10 x 30 Space

I've personally spent many hours over the past month or so packing up the house, arranging utilities to be stopped, shopping storage units, signing paperwork and of course drinking rum due to our new path in life! Ever since our wonderful realtor, Shannon Lyon, sold our house in only 5 weeks, we've had a lot on our plates to figure out and get arranged. And who got stuck with most of that work? Yes. Muah.

Although I did most of the 'planning' and packing, we had a BUNCH of people help this past weekend with the move. With our realtor's truck, a rented dolly, tons of caffeine and pizza as bribery, we were able to get everything moved in under 10 hours!


It's very bittersweet to think that all of one's personal belonging can fit in a 10x30 space. (Well - almost fit... we do have a few items at the in-laws house that we couldn't squish in!).

Derek and I are definitely going to miss our first home. We lived there over 3 years and had grown to become quite fond of it's charms and the wonderful neighborhood. We are looking forward to the next stop in our life journey, but will never forget our first home on Gallery Street.

Thanksgiving 2009

There are just too many things to be thankful for this year to list off on our blog. To keep it short, Derek and I are most thankful for each other, our wonderful family, friends, jobs, dogs and our health.

Thanksgiving 2009 was spent with Derek's family as my parents were on a surprise birthday cruise that my dad got for my mom! We enjoyed all the classic foods until our stomach's were about to bust.

We hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

Home Office is a GO!

Well, I survived.

Barely.

I can't remember the last time that I worked 60+ hours. Or the last time that I felt like I needed a ventilator in order to help me remember to breath. And I can't remember the last time that I ended up with a major stress migraine because of work. But I also can't remember the last time that I didn't shower before work and sat at my desk all day in my PJ's!

It was a rough week, but it was just the first from home and there were many kinks to be worked out. I know I'll get into a routine and will learn these accounts like the back of my hand, but WHEW am I glad that first week is over!

For at least the next few months until we move, I'll be "home officing" from the in-laws house seen to the right. It's a great space and there's plenty of room for me to lay everything out.... that is, except for our old, tiny desk. I'm making it work, though, at least until we move that is!

And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd just like to point out that I'm terribly lucky to have a wonderful job who's letting me stay with the company remotely. I'm definitely thankful for the flexibility and partnership in this journey that Derek and I are taking!

PS - I also don't mind staring at the "3 second Mario shot" poster on their wall daily!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I hope you are having a WONDERFUL time on your cruise (I'm only slightly jealous) and here's to a Happy 60th Birthday! LOVE YOU!

(click here to see pictures from the surprise party!)

Can you find the sun?

Lacy is JUST like her mommy in that she can find the smallest area that there's sun at any time. She LOVES the warmth on her back and in the winter, unfortunately, she has to do her sun-bathing inside.

Just look for the sun in this picture and she'll be right in the middle of it!

Where's the Freeze?

We are REALLY hoping that it freezes soon or else Lacy is going to go crazy gnawing at her feet. The poor girl suffers from allergies every fall and this year it's been an extended season for her. Generally the freeze takes care of her pain and suffering so fingers crossed that's very soon! If not, her back feet are going to quickly go bald from the constant licking.

And yes, she's on some medication to help, but you can still see the frustration in her poor little eyes!

SURPRISE!!

So about 4-5 months ago, I decided to team up with my Aunt (left) and organize a surprise 60th Birthday Party for my mother. 60 is a fairly big milestone and I knew my mom would appreciate the gesture. We began by selecting a date, then a location, then the decorations and then finally - the guest list. We ended up getting in touch with about 50-60 of her friends and family members to share in this wonderful surprise, and let me tell you - she was SUR-PRISED!

My cousin caught the action on video and you can actually see her confusion at first followed by her realization of what was going on!



It turned out so well and Nick and Jake's was great to work with for the food and drinks! Thanks to everyone who helped make mom's birthday so special... I know she appreciated it very much.




AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!

