The blog is coming out of hibernation

Well, this blog has been a little dormant for a while (well over a month now). So, to get back up to speed, here’s what’s been going on since Sunday, October 16^th (the last post) ---

We dressed up for Halloween

Matt and I decided last minute that we were going to make our costumes. We got the brilliant idea to be red Solo cups (Toby Keith would be proud!), but the process of making them turned out to be a lot more difficult than we thought. We bought all the supplies Saturday morning and spent 4+ hours putting it all together. The result was not too shabby, but we did get a lot of questions of what we were supposed to be. We carried around a volley ball and we were Beer Pong. Maybe if we didn't have the big read straps, we would have been more identifiable.

Red Solo Cup - I fill you up! Let's have a party!

I now have an office with a view

A few window offices opened up and I now have a much better view than before (anything is better than a wall!) Matt is not as thrilled as me… now I am on the same floor as him and we sit about 5 offices apart. Not as bad as when we were first dating and sat literally 5 feet apart in cubicles. Talk about awkward!

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary

2 years ago November 7^th we were married in the Bahamas – I couldn't have asked for a better day celebrating with our family and friends! On our anniversary, we had dinner at Flemings – so.much.food! We had the lobster mac-n-cheese as a side and that would have been enough for a full meal!

One of my favorite pictures

We said good-bye to Grandpa Charlie

My grandpa Charlie passed away on Friday November 18^th. While we were getting everything ready for the funeral, we went through hundreds of old pictures of my grandparents, my parents, family and friends. It was so nice to hear everyone tell stories about my grandpa and his life. He will be greatly missed!

Ross got a year older

Ross really didn’t get a proper birthday celebration with all of us being out of town for the funeral and then the holidays immediately following. Plus, on his birthday, poor Sofie (their dog) got super sick and was hospitalized! We did sing a quick “Happy Birthday” and did a shot at the PO last Sunday for him. : ) Here’s hoping your year finishes off better than it started! Happy Birthday!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with family

Matt and I drove to Ohio to spend Thanksgiving with his family. As always, we had a nice time visiting with everyone, watching football and eating lots of delicious food! We went bowling with the whole crew on Saturday. After a 5 month hiatus from bowling, Matt and I did pretty well (210 on Matt’s second game – just like riding a bike!) Since Saturday was a gorgeous day in Ohio, we cooked hot dogs outside over the fire pit and everyone played football in the backyard.

I made pumpkin whoopie pies to take along with us

Matt's Aunt Sandy made us turkey shaped pancakes - so cute!

More cuteness

Playing Horse after dinner

Grilling hot dogs by the fire pit

Matt's serious about his dogs - he waited until everyone else was done

I spent this past week in Philadelphia for work

Not that a work trip is that exciting, but there were a few interesting things that happened along the way. On the flight out there, the pilot announced we were bringing a soldier home from the war, a soldier that had been killed in action. When we got to Philly, there were soldiers and a hearse waiting at the gate to collect the casket. So sad.

On Tuesday around 3 am, I could hear all this chanting and people on the street. Turns out it was the day the police decided to evict everyone from the Occupy Philadelphia campsite that was set up in the city center. When they evicted the people, they started marching up and down the street directly below my window. The next morning, there were bulldozers cleaning up the area. It looked gross.

Hard to see, but the white dots are all the bike cops blocking the road; the rest are the protestors

On Wednesday, some sort of emergency alarm was triggered in the hotel I was staying at. The alarms started going off and someone came over the speaker to say there was an emergency, but we weren't allowed to get on the elevators or take the fire exits. So, basically, I just sat in my room for 25 minutes waiting to hear what the emergency was and if I needed to do anything. All while the annoying alarms kept going off in my room. Not cool! Especially, because in the end, there was no emergency. Considering I was on the 26th floor, I was so glad there wasn't a fire!

I got sucked into the Hunger Games

One good thing about all the traveling I've been doing is that I've had plenty of time to read. I finished off the Hunger Games series in less than a week. Loved those books! I read the first one all in one day on Thanksgiving. They sucked me in, kind of like the Harry Potter or Twilight books did.

