Christmas Day

Next year we just get her bubble wrap!!

Bob, Marlin, Alex and Rosemary

Marlin and his reindeer.

Christmas Eve

We are reindeer. Alex made us do it.

Aubrey's first Christmas.

So cute, even with the dirty face.

Christmas Lights

Last night we drove around looking at lights. It's our tradition to make hot chocolate and pop popcorn to take with us. We started at Irvine Park and I'm not really sure where we went from there. But, Bob managed to get us home and found some very nicely decorated homes. Alex would quite often say "Jackpot".

Making hot chocolate and popcorn. Bobber thought it was cute we were wearing the same color sweaters.

Bobber's favorite arch.

My crazy daughter, wanted to walk through the path of arches. Apparently she didn't get the memo it was -5. I have no idea what the windchill was last night but, we went anyway. Bobber stayed by the car. Smart guy!!

There was a picnic table decorated also. Alex wanted to know if we would have lunch there. She's crazy!!!!!!!!

TGIF

It has been a long, long week.......
My doctor's appointment went very well. It's only torn cartilage. Only? Yes, I was thinking it was a torn tendon and that would have required surgery to repair. So, torn cartilage is amazing news. So good, I was jumping up and down. But only on one leg. LOL. So, it's on the mend.
Last night was our Brownie Troop's Christmas party. Boy was I tired after it was done. Bob wasn't in the mood to cook so we went to Pizza Del Re. Good food, crappy service. And then my Colts played last night. Stupid NFL network. I was able to watch a play by play on my phone. Gotta love Sprint. It was either that or sit in my car and listen to the NFL channel on the satelite radio. Tough choice; one updates faster but one is in the warm house. Hmmm...... It was all good until my phone battery died with 1:05 on the clock. What timing! LOL Oh well. The outcome was good. Go Colts!!!!
Oh, and Amy has a snow day today and should really update her blog!!!!

Oh drat!

So, I've made a point of this year having all of my shopping done by the day after Thanksgiving. Everything is almost wrapped. Cookies are made. Cards are sent out. Why? All so I could have everything done for when I hurt my knee. Apparently nothing else will be done at my house for a while. Aren't you glad I have all of those presents already?!?! I am waiting to see Dr. DeCeasar tomorrow. Hopefully, he will tell me it isn't that bad. Cross your fingers!!!!!

Making Cookies with Grandma

Mom, Alex and I made cookies last night after Bobber left for work. He was sad as he wanted to be our taster. Mom and Alex worked on the sugar cookies while I made Oreo Num Nums, Snow Caps, Peanut Butter Kisses, Fudge, and a Peanut Butter Sandwich cookie dipped in Chocolate. I realize letting Alex wear a black dress to work with flour was probably not the best idea. But, it was better than the swim suit she wanted to wear. I swear that girl is never cold.

Those darn candy canes. Mom said never again to those.

She really gets into her work.

Apparently, the flour has to cover the whole body! LOL

But, now you know where she gets it from. Hee hee hee.

Getting ready for the Holidays

Yesterday, we visited with Santa. We arrived at the mall at 9:30. I was extremely happy to only have to wait behind 4 families.

Sprout says "I'm the perfect gift." All nice and cozy under the tree.

Waiting to get in line at the mall.

In line waiting to see Santa.

With Santa. She has visited this Santa every year since she was 11 months old.

To warm your heart for the holidays

I have to brag for a minute about my beautiful, wonderful seven year old daughter. Last week, we received a letter from the school. Instead of exchanging gifts, the second grade class was going to donate the money we would have spent on books to send to a school in Galveston. I thought this was a very good idea. As who really needs another $2 toy?! So, Alex and I talked about why we should do this and although she was sad about not having a party, she understood. I asked her to think about how much of her money she wanted to donate and I would match her donation. Well, we kind of forgot about it until last night. There was a reminder letter sent home with today being the final day to send in donations. So, again we talked about it and I told her where her money was and asked her to go pick out what she wanted to give to the other second grade class. Now before I tell what she donated, please note my daughter earns $3 a week for her chores and hasn't really spent anything since we got back from Yellowstone in August. So, I expected her to get me 1 or 2 dollars. Imagine my surprise when she came back with $20. I asked her a couple of times if she was sure. And, she said "I want them to have books. I would want someone to give us books." I can't think about it without crying. I know she's had some issues in school but, this shows her heart and true thoughtfulness towards others. Bob and I are so proud of her. We are truly blessed to have her in our lives!!

