water taffy, but instead I'm eating almonds/cheese/weird healthy stuff.  I miss binging on sour cream and onion chips =(
6.  I went apple picking for the first time this weekend, new favorite!  It was so much fun to hang out with friends, eat apples off the tree to see if I like them, and then proceed to find my favorite ones and fill up my bag

Stick it to the (wo)Man

This afternoon my husband learned how to give me a shot.. in the derriere..

Because we miscarried with our last baby, our back-up doctor (we're going the mid-wife route, but have a doctor in case of emergency), recommended I get my Progesterone levels checked.  And it turns out, they were low.  Not off the charts low, but "we recommend shots" low.

So today Greg and I headed to Peoria to pick up our prescription and then go to the office so Greg could learn how to give me a shot.

I thought he was just going to watch, but he actually gave me the shot!  And I'm proud to admit, he did a great job.  I barely felt it.

So this evening I'm sitting a little bit more on my right cheek =)

Crazy Morning

Just thought I'd share my crazy morning with you..
Every day I get up at 5:15, make a pot of coffee, let the dogs out of their crate, then sweetly wake up Greg (haha.. well depending on my mood.. but usually I'm pretty nice).  I grab the leashes and poopie bags, and the pups and I head out for a quick walk.
Well this morning, about 12 houses down Goyo is whining his butt off, and I keep telling him to be quiet when out of the darkness comes this black dog running straight at us.  Is anyone reminded of Harry Potter right now?  Maybe I'm just a HP freak.  I recognized the black lab as a dog that used to always be tied up in front of the house where now he's just hanging out.  He has no collar on and I proceed to ring the doorbell like 500 times to tell the owner her dog has escaped.
Just my luck... no one's home.  This woman who we usually see on our walk stops to ask me what's going on, and she helps me look in the backyard to see if there is a tie out anywhere.  We find one, but the dog has no collar and the clip on the tie out doesn't work, plus the dog didn't even have water out there!  I swear things like that should be illegal!  We decided maybe if we walk away the dog will just stay in the yard.... not!  Of course it followed us.  So I decided that he could hang out in our fenced in back yard until we figured something out.  And I should mention that my dogs are terrified.... they usually do well with big dogs, but they just weren't having it.  So I'm holding my 2 dogs, and trying to keep this black lab from running into the street... finally the woman with me holds Lola and I tie her leash around the dogs neck to keep him from accidentally committing suicide.
I gave the dog some water, quickly made Greg his lunch for work (he of course had been kind of freaking out that I wasn't back yet, since I'm usually home before he gets out of the shower), sent him off to work, took the dogs back out for a quick walk so we could leave a note on the door of the house where the dogs live, then I went back to sleep.
When I woke up, just an hour and a half later, the dog is gone!  I'm assuming they came and got the dog, but they didn't leave a note or anything.  There's no way he could have gotten out, I looked all over.  You would think they would leave a note or something?  Oh well... maybe it was just a dream... but my arms are pretty sore from getting a leash on that dog.

New York, New York

No I'm not headed to New York City, but I am headed to Glen Spey, NY.  For the next week I will be at a Young Life camp called Lake Champion, and will have the awesome opportunity to be a childcare worker for camp.
This week is extra-special at Lake Champion because the campers will be teen moms!  I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be for these girls to be moms when they're still in high school.  They face so many challenges, and these girls are being given the opportunity to spend a week with their son or daughter at an AWESOME camp (more like resort) and at the same time have the opportunity to do some things they'll probably never do again, from ropes courses to the blob!
So if you get a free moment please pray for me and the other childcare workers that we would have servant hearts this week.  And that we would show God's love to these girls and their kids!

I think we should write more letters...

Driving into St. Louis last night I wrote a letter to McDonalds as we drove over the river, I thought I would share it with you...

To Whom it May Concern at the McDonalds Cooperation,
I have recentely relocated near St. Louis and was devastated to find out that there used  be a McDonalds Riverboat.  I can guarantee I would frequent this location were it still available.
Sincerely,
-Really wanting to go on the riverboat.

the Secret Life...