Last Week at Work

This week has been a whirlwind of learning new accounts, transitioning all my old duties and getting ready to start in my home office Monday! The people here really show how much they care when people are leaving the office and this was my week of celebration. Yesterday I came to a decorated office, food, a cookie cake and a wonderful card full of fun memories! They also had a happy hour planned after work to celebrate even more! I will miss this place a lot but mostly will miss the people and the great friendships I've made along the way. Although I'll still be with the same company, it's still going to be a sad day today at work. TEAR!

Capitol Hill

This past weekend, Derek and I took a short vacation to the Alexandria and DC area. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time seeing the sites. The National Mall was very relaxing to walk along and people watch and seeing the Hope Diamond at the History Museum was really interesting. (I'd love to borrow that 45.5 carat diamond sometime for a special occasion!)

We also visited Mount Vernon, saw an IMAX 3-D movie, drove around Georgetown, hopped bars and ate on Kings street by the water in Alexandria and of course, did some shopping!

Manager Appreciation Day

My company takes great pride in appreciating one another. We have almost weekly "appreciation days" between departments, client groups, teams, floors, etc!

About 3pm yesterday, the 6 of us Media Managers were called into a quick meeting by one of our Senior Analysts. When we entered the break room, all 36 or so members of our department were clapping away and holding a big sign for us that read "Happy Manager Appreciation Day"! It was very, very sweet, but they even went above and beyond just that. We played a fun game for a while guessing which department member was connected to certain weird facts followed by some YUMMY cake, a cookie cake and soft ice cream!

We do a lot of encouraging and supporting of our team and it's nice to see their support and encouragement of us as well! I definitely lucked out over 5 years ago when I joined this wonderful group and this is just another reason why I feel so lucky to work with such an amazing group of people!

Dutch Blitz

If I could take a poll, I would bet that about 95% of you out there have never heard of this game. That is, unless you're #1 Amish or #2 belong to my family! We are huge "game players" and definitely enjoy some good laughs when our competitive sides come out. Dutch Blitz is by far my favorite.... and that's probably because I always win! It's fast, energetic and super fun and if you need a new game recommendation - this is it!

Here's a little background -
Dutch Blitz was the brainchild of Werner Ernst George Muller, a German immigrant and optometrist who thought the game might help his children more easily learn about colors and numbers. We can’t tell you whether or not Dutch Blitz accomplished that goal. All we know is that, somewhere along the line, Muller’s game captured the imaginations of gamers throughout Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. It’s kind of like solitaire. But with multiple players. And a lot more speed. And color. And fun. Dutch Blitz demands players think fast and act fast. It also demands that they keep an eye on their competition. That’s why we think Dutch Blitz is most perfect party card game ever invented. We’re pretty sure some of our fans would agree.

Last night my brother and I joined my parents at their house for dinner and a good 'ole friendly re-match of one of our favorite games. Well, maybe not so "friendly" as we're extremely competitive, but I sure did take the cake. Winning by a land slide, I'll now get to rub in my score until the next game night!

October Trees

One of the best features of living in Kansas is the beautiful colors of the fall. Anywhere you drive, you can see the bright oranges, yellows, reds and browns blanketing the skyline as well as the ground.

We have a few bright colored trees in our yard, but our baby October Glory Red Maple that we had planted a few years back is definitely my favorite. We picked that tree out for it's rapid growth and bright, vibrant fall colors and it definitely has followed through for us!

With the sun out this weekend, I was able to snap a great pic of it!

Halloween Treats Please!

Guess who deserved a BUNCH of Halloween treats after allowing mom to stuff them into their costumes?

Bailey the Pirate and Lacy the Lizard!

Halloween Costume Contest

I'm very fortunate to work for a company who lets their employees come up with and participate in so many fun events all year round. For Halloween this week we're holding a spirit week, haunted house, food days and much more! I decided to put together a little fun game for the department this year also. It entailed of people bringing in pictures from their youth dressed up in Halloween Costumes and having the rest of the department guess who the individual was.

Not realizing that some of the pictures were hard to tell even what gender it was, it ended up being a humorous time scoring the answer sheets! Luckily - only one co-worker thought that I was a boy in my picture.

See below for my childhood Halloween Costume!

