Sofie

Erin and Ross picked up their new little vizsla puppy yesterday. So, of course, we had to stop by their place and see her! She's about 7 weeks old and is super cute! She isn't very good on the wood floors, so she was like Bambi on Ice when she tried to run around. It was pretty comical.

She loves her bed... one day she'll actually fit the whole thing!

First lesson - don't touch Ross' beer!

Sleeping so cute!

Anyone want to play ball???

This was funny until she got a hold of my hair and yanked a mouthful out!

Sleeping with her tongue sticking out

Here's the story...

Of a man named Brady!

Last night we went to Witt's for my friend Angie's annual Halloween party. Matt and I went as Mike and Carol Brady. : )

These outfits are hideous!

Erin was beer goggles and Ross was Brett Favre

Brett was a Cobra Kai

Favre!

Cousin Eddie... shitter's full!

Besides Cousin Eddie (who won the male costume contest), there were some interesting costumes at the party. There was a couple dressed as the Candyland king and queen. Another couple came as Double Dare contestants with bike helmets with plastic cups glued on top. There were two couples that came as the Clue characters (Ms. Scarlett, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard). They even brought along a wrench, revolver, etc! The female costume contest winner was dressed as Ke$ha and she had a bottle of Jack with her. She actually looked like Ke$ha, so that helped. Some girl was dressed as "Waking up in Vegas" which no one could guess (probably because that's a strange costume). She was in pj's and had dice around her neck.

There was a Tiger Woods and Elin. Elin was carrying around a big check and had money stuck in her pockets and falling out of her purse. Tiger had a cell phone on his belt and it had a picture of Rachel Uchitel on it.

And then there was this girl dressed as Jane Fonda. She was a riot... she kept sticking her butt out in pictures.

Jane Fonda

After a few drinks, we always getting a little silly...

Mike Brady lost his hair and now has beer goggles!

He now thinks Carol Brady is hot!

Erin has a lot of hair!

Umm... not sure what is going on here!

Balance!

The ole wig switcharoo

This is what Erin would look like as a blond with short hair!

Of course, there are more pictures... you can check them out here. (password is mattstacia)

Happy Friday!

I went shopping for Halloween costumes for Matt and I today (talk about waiting til the last minute!) Is it just me or are the women's Halloween costumes made for midgets??? I know I'm tall, but I have shirts longer than those dresses they call costumes! It's like they took every normal costume, put the word "sexy" in front of it and cut off about a foot of fabric. There was even a "sexy hobo" costume... really? Yeah, being homeless is hot!

I managed to find something for Matt and I to wear. I really hope he likes his costume! I figure if I got him to wear what he did last year, I think he'll wear just about anything! Although he says he "hates" Halloween, I think he secretly loves it! : )

Have a great weekend everyone!

Slacking

I realized the last post I made here was over a week ago. Oops!

Let's see... what have I missed...

My fall volleyball league started back up, which I'm very happy about! We always take the summers off because everyone is so busy and we're always searching for subs. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of beach volleyball.

Matt and I refinanced and we closed last Friday morning. I'm now officially on the mortgage. Awesome. Pretty easy, lots of signing my John Hancock. I hadn't actually ever signed my new name with my middle inital. It was totally throwing me off. I think my signature looked different on every page!

Also, this past Friday, it was Halloween party day at my company. So, everyone brought in their kiddies all dressed up. They trick-or-treated around the office. I still have leftover candy, which taunts me every time I see it. "EAT ME"... "YOU KNOW YOU LOVE SNICKERS!!!" Yep, I'll probably finish the rest off myself. Awful.

On Saturday, we hung out at Kari's place to watch the Iowa game. We had lots of great snacks and we did a few Hawkeye bombs... but, Iowa couldn't pull it off in the end. Then we hung out with Andy, Michelle and Sam. Michelle made some super tasty chicken and dumplings and we played Scrabble. Fast fact: It was the first time Matt had ever played Scrabble in his life! I'm not even sure how that's possible.