Amy is a genius!!

After my anniversary blog, Amy mentioned a way to transfer the photos over here from our Website. And, low and behold!!! It worked!!!! They are somewhat blurry but, it still gives you an idea of some of our wedding pictures. Too Cool!!!!

Girl's Weekend

Two weeks 'til Girl's Weekend!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

I can't wait!!!!

So much to post.......

After being sick for the last two weeks. I am behind in my blog. Apologies to all. LOL I'll have to start from the last post, which was Halloween. Here goes.
Saturday evening I went out with Sara, Amy, and April. Alex went to Grandma Schultz's and Bobber was working some mandatory overtime. This is the second extra Saturday night he has had to work within the last 5 weeks. Let's just say he's not allowed to work any extras for a while. Back to our evening out. Amy and I were going to go shopping but, were distracted by beer at Ang's house. I love Ang and Rick's new bar area. Super cool. So, we met Sara at the new Milwaukee Burger Co. (former home of the Grizz) The decor was missing something. And, no it wasn't a bear butt stool. But, the food was fabulous. The apparently make their own hamburgers and buns. We couldn't help but notice the new lower cut shirts also. They never had those at Grizzlys. They also still have my favorite teas and seasoned sour cream. Overall, Milwaukee Burger Co beats New-Grizzly's hands down. April joined us after taking 2+ hours to eat Turkey. Either that or she was sleeping off the effects of the triptaphan (sp?). You be the judge. Next we went to the Hallow and played dance crazy to many songs and get busted taking pics while Jen is in the bathroom. Both were outstanding games and I hope to play again sometime.
Sunday was Mikayla's 3rd birthday. Happy Birthday to Mikayla! And, we welcome Owik to the furbaby family. I can't wait to see pics, Mik.
Monday, I don't remember anything other than working. So, couldn't have been that interesting.
Tuesday, hopefully everyone voted. What an amazing time we live in! Record voting, the first AA president and results before December.
Last night, Bob, Alex and I had the opportunity to have dinner with Sara, her new boy, Brian and Andrea at Dooley's. Bob and I have never eaten there. The Mushroom and Swiss (I have to get my fungus somewhere) was messy and tasty. We will def have to eat there again.
And that brings us up to today....
All week Amy and I have been working on our ticket options for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Today they have been requested. We will find out in December if we get our requested tickets. Fortunately, it's not on a first-come first-serve basis. And for the most part the events we chose were not in high demand. It will be interesting to see what we get back from them. It's soooooo exciting.

H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N 2008

By Alex:
Last night I went trick or treating with Kris, Mikayla, Mikki and Mommy. I had fun but when I went to Mrs. McCracken's house, she was not there. I was sad. But, I had fun though. It was the best night of Halloween. Later when we were trick or treating, Grandma, Sammer and Aubrey came out with us. I had fun with them. Mommy pulled me and Mikayla in the wagon. Sammer was in there, too. But, not when we started. Sammer ran with Mikayla to the houses. But, I beat them some times back to the wagon. Mommy pulled us all and ran from house to house. Everybody laughed a lot. Sometimes we had to cross the street and sometimes there was a big bump. Sammer's back hurt a lot. One time, Mommy ran and there was a big bump when we got to the road. Everybody laughed but Sammer did not laugh.
The End.

Alex and Mikayla as a Bride and Blue. I'll let you determine which is which. :)

Sprout as a Princess.

Kris, doesn't like pictures which is sad cuz she was looking very festive.

Mikki as herself, I mean a devil.

Jen as one of Alex's bridesmaids. My mom was the other.