2009 Girls Weekend

"Friends are the sunshine of life." - John Hay (1871)

This past weekend, I was so lucky to have two of my very best friends fly up and stay for the weekend! On top of that, we were able to eat, drink and laugh with other great friends. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for such a happy, fun-filled weekend with people I love. I feel very luck to have these wonderful friends who make me smile.

The funniest moment? We were enjoying some drinks at JP's Wine Bar and Barry Williams walked in and sat at the booth next to us. After a good hour of figuring out who had to do the "asking" for a picture, somehow I lost and had to do it. Fortunately, he was VERY friendly and didn't mind at all!


Here are just a few pics from the weekend -

New camera!

Our old digital camera pooped out so we were in definite need of a new one! We decided to just get something to get us by for a few years as we plan on purchasing a bigger, sweet camera for when we have children.

So, after researching digital cameras under $500, this one came up on almost every report. It's the Canon - PowerShot 12.1-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera. We've had about three Canon's and loved them all so we were definitely staying with that brand. This was a decent price and tiny so it's perfect for the pictures we take.

Stay tuned as hopefully we'll have something to take pictures of and post soon!

What Half Marathon?

So I decided to pull the trigger on Friday and head to the doctor. I had broken the fever days prior and the chills/body aches were completely gone. Overall, I felt much better, but my cough was sounding worse than ever and my ribs/lungs hurt constantly. The Half Marathon was Saturday morning and I just needed some professional reassurance that I could make it through the race despite some hacking. Or at least some fast-acting, heavy-duty drugs to numb my body for just over 2 hours!

The verdict = Bronchitis. (And actually a bad enough case that they x-rayed me for pneumonia and lung damage!)

When I asked my doc about running the next morning, she definitely gave me the stink eye with a face that said "do I need to check you into a mental hospital?". Needless to say, I was given four prescriptions and approval to pout all weekend. I had trained so hard and was going to knock of TONS of time from my score last year. I know there will be more races, it was just a small setback for something I was counting down the days for.

Sick as a Dog

Thank GOODNESS that Derek and I had nothing planned this weekend. I was completely overcome with a sickness on Friday night and am still fighting the darn thing. I'm really praying that I get well by Thursday or Friday latest. Saturday morning is the Half Marathon again and I have a new goal! I've been running really strong all year and it's so much easier to jog 6 or 8 miles than it was last year before the race.

Last year, I completed it in 2 hours and 29 minutes.
New goals:
Still sick goal = Under 2 hours 20 minutes
All healed goal = Under 2 hours 15 minutes

Fingers crossed that this sickness gets OUT of my body soon! My friends Nyquil, Sudafed, Mucinex and Naproxen are all helping me fight fight fight!

Oh yeah, sorry for no pictures from this weekend, but since we really didn't do much, we really didn't snap any pictures! Exciting news though - since our old camera died on us, we ordered a new camera that should be arriving this week.

Sweet Surprise

I absolutely love getting roses from my wonderful husband for "no reason at all" other than he just wants to send me something beautiful. I had an email first thing this morning from our receptionist saying I had a package. 9 times out of 10, it's newspapers that we run in from around the country, but this morning, I walked down to find these!

They are currently adorning my desk here at work and Derek might have to fend off some jealous girls here around the office. It was a perfect surprise for this extremely stressful time!!

Bone Lovers

I had all the bones and toys neatly put up yesterday and only 2 minutes later found this. Apparently our baby likes her bones scattered about instead of in their basket.

Is it basketball season yet?

I saw this video today on Betsy's blog and definitely had to post it on mine too. I LOVE that they put the "Any Given Sunday" words with the video! It's videos like this that just make my day and also make me SUPER pumped for basketball season. ESPECIALLY when we're going to be awesome this year! And yes.... I still get choked up at these videos along with mild goosebumps!



ROCK CHALK!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents! 37 years ago they were saying their vows and beginning their lives together. In this day and age where 50% of Americans get divorced, I'm so lucky that mine have chosen to live out their lives together. It's definitely something we hold as a high priority in our family and I'm glad I married someone whose parents taught them the same virtue as well!

