Happy April 24th!

Kill me now...

Blowing Money

So on Monday night Shawn and I decided to have a costly Family away from Home Evening. I have wanted to try the Melting Pot for years basically and I've been talking about it a lot lately. Shawn obliged. I forgot to take pictures of any of the courses so below you can see our empty dessert plate which once contained cheesecake, strawberries, bananas, pound cake, brownies, marshmallows, rice crispy treats etc...which we dipped in chocolate peanut butter bliss.
Over all we really enjoyed our experience for what it was, a change from the norm and good food. I'm not sure we'll do it again, it really was quite pricey. I am eager to try it at home though, after eating there I'm confident that I can fondue.

Our Kitchen

As some of you may know, I moved into Shawn's house upon 4 men moving out. Needless to say, there was some serious de-bachelor-padding to be done. Here are some pictures of our kitchen, right now it's my favorite room in the house, I just love it. I'm not sure the pictures do it great justice but it's still fun.

The table and chairs I bought at a yard sale and stripped and stained ebony and reupholstered the seats in toile (about 2 years ago when I first dreamed of a black and white kitchen).

The cabinets were a boring light wood stain so we painted them "toasted poppy seed."


I got the hutch at work for a killer deal, same with the street lamps (and yes I realize they were made for the outdoors but I like them inside ok?!?).

The pictures on the wall I bought in Paris with Amber and framed them...the whole kitchen has a sort of Frenchy feel with the lamps and the toile seats and the French advertisements and the rooster toile-y canisters and pitcher/bowl combo. Not to mention the salt and pepper shakers are from Paris too, in black and white I might add.

I just really like it ok?

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...or not.

I've waited and waited hoping that soon I'd adjust to my new 'do and post a picture with pride. That moment has not come so here are a few pictures I post without pride. Shawn was the photographer (the mirror shot is his artistic voice) and even he said the pictures kept coming out weird because it would look normal and then he'd click and the image it brought back wasn't really normal. (Of course you can tell by my extended arm in the last one that I took that one but I was just trying to get in one good shot...not so much)

I don't love it. It's not a bad cut, she didn't do a bad job, I just can't get used to it. It doesn't feel like me. Oh well...if only I had an excuse to take pre-natal vitamins. HA!

Wherefore Art Thou Warmth?

Today is April 4th. It is my niece Aubree's 8th birthday. It is usually a sunny, warm good time. Usually. The daffodils should be lush, the tulips should be popping and the trees should be beginning to burst with their allergens. Should be.

It is unseasonably chilly for this time of year and all that is springtime and cheerful is delayed. A glimpse at the 10 day forecast gives us one, just one day in the 60's. Can you even count 60 as "in the 60's"? Who knows.

I'm posting this picture because it's last July 26th. It was my birthday. I was tan. The warm sun is reflecting off of my back, my tan back. I was basking in the hot sun, in a bathing suit drinking diet coke with Shawn (of course, he was drinking lemonade but you get the point). So many of my favorite things in just one photograph. Indeed a thousand words are said but I'll spare you me actually saying them.

I'll end with a brilliant quote from my mother, "I hate winter."

Paris, Versailles, Verona, and Venice

Over Thanksgiving 2007 my sister Amber and I went on a European holiday. It was really awesome. I had never been outside of the country before except for to Mexico and Canada and both of those were just over the border. I know it's old news but I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures since back then I didn't have a blog.

This is a view from inside the Louvre
This is from inside Notre Dame...You see that tower from everywhere I tell you.
Notre Dame from the outside.
The Eiffel Tower with a bit of a Carousel and the Moon! Could it be a more Parisian image?
Amber and I took a million pictures here, it is at Versailles on the million acres. This was part of Marie Antoinette's village and it was like the opening scenes of Beauty and the Beast!