Oh, and this is what I returned to in the fridge

Before we left for Thanksgiving, I tried to throw out some strawberries that I knew were going to be bad by the time we got back. But, Matt was adamant about keeping them. And they were still in the fridge when I got back from Philly on Friday night. I'm so glad we kept these. Gross!

Maybe he's doing a science experiment?

I decorated our condo for Christmas
I put a few xmas-y type things around the kitchen and family room. Per "Matt's Law", we will not be getting a xmas tree (real or fake) while living in this condo. He's such a scrooge! So, I put up our 1.5 foot tree again this year on top of the kitchen table. It has lights and a few little ornaments that aren't heavy, so that it won't fall over. Matt says to me, "oh, I didn't realize how small that tree was". Yep! People have bigger ones in their offices at work. : )

Happy b-day Erin (a little late)

Last night, we went out with Ross, Erin, Brett and Sandi to celebrate Erin's birthday. It was a few weeks ago,  but we haven't had a chance to go out yet. We went to Nano for sushi and then to the PO to watch the Iowa game. We all had a good time... and today Matt and I have been veg'd out on the couch recovering. We're kinda old.

Flaming sushi!



Brett and Sandi got this Halloween costume for Sofie - it was a hit!



At the PO - getting ready to do Hawkeye bombs

Too cute!

Hawkeye bomb (this may be why he feels like crap today)

That's a lot of yellow!

Happy birthday to my favorite sister!

Um... I think that's supposed to be for Sofie!

Um... this is what happens when you do too many shots!

Another great Sammy Fund Weekend!

Of course, this will be known as the "year of the flu" because there was a nasty stomach bug going around that hit at least 13 people that I know of. My parents came down with it on Saturday night and were out of commission until Monday morning. So awful!

For those of us that managed to keep our food down... the weekend was perfect! The weather was gorgeous - sunny and warm! Matt and I got into town on Friday and met up with Chuck at the Tangerine Bowl for lunch. Matt loves the pork chops there!

Nope, not a mini-bun, this is a mega-pork chop! Gotta love bowling alley food!

Matt golfed on Friday afternoon, while I ran some errands and got a mani/pedi. : )

The weather was perfect for the race/walk on Saturday morning. The leaves had started to turn colors and the walk was beautiful.

Getting ready for the run on Saturday morning - "Hi Matt!"

Sandi and Brett showing off their Disney half marathon shirts

Traditionally, we head to Jed's after the run/walk for chili dogs and beer. This year, we went to Spring Street, but there were still plenty of chili dogs, beer and fun!

Traditional chili dogs after the race

Mom, me and Erin at Spring Street

Andy and Michelle made the trek from Chicago for the weekend too!

My cousin's daughter Madeline kept everyone entertained

My aunt June met Mark Bortz at the YMCA (I think) and he stopped off at the bar for a drink. He played on the '85 Chicago Bears team that won the Super Bowl and he also played football in college at Iowa. So awesome!

Me, Mark Bortz and Erin

Found this on some Bears website

On Saturday night, Matt played in the Texas Hold 'Em tournament. I went to a wine tasting party held by the place my cousin Kelly works. Despite being a tad underdressed for the event (we were in jeans and people showed up in cocktail dresses and suits/ties), the wine and food were so good and we had a fun time! We were camped out by the cheese table = my favorite station!

The golf tournament on Sunday could not have been on a more beautiful day! Is this really October?!?

Keely filled in for my Dad who was under the weather

Grant, Keely and Ross ready to golf

My team - Brian, Andy and Matt

Time to rally (this was also when Brian realized he lost his keys a few holes back)

Beautiful trees!

Hard to tell by a picture... but Andy decided they should drive in reverse for the second 9 holes

Cheers! (They are driving in reverse - we are driving forward at them)

Um... who's driving this thing?!?

After we finished golfing, everyone went out to the 2nd hole to help Brian find his keys. He had lost them when they first shot-gunned a beer. When they went to do the second one about 5 holes later, he realized he didn't have his truck keys anymore. Oops! Even bigger oops because Keely didn't have a spare set with her! Luckily, he found them on the 3rd hole!

We all ended up staying in Quincy on Sunday night after that. My parents were still not up for the 2 hour drive back to Rochester, so they were definitely staying. Keely and Brian weren't up for driving all the way back to Chicago either. So, we ordered in pizza and watched football. We all were exhausted!

