I'm Back!

I took a very long hiatus because my next post was going to be a painful one. We had our dog Willie put to sleep about a month and a half ago. He was aggressive the whole 4 years that we had him, but lately he had been getting worse - not only was he biting adults, but now he was biting other dogs and snapping at kids. Jason & I decided (after about 4 years of consideration) that we needed to put humans before our dog. We would never have been able to forgive ourselves if he had seriously hurt someone. So, we did the hardest thing we've ever had to do in our lives and took him to the vet to be put to sleep. He is now resting peacefully at Jason's parents' farm next to their dog, Harley.

We miss him, and Maggie (our other dog) took it really hard - she didn't eat for 2 weeks - but we know it was the right thing to do.

I have a lot more updates, so stay tuned!

Rebecca's Wedding

I finally got my hands on some pictures from Rebecca's wedding. Flash photography was not allowed in the church, and as I previously mentioned I didn't get to go to the reception, so.... I wanted to share pics of the beautiful bride and her new husband:

The reception was at the Old Post Office in downtown St. Louis - I've never been there, but it looks really cool in this picture!

Camping

We got lots of cool camping gear for wedding & shower gifts that we had yet to use - that is, until this past weekend. We went to Cuivre River State Park in Troy, MO and camped for the weekend. It was a lot of fun. The ladies took a 4-mile hike on Saturday, and it was Maggie's first hike ever - fun times! Turns out I didn't take many good pictures, so I have to borrow a few from Alyssa (thanks!!).


Greg & Melissa's fancy tent that fits the bed of their truck:

Mid-hike break:

Shea & Steve:

The pooped puppies:

Listening to the painful MU game:

Kuehler roasting smokies:

Dave and his food tent:

Weddings & Other Stuff

We had two weddings yesterday - Rebecca & Paul and Darrin & Chrissy. I went to Rebecca's ceremony in Clayton at 4:30 then rushed to St. Charles to try to make it to Darrin & Chrissy's wedding at 5:30, where Jason was a groomsman. I got there just as the ceremony was letting out, but was there just in time for the reception. One of the groomsmen's gifts was tuxedo t-shirts, so within about 45 minutes of the reception starting, they were all donning them. As I mentioned on my last post, we had some house guests last weekend. Jason's friend Leslie, who lives in Texas, and her husband Micah and son Drake came and stayed with us for the weekend. We had a great time hanging out with them and Drake is a doll! We used our patio and our fire pit for the first time - very exciting!!
In other news, Jason and I had our 2nd anniversary on September 23rd. We haven't gotten to celebrate yet - hopefully one of these days - but Jason did get me two dozen beautiful roses. If he keeps this trend up, our anniversaries are going to be expensive when we get into the 10s and 20s - that's a lot of roses. Also, I ordered a monogram a few months ago at Melissa's Uppercase Living party. I finally got it put on a canvas and hung on the wall. I like it a lot.

Back from Hiatus

Well, I'm back again from another blog hiatus. Unfortunately, there really isn't a lot to update. Jason and I are both crazy busy right now - me with year-end at work (loooong hours) and Jason with his two jobs - computers by day, lawn care by night. We basically see each other on Monday nights and the weekends. Phew! Luckily, the busy times for both of us will be over in a few months.

We had a very busy weekend - Friday night was my friend Rebecca's wedding shower, Saturday we went to Six Flags, Saturday night was my friend Chrissy's bachelorette party, Sunday morning was the Walk for PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease, which two of my coworkers have), and Sunday afternoon the neighbors came over to watch football. Phew! Busy, busy!

Jason broke down this year and bought the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV. It's crazy expensive, but it's pretty cool. You get to watch every football game and there's a channel that shows all the games at once on a split screen. During the noon games, that's 8 games at once! There's also a channel called Red Zone Network (or something like that) that switches to whatever game has something exciting happening. That's pretty cool too. Looks like we won't be leaving the house on a Sunday until about February!

This weekend we have some friends coming to stay with us. We don't have a lot planned - we're going to mostly play it by ear, but it should be a good time.

Here are some pictures of our niece Paige and her friend Elanna at Six Flags Saturday:

Another Baby Girl!