Let's go Wildcats!!!!

Good luck to the La Farge/Kickapoo football team in tonight's playoff game!!!! I wish we could come see the game. And, I wish someone would post pictures of Blake getting the Gaterade bath!!! LOL

New Grizzly's review

As one knows, the former Grizzly's is near and dear to my heart. My friends and I spent many hours and way too much money there. So, it should come as no surprise that the new "Grizzly's Wood Fire Steaks and Grill" would not meet my expectations. Much of the food was the same. And that's a good thing. Seasoned sour cream, Grizzly's skins, the teas. All there and all good. Steak, Cheese, Mush still there and still pictured in the menu with the good hoagie. But still served on the Chibata bun and they don't serve sour dough bread to substitute. So, not good. The cheese fries lacked cheese. Umm hello! And, Bobber was only given 5 fries. The addition of cheese curds were very good.
But, the best part of Grizzly's always was the atmosphere. It's not there. While they have brought over the bear butts, the big wooden bear and many of the signs we liked, (including the polar bear pictures) I don't see how they will be able to provide a comparible atmosphere. I'm willing to give it another try but I don't need to run over there anytime soon.

A blast from the past.....

It's 9 years ago today that Bob and I got married. When we moved to Tennessee, Bob had created a website to help stay in touch with our families. I had typed up all the wedding weekend events and added to that website. Unfortunately, it wouldn't let me transfer the pictures. :( So, here is the recap of our wedding as written in 2000. Warning, it's long!!