Play Date

Our girls definitely like to take advantage of the nice weather that we're having by spending their time outside. Sometimes, they even get to have "play dates" with their cousin Tally (Derek's parents black lab).

Here's the 3 loungers chillaxing in the shade after chasing balls and playing for a while....

Bailey's New Toy

Bailey wanted to add to moms blogging, so this post is courtesy of Bailey herself.

On Sunday afternoon, I was playing in the yard with sissy when I spotted it. MY NEW TOY! Sissy and I immediately began to play together with it and we were in heaven! It was super fun because it squeaked just like my other toys and moved on its own. Mom must have already put the battery in for us and threw it out here when we weren’t looking. After we were playing for a bit, mom came out and said that we were going to get treats and go in the car, but I was too excited to care. Sissy went in, but I wanted to show mom how happy I was playing with my new toy and making it squeak. Then, all of the sudden, she ran down the stairs at me and wanted to play chase. I wasn’t going to let her have my new toy so I played along too! She definitely got really mad though and yelled at me to drop it with this fierce look in her eyes so I did because I’m a good girl. My new toy even squeaked for mommy when she picked it up! My Grandma called me into the house so that mommy could play with the toy too. I watched her though as she took my new toy outside of the yard and set it in a bush. This made me sad and I pouted all night. I don’t know why mommy would get me the best toy in the world and then take it away. Oh well… it was fun while it lasted!

In case you didn’t figure it out, click here to see what Bailey’s “new toy” was. Fun times.

Office Fun

Where I work, pranks pretty much happen often. It makes my job fun and it definitely makes for an enjoyable, relaxed atmosphere.

Exhibit A is our latest prank on another manager completed last Friday -
Yes, that would be a fort constructed by a few team members to encircle our co-workers desk. It even comes with a doorknocker, windows and a fireplace drawn inside.

This is why I love my job.

Apple Fritters Anyone?

I had been told by some friends from work that the best apple picking around is at Vaughn Orchard, in Weston Missouri. It's a little family orchard with tons for little kids to do and the best apple fritters around. We ventured down there this past weekend to enjoy some fresh country air and definitely was glad we made the trip. Although the apples on the trees were sparse, the apple fritters and apple cider slush were AMAZING!! It was a nice, relaxing getaway from the city and we did end up finding about 15-20 quality apples while there!

Sorry, it's so small that there isn't a website, but if you click here, you can find the address and phone number! And if you have a fear of bees, this might not be for you. This was apparently "bee heaven" because of the mass amounts of rotting apples on the ground!!

Birthday Burgers

Each year, for the girls birthdays, Bailey gets to indulge in a birthday cake from Land of Paws and Lacy gets a cheeseburger from McDonalds. Obviously we get enough for both girls to enjoy each birthday.

Well this past Saturday, our first born turned 7 years old! The technical age for a dog to be considered 'senior'. I think I'm definitely in denial about that, however, as this particular lab is going to live to be 35 years old. Since she is our snuggle-bug, she received a lot of loving this weekend and happy birthday paw rubs.

Then on to the annual burger-fest where she inhales an entire cheeseburger from McDonalds in 2 seconds. Bailey, on the other hand, likes to daintily savor every bite of hers.

Fab Lab Reunion

This post should have been up about 3 weeks ago, but I forgot my camera so I had to wait for others to email pictures out!

For Bailey's 2-year birthday, she met all her brothers and sisters at the Shawnee Mission Dog Park to celebrate! I'm not sure if I've ever posted, but Bailey and her 7 brothers and 1 sister were left on the plaza in a box overnight to be rescued by the KC Humane Society. The families of this liter all stay in touch and send pictures/updates once and a while. It's definitely fun to hear how the other "fab labs" are doing and what they have been up to. I think all but one of the pups showed up to enjoy in the reunion and wonderful cake that another mother provided!

I have to brag on my little angel though as she was the only one who swam! Some of her brothers would let their toes get wet, but some wouldn't even come within feet of the water! The picture on the right (below) is most of her brothers and sisters. You can see that she definitely is the smallest out of the liter!