Oh, the guys even tested out the 'quarter trick' with a few cans of beer. My uncle Chuck swears that if you shake up a beer can and then put a quarter on the bottom of it when you open it, it won't explode. Andy decided to not only shake the beer cans, but throw them full force onto the metal balcony. One can ended up totally flat on one side (that takes talent)! : ) I think one can exploded all over him, even with the quarter.

Sunday was 'catch up on everything' day... cleaning, laundry, organizing. Fun times, I know you're jealous. Matt grilled out turkey burgers = yum! We watched the Bears lose.

We've hired a cleaning lady... I'm very excited about this! I don't know why it's taken me so long to pull the trigger on this one. She's been cleaning a friend of Erin's house for over 8 years and has been cleaning Erin's place for a while now, so she comes highly recommended. She stopped by last night to take a look at our place. She starts Thursday!

The current discussion at our house is... what are we going to dress up as for Halloween??? I'm forcing Matt to go to the Halloween party we go to every year. It's at Witt's and it's for charity. Plus, everyone gets really into it and I love seeing what clever costumes people come up with. So, the costumes are TBD. I'm sure there will be numerous pictures taken!

Well, I think that gets me caught up!

Great day for a game

Matt and I went to the Bears game today. Unfortunately, they didn't win, but we had a fun time! The weather was beautiful... of course, we were in the shade so it was a little chilly for us.

We met up beforehand at Eleven for brunch with a friend from work, Bridget, and her boyfriend Jim. Good food and awesome Bloody Marys.

Not vegetarian! There's a hunk of salami in there!

Go Bears!

The line for the men's room = super long!

The line for the women's room = awesome! : )

Matt and me at the game

Sammy Weekend

It was another great jam-packed Sammy Fund weekend! : )

Matt and I drove down to Rochester last Thursday night to get a jump start on the weekend. We drove over to Quincy Friday morning. After a quick lunch with Chuck, June, etc., Matt went golfing and my Dad and I stopped off at his lawyer's office. We also swung by to visit my grandma.

Friday night, there was a party at a friend of Chuck's, so we met up with everyone over there. We filled bags with tees and ball markers and then had a few beers.

On Saturday morning, there was a run/walk through some beautiful streets in Quincy. The weather was gorgeous!

As is tradition, we headed over to Jed's Brewhouse for chili dogs and beer after the run. We sat outside in the beer garden... so nice!

Cheers!

Dan, Matt and Chuck

Me and Matt

Erin and me

Saturday afternoon, we had a baby shower for Erik and Caroline. They'll be welcoming a little girl, Madeline Louise, in about 6 weeks! We played a few games and watched Caroline open some super cute gifts!

Erin, Kelly and Grandma at the baby shower

I think Erik is cheating at the game!

Caroline opening her gifts

Frozen yogurt cake = yum!

After that, the guys headed off to a Texas Hold Em tournament. They all did pretty well and had a good time. We hung out at the bar at our hotel, Tony's Too, after that for the night. I may have had a few too many glasses of wine at the bar. I was just trying to catch up with the husband!

Boy, we look sober, eh?

Um, Matt get out of the picture!

That's better!

Jean and Mom

Sunday was the big golf tournament... this year's team was me, Matt, Ross and Erin. The weather was gorgeous! We finished 3 under. Luckily, we had Matt to keep us from coming in last place!

Sammy Fund tournament is about to start!

Folks, that's not really sweet tea!

Matt and Ross

Brett and me

Erin and Matt

We let Matt and Ross share a cart (so they could share their "sweet tea")

Erin and I taking our own picture!

It was a long drive back home to Chicago Sunday night... especially with Matt passed out snoring in the passenger seat!

I loaded a few add'l pics to our Shutterfly site... you can check them out here.

Worst?

So, I found out that I live about 1.5 miles away from the most dangerous neighborhood in the US, based on some study done by NeighborhoodScout.com. Well, that's just awesome.

But I have to say, those 1.5 miles make a world of difference!

On a completely different topic, today I took the red line into work because I dropped my car off up north to get the oil changed. I thought riding the bus was bad... but, wow. I am SO glad I don't have to take the EL  anymore. What a zoo!