Our Wedding
While, I'm sure I have a much different version of our wedding day than Bob does, here is how our weekend went.ThursdayA very eventful day for us. It started with moving all of the decorations and supplies to the church and Community Center. Bob tried on and picked up his tux, unknowing that my dress was hanging up in the same room. At Midnight we went to pick up our friends Thom and Jenny at the airport. It was great to see them. They flew in from Washington.
Friday
Busy, busy..... Keah, Bev, JR, & Tiffany arrived at my parent's house about 11am. Keah needed to practice with the piano at the church. Keah and I went to have my nails done and to pick up my dress and veil. We dropped of the dress and veil at the church and went back to Thom & Jenny's hotel. Jenny also needed to practice in the church. While at the hotel, we ran into my Uncle Donald from Florida. The rehearsal was scheduled for 7pm Friday night. I'm happy to report everyone was on time. Even Troy. :) The rehearsal lasted until about 8:30 and then we headed to Colby's Grill for a fabulous dinner buffet. During dinner Bob and I handed out gifts for everyone who helped us. We also gave everyone gag gifts. The gag gifts were a great hit. We had been working on them for a long, long time. We were glad to see everyone enjoyed them. After dinner, because of a scheduling problem with the Center, we went to decorate the church and hall. While the majority of our ceremony was formal decor, our reception had more of a fall harvest feel. During the week, I had packaged everything for each table into a separate bag. Even though I had given my layout to the center, we still had to rearrange tables. After the tables were set up properly, everything else went very quickly. Our centerpieces were made of fall leave runners, gourds, pumpkins, indian corn, and candles. Sprinkled on each table were confetti hearts in red and gold. While we were decorating, Troy set up his DJ equipment with the help of Alan. Around the DJ booth, we placed corn stalks and carved pumpkins. The carved pumpkins said "Bob & Jen", "10-16-99", and one had a heart. Marie and Randy did an outstanding job with them. (I wish we could have those carved pumpkins every year.) We also had corn stalks and uncarved pumpkins by the entrance to the Center. We didn't do many decorations in the church. The church we were married in was completed in January 1999. It's beautiful and we wanted to let the natural beauty be seen. The only thing we did was place pew bows of white toole and red roses down the middle aisle. We finished decorating just after midnight.Sara, Amy, and Denise had spent the night with me. Amy, Sara and I kept Denise up laughing and yelling across the apartment.
Saturday
The Big Day!!!!We woke up at 8am. Sara, Jenny, and Samantha had scheduled hair appointments at 9am.At 8:30 the doorbell rang, Bob had sent me Roses. (isn't he sweet.) It had been Amy's job to keep me at the apartment until they arrived. While the woman had their hair and make-up done, the men all met for breakfast at Country Kitchen. The girls then met at the church at 10:30 for any final touch-ups and to dress. My mom had forgotten Sam's slip and had to run back home. Rebecca brought us donuts, juice, and a perfect emergency kit. While we were getting ready, Denise had gone to May's Floral to pick up the Rose arrangement for the alter, to honor our deceased family members. At 11:30 our photographer, Tom Yarrington, arrived. He did a fabulous job. We can't thank him enough. Tom started with mine and the girls pictures. In the mean time, the men arrived at the church at 11:45. Their pictures were scheduled at 12:15. At 1pm we had scheduled a half an hour of pre-taped music to start. Everyone had quite the time of keeping me entertained when the music started. Periodically, I would yell out "Funny Story" and someone would have to tell me something to keep me from crying. I wanted to walk out and see what was going on when the prelude music started but, Denise and Rebecca wouldn't let me. :( Our Ceremony is basically a blurr to me. Bob escorted our mothers and or grandmothers down the aisle. After he escorted our mothers down, each of them went to light one of the tapers by our unity candle. My cousin, Keah, played the piano. My friend, Jenny, sang the mass parts and "The Our Father", Bob sang "I Do, Cherish You", and my dad wrote and sang a song with my mom entitled "Two Hearts". Bob's aunts Cheryl and Adelyne, and my aunt and uncle, Bev and Donald, read for us. My firend, Michelle, handed out programs before the ceremony. And, Mikki lit the candles at the alter for us. We have a wonderful picture of Mikki crying as I walked down the aisle. The ceremony lasted about an hour. Our receiving line was immediately following the ceremony. But, it was cut a tiny bit short due to the fact that we had to be out of the church by 3:30. (Saturday mass is a 4pm) We hurried to do the group pictures and the shots with just Bob and me. Since we hadn't seen each other before the ceremony, we had tons of pictures left to do. We left the church shortly after 3:30 to go the Rod 'n Gun park. The park where Bob proposed to me. Bob and I rode with Glenn and Adelyne. The girls, driven by Amy, took my car. Troy and Mike rode together and brought beer down to the park. A much needed beer. The girls got a little lost but, made it ok. We were very blessed to have the sun come out during the day. Our photographer had wanted a cloudy day for pictures in the church. Rebecca came to the park with us to help with pictures. Denise stayed at the center to make sure everything was just right. They did a great job of fixing and picking up everything while we were taking pictures. After pictures, we went back to the church. Glenn and Adelyne went back to the hotel for a few minutes. And; Troy, Mike, Amy, Sara, Bob, and I went to a local Altoona bar. I always said I wanted to go bar hopping during my wedding day.When we arrived back at the Center, Tom had us cut the cake immediately. Our cake was perfect. The backdrop had ivy and colored fall leaves. The cake was marble with butter cream frosting. My favorite part was the fountain.Dinner was at 6pm. And, it was wonderful. We had chicken, ham, little red potatoes, and corn (for Sam, it's her favorite) We would only kiss during dinner if someone would sing a song to us. The song had to have the word "love" in it. Bob and I had spent a lot of time making cookies for each of the tables. I'm happy to say they were a hit. We also spent a lot of time personalizing things for our wedding. Our wedding party, parents, and friends were given decorated champaign glasses. ( I love my glue gun.) We decorated our guest book, cake topper, and cake knives. I would decorate anything just to use my hot glue gun again. :) After dinner, we raised our glasses for toasts from Troy, Jenny, Amy, my Dad, Bob and Myself. With the tables being cleared, the girls and I went out to the bathroom where a couple of Bob's younger cousins still had some songs to sing to me. They were so cute. I told them I would kiss Bob later for them.Troy played music for us during the dinner and things were in full swing shortly after 8. Our first dance was to Lonestar's "Amazed". The second dance was for all couples to Tim and Faith's "It's Your Love". Bob and his mom and my dad and I danced to Billy Dean's "If There Hadn't Been You". The grand march was at 10pm. I can't remember what song was playing. Thom and Jenny had to leave after the grand march. Jenny's parents, Jim and Carol, drove them back to Antigo where they were having Jenny's baby shower the next day. The bouquet toss looked like it was rigged. I wanted Mikki to get the bouquet. (She had unoffically gotten an engagement ring earlier in the day. Their day is October 6, 2001) Well, Mikki caught the bouquet and Bob's cousin Ricky caught the garter. We have great pictures of Mikki shoving Bob's cousin out of the way.The dance ended just after midnight. We had to take all of the gifts back to our apartment for the gift opening the next day. Amy and Denise loaded Amy's truck, while Sara took the corn stalks in her truck. With everything unloaded we said goodnight to everyone. Bob and I took a few minutes to talk about the day and open some cards. Despite all of our jokes about Bob passing out first, we were so exhausted, I fell asleep first. The week with only 4-5 hours of sleep a night finally caught up with me.
Sunday
Just when you think all of the excitement is over..............We woke up at 9am. It felt good to sleep in. I went over to my parents to pick up some things for my mom. My grandparents followed me back to our apartment. The gift opening was at 11:30. Bob and I were shocked at how many guests we had. We were also very blessed with how generous our families and friends were. I had decorated our apartment for Halloween and we used the carved pumpkins and corn stalks as decorations also. My mom and grandma had made tons of food including grandma's famous punch. They made barbecue and relish trays. I don't think food ever tasted so good. We had plenty of cake left over for dessert along with the brownies and Rice Crispy bars Sam and I had made. After the gift opening, Dad, Bob and Donald watched the Packer game while Mom, Cindy, and I went back to the center to clean up any remaining items. Mom and I let the balloons go but, I kept some for my scrap book which still isn't done. Cindy was a God send with cleaning and wrapping up the cake. We couldn't have done it without her. When the game was done, we sat with Don and Cindy for awhile to talk. It was nice spending some time with them. After Don and Cindy left, Bob and I finished packing for our Honeymoon in Las Vegas (kind of sounds like a movie doesn't it? and then went to sleep.