My friend Lisa had her baby Tuesday morning. Meet Ella Ann:

She's a doll! In a few months, we'll have to get Lily and Ella together for a play date! Fun times!

Go Tigers!

The annual Mizzou-Illinois football showdown was Saturday and we were lucky enough to have really great seats. We were in the 8th row, right by Mizzou's band. It was so fun!! The game was great - MU was on a roll until the 3rd and 4th quarters when it looked like the Illini may have a chance to catch up. No worries, we ended up winning 52-42. Fun times! Hopefully it's a sign of how my alma mater's season will go - it will be a fun one to watch!

Mia Time

I took off Thursday and Friday to help Cyndi out with Mia and Lily while Todd was working. I spent some quality Mia time, and we had a lot of fun. Friday morning I took her to Monkey Joe's which is a cool place for kids that is just full of bouncy castle stuff - lots of slides and tons of stuff to climb on. She was in heaven! I was impressed by her climbing skills and her adventurousness and she only got stuck twice (I had to climb in and rescue her). I definitely recommend this place for St. Louis folks with kids. They had a wide range - there were a couple that were made for kids under 3 and a couple that were huge for bigger kids and lots of in between ones.

http://www.monkeyjoes.com/walkinplay63366.aspx

I did learn that hanging out with a 2 1/2 year old is exhausting!!

Some pictures of Mia & Lily:

Catch Up

So much has happened since my last post! First and foremost, our new niece was born! Lily Grace arrived on Thursday, August 14th and 8:05am. She was 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long. She required oxygen as a special precaution for the first night, so she had to hang out in the NICU. By Friday afternoon, all was well and we all got to hold her!

Two of the friends I grew up with also had babies this week - Angie's daughter Amelia Reese was born on Wednesday, August 13th and Lindsay's daughter Samantha Paige was born on Sunday, August 17th. Babies, babies everywhere!

Also since my last post I got a promotion. I'm very excited, but it's also going to be a challenge.

My coworkers and I volunteered at Habitat for Humanity last Wednesday. It was a lot of work, but we left there feeling like we helped out. Lots of heavy lifting!

I went to Dallas for a couple days for training and just got back late last night. We got to go to a Texas Rangers game, so that was kind of cool. I think that brings my ballpark count up to a measly 5 stadiums.

Phew - I think that about sums it up. I'll end with a cute picture of Mia and Uncle JJ - I watched her while her mommy was in the hospital and we met Jason for lunch.

No More Gate!

We can finally use our back door! There was about a 2 foot drop-off from our back door, so all this time we've had an ugly wooden gate blocking the doorway. Nevermore! Yesterday, Jason built steps out of the remaining stones from the wall, and also finished cutting the stones for the steps leading to the yard. Yay!!

We also had a dump truck full of dirt delivered yesterday, so I shoveled for 5.5 hours! Phew, I'm sore! I filled all of the landscaping beds, but I still need to add more today. We're going to use the remaining dirt to put all over the back yard, where the grass is not good. I guess he's going to re-seed and basically start over and try to get the grass looking as good as the front and side yards. It's going to be a fun day, we have a LOT of dirt to move!

My Dad Retired!!

My dad retired Thursday after 35 years of working for the same company. Isn't that amazing? That just doesn't happen any more (the one company thing, I mean). His work had a nice party for him Thursday evening, and we had a huge party with family and friends on Saturday. Despite the almost 90 degree temperatures, I think everyone had a great time.

These are pictures from his work party - we found the exact same tie he was wearing in the picture and hung it up: My dad has been saying for years, "when I retire, I'm never wearing a tie again." Therefore it was only fitting for us to have a tie-themed party. The invitations had ties on them, we decorated with ties and many of guests showed up wearing ties (as a joke, of course). My dad's favorite part, though, was having each guest at the party cut a tie in half! He was adamant - you weren't allowed to leave unless you cut a tie. Funny stuff.

Then & now:

Throwing all the cut ties in the air!

I wish I was on the verge of retirement. Guess I have 28 1/2 more years of work to go. And I'm already on my 3rd job, so I guess I won't be accomplishing the 35 years at one place thing. Ah well...

More pics from the party:

(notice the ties hanging in the background):