This is taken on top of the Arc de Triomphe. I love Sacre Coeur in the back.
This is Amber after we climbed a million steps to the top of Sacre Coeur. On the way down Amber got a hand full of bird crap from the rail.
This is a beautiful street in Verona (taken from on top of the 2nd largest Colossium type stadium in Italy), we ate under one of those green shades where, once again Amber had a run in with the birds. Her coat fell in bird crap.
I'm taking a picture from the window in our shower as Amber sticks her head out of the other window in our Venice hotel.

Is this not the epitome of what you'd think Venice is? Laundry hanging across the buildings? I love it.

On the last day of our trip Amber and I just wandered the streets of Venice aimlessly. It was so relaxing and beautiful it might have been my favorite day. This picture is from that day and I love it. I love the pealing, chipping building, I love the plants in the windows, I love Venice.

Well, these are just a FEW of the hundreds of pictures I took...not to mention the ones that Amber took. Some say that pictures are the best souvenir, which I'm pretty sure Amber and I agree with, but just so we didn't have any regrets we made sure to buy PLENTY of souvenirs as well.

The Weekend, Easter and Otherwise

This was a kind of crazy weekend for a few reasons. Shawn had two friends come in from out of town to stay with us, I had to work on Saturday at an Easter event with 4,000 people, many of them were cranky, Shawn and I both had to speak in church and Shawn's sister Amy and my brother Joel and their families came over for Easter dinner and of course, the Easter Bunny came and hid eggs in the yard while they were distracted playing video games in the basement. Top it all off with the fact that I had to take Shawn to the airport for a work trip this morning and yeah, I'd say it was kind of crazy.

This picture is of Shawn's friend "Worm" and me. We went to the batting cages on Friday at Boondocks. The one below is Worm and Shawn. After the batting cages we went Go-Karting. I don't think Shawn even knows that I took that picture, it was a lucky shot because I just held the camera up behind me, the 16 year old running the show had already buckled me in.

And then a bunch of Shawn's friends and I tried to pick a movie. I tried to tell Shawn he could just go play with his friends and I'd stay home but he wanted me to go. The problem was trying to find a movie we could all agree on. Who knew none of them would want to see Penelope???

Sucks being the only girl. As it turned out anyway they picked Shutter which I wouldn't see because the older I get the more I can't handle the horror genre. Weird right? But I seriously can't sleep, I freak out. It's just not worth it. Horton Hears a Who was playing at the same time so I went by myself while they went to Shutter.

On Saturday I worked and it wasn't all that fun. I got locked in a trolley by myself for 1/2 hour. Fun for me. Then I went home and worked on my talk, Shawn and I got groceries and Easter supplies for the next day. After that we went bowling with a bunch of Shawn's friends where I somehow bowled the ball into the side of my own knee. OUCH!!! It still hurts. But I think it's such a deep bruise you can barely see the black and blue. About two frames later I dropped the ball behind me as I swung/swinnged whatever it is. What the heck? It felt like I was living the bowling scene in a terribly predictable movie.

On Sunday we both spoke. It went well, I'm pretty sure. Do people tell you you did a good job just to be nice? Who knows. I spoke on the actual word Resurrection and what it means for us. Shawn spoke more on the resurrected Christ so it was pretty nice that we didn't really over lap. Everyone came up for dinner, Kim made mashed potatoes and deviled eggs (which I can't wait to get home and eat more of), Amy made cupcakes and I made ham, corn, rolls and a salad. There was PLENTY of food. I think I made Joel take home 3 pounds of ham. Literally. I guess I'm just not sure how to cook for that many people.

I totally forgot to take pictures of the Easter Egg Hunt. Sad. But the kids really did have a good time. There were gummy "Easter Bunny Teeth" in some of the eggs and Courtney stuck them in and it was pretty hilarious. Easton was really funny while he was hunting. I held him up so he could snag a bag of sour watermelons from the branch of a tree and he said through laughter, "oh that Easter Bunny, I never thought he would put that candy up there!" in a very sing-songy voice. Joel and I thought it was pretty funny.

So that's that. It was a fun weekend. Hope I didn't bore you with the details. Now Shawn's gone until Thursday so if anyone wants to play let me know. Although hardly anyone who reads this lives near me.