Beware - Rant ahead!!!!

So, today I ran home for lunch. First, I found my Tastefully Simple was already there from the party on Saturday. That's what I call speedy service!! But, that's where the fun ends. Upon getting the mail, I notice a letter from a lady who lives a block down from me, closer to the airport. Afraid that it was a letter similar to one the neighbor lady received about her grass, I opened it right away. Fortunately, it wasn't one of those letters. Unfortunately, it was a solicitation for a donation. I believe for the cancer society. Now, before I begin my rant of the day, please note, it is not because of where the donation is to. My issue is, I have never met this person. I have no idea who Mary is. I don't wander that way when I'm walking. Alex has never gone trick-or-treating there or sold GS cookies. And, as most of you know, I have no problem donating to or buying fund-raising items for my friends, family or co-workers. I usually enjoy it. But, how did this person get my name and address? Again, I DON'T KNOW THIS PERSON!!!!! I don't even mind if our neighbors right next to us, send me literature.
But in this world where everyone - YMCA, school, preschools, daycares, Boy scouts, Girl Scouts, politicians, misc solicitors - are looking for donations or fund raisers, why bother someone you don't know?!?!
UGH!! Ok, I'm done now. And, off to go look at the fund raiser we got from the school last night. LOL

Move over Tom Brady

Cuz Alex just completed the four-pete. That's right. Alex won her fourth overall trophy at the Eau Claire regionals this past weekend. 21 kids participated including Mikayla and Aubrey.
She also took home trophies for her age division and headshot. I haven't counted her total trophies yet but, we are now up to 5 crowns. Woo hoo!

Product Shots?

Photo Shoot

Some of my favorite pictures of the afternoon. We were attempting to get a product shot and a snap shot for Saturday's Pageant. Overall, she is too cute!!!

Farewell to Grizzly's