.. of the Archeology Professor

Last night I watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I'm pretty sure it was my first time seeing it, although I think I've seen clips in the past.  And of course, who can forget the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular at Disney World!
Greg still isn't sure how I've made it 23 years without seeing it, and he's glad he didn't ask before we were married otherwise he would have had to reconsider...
But the rest of the Indiana Jones series are on the netflix cue, so I'll be getting my super cute archeology professor fix in the next few weeks.
Can you even imagine how much more you would have paid attention in class if you had a super cute professor, who not only was easy on the eyes, but ran all over the world risking his life to collect artifacts for a museum?  And to keep them from the Nazis?!  And I'm not talking lame digs that my professors would talk about, I'm talkin' pits filled with snakes and being chased by crazy natives in South America.
He's so cool.

Frustrated

I think last night I reverted to being a 2 year old.

Greg had to put up with me throwing temper tantrums all night, "I don't want to go to the gym, I love my sagging arms" etc....
Then after he convinced me that we've already paid for the gym, so unless I'm going to just start throwing money down the garbage disposal, we shouldn't waste our money at the Four Seasons either.  So I put on my sneaks and my awesome new sports bra (seriously, the bounce stops here ladies) and I went to grab my keys... which were gone.
To be honest, this probably happens every time I go to find my keys, but this time they were seriously gone, we looked EVERYWHERE!  I was throwing a fit, and Greg really doesn't do well with this type of things, so he started looking in places where I obviously didn't leave the keys.. like the washing machine? And of course that made me frustrated because I KNOW I didn't leave them there, you know?  Anyway, they're still missing.
So we went to the gym, and I was fine, I didn't cry nearly as much as I thought I would....

On top of that, everyone talks about how awesome those ovulation strips are when you want to get pregnant, I hate them.  You have to pee in a cup for one, I don't even like to do that at the doctor's office, I usually lie and tell them I haven't had anything to drink for weeks so there is no fluid in my body to possibly fill up that cup.  And it's been too many negatives, talk about disappointing!  I feel like I'm failing in some important class in college.  Oh the humanity.  Plus I think I'm just using it as an excuse not to trust that God has way more control over my biology than a piece of paper.

Our Summer Comforter!

I'm all about the duvet cover, you can change the look of your bedroom and still keep your awesome down comforter.  Plus, I bought an awesome duvet cover at the Pottery Barn Outlet for super cheap, saving money always makes things awesomer.  
But not this summer, it's just too hot out here in the plains to keep a down comforter on your bed throughout the summer!  So I splurged on a Dwell Studio quilt from Target.  Although I'm not sure if you can really call it a "splurge" when you get it at Target.  Whatever.  It's awesome.

It's called "Sevilla,"  it reminds me every night of our first year of marriage in España!  And how cute are our puppies, I mean seriously.  Goyo loves to look out the window into the backyard, and in case you can't find Lola, here's a close up...

I love her. 

Bathroom Adventures

you weren't sure where this post was going... were you?

Lucky for you, I'll keep my bathroom secrets just that. Secrets.

Anyway, Greg went to Delaware for a wedding this weekend.  I would have loved to go to, but since airline prices go up like 3x in the summer months, it wasn't really an option.  Our friends Matt and Meghan are getting married, and they're super good looking-so it'll probably be an awesome wedding.  Hopefully he'll remember to take pictures!
To keep me occupied while he's away, I've decided that our basement bathroom needs some serious cosmetic surgery.  It's painted like a weird blue/gray color, which isn't so bad, but it just makes it feel dark and dingy.  And I hate letting our guests use it because I think it's scary in there!  So I'm on a mission to make it warm and inviting in 72 hours.  As much fun as Greg and I have doing projects together, I think they just stress him out.  So I gave myself a $100 budget, and I've already got started.

Last night I took off all of the hardware, and managed to shatter a mirror that produced lots of baby cuts on my hands, but I'm ok!  Only to find that whoever did the bathroom the first time was super lazy, the paint is peeling because there was no primer on the vinyl wall-board, luckily this is only the case on one of the walls.  So I did some research and went to Home Depot today to buy a primer called "Gripper" which helps paint adhere to glossier surfaces.  And then I came home, peeled off as much paint as I could with a wide puddy knife, lightly sanded, and primed the wall.  I'm really proud of myself!

Like I mentioned before, Greg has the camera, so I wasn't able to get any good before shots, but I'll make sure to put up the after photos, and you'll have to let me know if you wouldn't mind using that bathroom =)

Stupid Commercials

I am usually pretty good at not getting annoyed by the T.V and how many ridiculous commercials/scripts that someone approves.  But there is one that makes me want to throw our T.V into the wall.