More pics from the weekend are on our Shutterfly site.

Omaha

The first weekend in October, I went to Omaha to visit with a couple of high school friends. We all live in different cities, but get together once a year. This year, we all went to Omaha (where my friend JJ lives). It's so nice to catch up with them!

We grabbed dinner and drinks in the Old Market area Friday night. We even did a little late night shopping! We went to this store that had the strangest combination of books and things. There was a whole section devoted to bacon. And they had books with titles like "How to mess up your kids (without even trying)".

On Saturday, we watched the kids play soccer (Stryker is 8 and Tori is 5). We also went to the largest pumpkin patch I've ever been to - Valas! This is like a big fall fair with tons of things going on - hayrack rides, pony rides, face painting, shows, pumpkin cannons, a huge corn field maze, pig races, etc.

The kids in the witch's cauldron

Make your own snowcone - so many flavors

Face painting - Crystal got hers done too!

Huge tic-tac-toe board - with toliet seat O's

At the entrance to the corn maze

Huge "bubbles" to jump on - these looked like so much fun!

On the hayrack ride

On Saturday night, JJ's husband Jerry grilled out some steaks for all of us and we carved up the pumpkins we got earlier that day. Messy, but the kids loved it!

I made a bear claw

Crystal picked a very green pumpkin!

More pics from the weekend saved on our Shutterfly site.

Welcome Kayla Marie!

On Sept 26, Hany and Grant welcomed their new baby girl to the world. She was born around 12:20 pm and weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long.

Erin and I went to visit them at the hospital and little Kayla was adorable! So tiny! She has a head full of dark hair.

Congrats!

The last two weeks

The last two weeks have flown by!

Over Labor Day weekend, we drove down to Rochester to hang out with the fam. We also went down to St. Louis on Saturday to visit my uncle Dan who is in the hospital there. He had just made a big turn around and was doing really well... he even got moved out of the ICU while we were there!

On Saturday night, we had dinner at Syberg's by my aunt's hotel in St. Louis. Coincidentally, it was karaoke night! Erin and I sang a couple of songs. The place was pretty empty besides all of our family.

Brett and Matt shared 50 wings at Syberg's!

On Sunday, we drove back to Rochester and had a cookout at my parents' house. My Dad made homemade ice cream = SO good! We made root beer floats with the leftovers for a snack later!

Best stuff ever!

I spent this past week in Seattle for work. My boss had called me on Friday afternoon before Labor Day and asked if I could help out on a project there. I had to fly out Tuesday morning. I flew on Alaska Air and lucked out with the flight there. Some guy wanted to sit by his wife, whose seat was next to mine. So, he asked if I would switch with him. And by the way, his seat was in 1st class! Um, that's a no-brainer!

One of the guys I was working with and his wife took me to dinner for my birthday (Wednesday), which was super nice of them. We went to this seafood restaurant called Ivar's. The food was delicious!

Me with my birthday cake

Oh, and the weirdest part of the trip to Seattle was the earthquake on Friday around noon. I was waiting for the elevator when I started hearing one of the elevators clanking more than usual. I just thought, hope I don't get that elevator. Then, I started swaying involuntarily - like my weight kept shifting from one foot to the other. I had no clue what was going on. I thought to myself "am I about to faint?", "am I sick?" = I was so confused and thought something was wrong with me! I looked down at the floor and tried to make myself stop, but couldn't. Strangest feeling. It finally stopped after about 15 seconds and then I hopped on the elevator and grabbed some lunch. When I got back to the office, everyone was talking about "the earthquake". Then, it clicked that I hadn't been swaying, it was the building that was swaying and I was just trying to balance myself! No wonder I couldn't make it stop!

I got back into town after midnight on Friday. Matt won husband-of-the-day award, because he stayed awake and picked me up from the airport. : )

Yesterday, we went up to the PO to watch the Iowa v. Iowa State game. I hadn't been there in a while. Fun times, but bummed that Iowa lost.

Birthday shot

Last night, Matt and I met up with Ross, Erin, Brett and Sandi for dinner at Carmichael's to celebrate my birthday. We had so - much - food! I loved the carrot cake for dessert! Left there in a total food coma! Good times! : )

Check out Matt's lobster tail! Now you see it...

Now you don't!