(You can take a moment to muster up your anger so that we're on the same page)

Special K.... is it just me or in every one of their commercials there is a beautiful girl who is trying to "lose weight"  The one with the girl in the red dress... she can't possibly weigh more than 100 pounds!  Oh it makes me so angry!

I think we should stage a revolution.

Gardening

It's a known fact that my parents and siblings are fantastic gardeners, anyone who has been to my house has seen the botanical gardens they call our back yard.  Or you could just look it up on Wikipedia, because if it's on Wikipedia it has to be real, right?

Unfortunately, I think it's a dominant gene, and along with blonde hair I got the recessive black thumb gene.  I'm terrible at keeping things alive!  It's kind of ridiculous.  I've been able to keep a few house plants alive, but they were all under the category you could die and have no one find you for months and these plants would still be alive.

My father-in-law also has a super green thumb, and has an absolutely beautiful yard.  Last time he came to visit we spent a few hours outside pulling weeds and planting some flowers, which my dogs have managed to destroy and they tear around outside chasing each other at a ridiculously fast pace for 2 tiny dogs that have a combined weight of 23 lbs.

And to add to my inability to garden, the trees sent down like 100 million kajillion of those helicopter things that have managed to make little baby trees all over our yard...
They also invaded our gutters and I thought they were so cute, but Greg said we had to get rid of them... weak sauce.

Heaven Stands

Our pastor gave a sermon a few weeks ago about Rejoicing, we were in Philippians, and we go to the oh-so-famous verse, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice (4:4).
It became a running joke in our house every time one of us complained about something, we would remind the other that they should rejoice in the Lord, it was normally followed by a smirk and rolling of the eyes =)

But seriously, it's changed my life in the last month.  I think I know one person who reads my blog, but we found out on May 4th that we had lost our baby at 12 weeks.  It's been harder than I could ever have imagined.  Just figuring out how I feel is exhausting, let alone dealing with my totally screwed up hormones, and how other people feel.  I think that I didn't really even allow myself to grieve until the last week.  Some might think of miscarrying as the end of a pregnancy, but it's so much more than that.  It was our baby!  We lost our child, and maybe we hadn't held that baby yet or named him or her, but he was our first child, and we'll never forget that.

But overall, I've been able to dig deep inside and still rejoice in Lord.  Even when it's hard, I have been able to grasp at the reality that God lost his only child too.  We always say that God always knows how we feel because Jesus was human and experienced the fallen world, just like we do.  But it really is true, God has experienced it all, he loves us so much that he put himself through everything that we are going to experience in our lives, it might not be exactly as we picture the situation-but if you look hard enough it's obvious.

So in this truth, I can rejoice.  And it's still hard to see pregnant mom's doing all of the things I should be doing.  But I rejoice in the life that God has given that child, and the gift he's given the parents.  And I pray for every pregnant woman I know that she would never have to experience the pain that comes with losing a child.  And I pray for those who have lost a child previously, that there joy would not be robbed from them with the memories of the past, but that they would rejoice in the Lord, always!

Basement Surprise

The weekend after Greg and I found out we had lost our baby, we decided that destroying our basement could possibly fill the void we were experiencing...

Seriously, who has ideas like this?

I've never wielded a power tool before, and I definitely felt awesome as we removed a terribly out of date black box that housed some lights from the ceiling, and tin from the walls.  Under which we discovered wood paneling (what were people thinking in the 80's!?!?!)  Greg was pulling all sorts of things off of the wall and then BAM... we found mold on the north facing wall.

I mean, are you kidding me?
We were barely holding it together after our experience at the doctor's office, and then we find out that our house has turned against us and has been harboring a fugitive!  It didn't look particularly fresh, but I called the mold specialists right away and they came out on Monday and gave us an estimate.

Once I woke up from the price induced stupor, we invited the fine folks from Mold Blasters to de-mold our basement.  And I must say, they did an awesome job, so next step.. finish pulling down the drywall and put up new insulation/drywall/paint and trim.

can we say... GROSS?

the after photo:

Oh home improvement...

Big Changes!

I'm pretty sure no one reads this, but just in case someone out there does, I'm pregnant!  I definitely don't look pregnant, but I definitely feel oh so different.  Besides the nausea and the absolute exhaustion.. who knew getting out of bed would be so tiring?!  But I can't help but flip-flop every second about the new addition to our family.  Greg and I feel so honored that God would allow us to raise a child, one of his children as a matter of fact, that it's overwhelming sometimes.. but I still have the fear of how much it's going to change our lives.  I know it will be for the better, I've yet to hear parents wish they hadn't embarked the on the journey of Parenthood.  Needless to say that we're super excited, and I'm so glad I have had the opportunity to spend time with some amazing parents, and can't wait to give it a try!

who doesn't love yellow

I've never painted a room before, I know, insane.  I've been on multiple mission trips, and I did paint the outside of a house, but I always opted out of being confined in a room with paint, I hate the smell.  But Greg and I decided to do it anyway.  Yellow is my favorite color, and our house is filled with lovely fall colors, so it seemed to fit as a new color for one of our guest rooms.  

Unfortunately the room in question was the go to room for ALL of our junk, so we've spent the last 2 weeks finding homes for everything (and stuffing some of those things in other small spaces).  There are always bumps in the road, and ours was taking down shelves in the bedroom, the old owners painted the hardware onto the wall, which in turn pulled off some drywall, etc.  But after applying some spackle we had a nice smooth finish to paint.  

I'd read about a new type of painters tape, called Frogger Tape, that when painted on, the water from the latex paint creates a barrier with the tape, getting rid of the leakage found with regular painters tape for nice crisp lines... so we were hopeful that it would work.  

The rest of the cast of characters... paint roller, 2 brushes, rolling pan (made from all recycled materials, and recyclable) and small paint trays ( made from 100% biodegradable plastic).  And we found a roller made with Teflon, so in support of Greg's job at DuPont, we of course had to buy it!  

I taped the room while Greg was at work, which was super easy.  And when we got home we got to painting.  And within 2 hours we were terrified that we'd made a big mistake.  It didn't look even and I was worried we turned our room into a taxi cab.  But after a few hours of drying, the room is beautiful!  It leaves you feeling cheery, and I'm super excited to say that the frogger tape was a success, no leaking and our trim is still beautifully white.  

Little changes

One of the things we love about our house are the french doors leading into the master bedroom.  They help make the house feel open.  And they're a great accountability for making the bed, if you asked my mom I bet she'd say I never made my bed growing up, she should have given me a door with windows!  Because now, I do it everyday because I hate seeing it up there all messy.  Except on Saturdays as you can tell from the picture...

But, the drawback-no privacy.  When my best friend and her husband came to visit, it was quite comical to say hello through our door while one of them would go to the bathroom to brush their teeth.
We wanted to add curtains, and found them quite easily at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  But I had the hardest time trying to find curtain rods that were only 16-25 inches.  I spent a ridiculous amount of time searching online to only find magnetic ones.  Well, on my next trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond to return something, I figured that I bought the curtains there why don't I just check (even though online they did not have anything).  And to my luck, I found them!  Nice and plain curtain rods, and the best part, they were only $4.99 a piece!  You can't beat that my friends... And isn't my husband so handsome with his bed head (i love him).

This past weekend we added the opaque curtains to the doors, to maintain the airiness but to give a little mystery.  I think it looks great, and it only took a few minutes.

Serious Comfort Food

As I mentioned before, it's very cold here in Normal, IL.  I never even know the temperature, but I can always count on my dad to have looked it up and let me know just how freezing the windchill is all the way from Delaware.  He seems to know what's going on here long before I have any clue, it's like my own personal weather man (thanks Dad!).
Maybe it's the cold, or maybe it's because we're Americans, but I just can't get away from pizza.  We both love it.  While we were living in Spain, I would try to make homemade pizza whenever we had Spanish class, so we could come home to some awesome food after having our brains picked by our Spanish teacher.  But to be honest, I hate dough!  Any kind, pie dough, sugar cookie dough, scones, pizza, bread... it is all sticky!  And I have definitely not perfected the art of rolling out dough.
So this time around I decided to use my kitchen-aid, there is a recipe in the little instruction manuel, and it even said that the machine would knead the dough for me... amazing? yes.  I love being in control of the ingredients, which is why I tend not to go the easy route and buy dough from the store (plus, we did not have that luxury in Spain, so now I'm just used to it).  In an attempt to better our diet, I used whole wheat flour for half of the flour content in the dough, and then I let the machine do all the work =)

After 2 hours, I was really disappointed by how little the dough had risen, but I made the pizza anyway....

it was FANTASTIC!  Seriously the best pizza I've ever had, the dough had the perfect amount of crispness and fluffiness, and you can't beat pepperoni and green peppers!  Greg and I loved it, and the second day it was even better!  No more ordering out for us!

Seriously?

Wallpaper?  It's ridiculous... I mean I guess if you're into ridiculous flower prints and intricate pictures, it's the only option.  But who designed it so it would be SO incredibly difficult to remove?  A friend of mine wanted to take down the wallpaper that the builder put up in the bathroom, so I asked my father-in-law about how to do it when we went to St. Louis, and I asked my mom... both warned me that it's harder than it looks.. but I was sure it couldn't be so bad.  I was wrong.

We went to the home improvement store to buy the right materials (Diff, a scraper, and a little wall scourer thing that puts little holes in the wallpaper).  Well our first mistake was forgetting to buy the little scourer thing.  So, Chelsey had to run back out (and I got to play with her super adorable baby, Mady).

But eventually we got to work, and my arm is still tired!  Just kidding, but seriously, it was really hard, and one of the walls was so stubborn, it was insane, like it was part of the structural integrity of the house or something.  We finished 3 of the 4 walls in a couple of hours, and had to leave the fourth wall (they were going to have to remove the mirror, etc).  I guess we're just lucky we didn't put any gouges in the wall.

this wall was my arch enemy...

Overall, it was fun to spend the afternoon with a friend, but it was slimier and harder than I thought it would be, I can't imagine having to do a whole room.  But I do know that I will NEVER put up wall paper.

the almost finished product, i was so proud

It's freezing here...

I guess I knew what I was getting in to (is that right?  I need to go back to school.. I think it's right).
But man on man, every morning it gets me again, IL is so cold!  We went to St. Louis for New Years Day, which also happens to be my mother-in-law's birthday, and it was almost 10 degrees warmer there than it is here, stupid wind.  But anyway, I'm slowly adding warmer clothes to my wardrobe, and I bundle up when I take the dogs out, they're definitely missing their 2ish mile walks though, they run around the house like crazy people.
Greg's been really into making sure our house is well insulated and we're not wasting any heat, we keep the house at a nice 63 degrees and wear lots of clothes, but I'm not complaining, I prefer to save our money than pay more bills.

Cool thing was, our gas company sent us a little package full of gizmos to use around the house to lower our energy costs.  I'm not willing to give up our nice shower head, so the low flow shower head landed WAY back in the closet.  But we have made a conscious effort to use fluorescent bulbs and Greg insulated all of our outlets/phone jacks that are on an outside wall.  I took a few pictures, unfortunately I don't have a picture of the cool foam insert they gave us, but Greg just filled the insides with an insulating foam.                                     Here's my super cute hubby at work

Greg got a little foam happy...

ta-da, we're saving money!

Happy New Year!

I can't help but be cliche, I can't believe how much has happened this year!  We've lived on a different continent, visited 5 countries, bought a house, and moved to the midwest. 

But, we're both really excited for 2010.  After a year of living quite isolated, we're finally in a place we can call home.  I never thought I'd love the midwest, but it's fantastic!  We have found a great church, and are making such great friends.  It's shocking how quickly you get used to isolation, and we both found ourselves not so willing to reach out to make friends, it's difficult to be so vulnerable.  But through God's grace we've landed amongst some of the coolest people we've met in a long time.  Although we definitely miss all of our Delaware friends!

Last night we spent New Year's Eve with 2 other couples, and it was so much fun to just be together and forge new friendships.  Plus, they both have kids and 2 cute babies make the deal way better!  And I'm not going to lie, I made some really good guacamole (I love you Pioneer Woman).

And today, we woke up early and drove to St. Louis and are hanging out for a 2nd Christmas and my mother-in-laws birthday, I love going for walks here.  It's such an "old school" feeling in a big city, and the houses are beautiful where Greg grew up. 

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great 2009, and good luck with all those resolutions, I'm not even setting a goal this year, I always seem to give up by.... January 2.