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February 23 Baby Shower!!I think the Windows Live bug finally caught up to me too, I haven't been able to sign in most of the week!! It keeps dying when it tries to open my space or anyone else's space. Anyway, Punch - Mom, you had a recipe, right? I'll check with Chasity too, shannon. cut the yarn to go around Ashley's belly. Did Mom and Ashley go through the stuff that's been given to her to see what they need? This should be done soon, we all need to make our purchases!! Did you get a list from Tammi? yes? How many got sent? And how many have replied? We can keep running tallies here, I'll update the post whenever you tell me new info. February 12 Life latelyI gotta say, life lately hasn't been terribly exciting, or inspiring. Work has kinda been bringing me down since my last exam. I put some stuff off, so I was rushing to get a couple big projects done before early December, then a few smaller things to keep me busy until Christmas. Well, little did I know, things would BLOW UP. I became the trainer for the new analyst, which means a ton of extra time to get stuff done for a while until I get him to a place where he can actually help me. We're getting there. But then other things happened, and several states (many of which happened to be mine) were told they needed to come up with some ideas to become more competitive. Well, 2 states that I thought I already had done, yeah, they decided to change a bunch of stuff, several times, I'd redo my proposals, they'd change thier minds, I'd redo. I dreaded going in to work for a couple of weeks there. I couldn't give the trainee the attention he deserved. I couldn't get anything DONE, cause when I thought it was done, they wanted to change it. grrrr. But, last week decisions started being made, I could get stuff done for real. I can handle it now, busy, but not quite so overwhelmed.
Now I just need to get stuff done around here. I want to get our taxes filed, paint Shannon and Justin's bedroom and bathroom, get caught up on studying, do some cleaning. Maybe scrap a little, knit a little, read a little, exercise more than a little :)
We had our first official 'party' in our new house on the eve before new year's eve. Had about a dozen people over, it was so nice to have plenty of room for everyone, and plenty of kitchen space to serve our inordinate amounts of food. We had cheese fondue with 5 types of bread, chocolate fondue with strawberries, pineapple, pears, bananas, marshmallows, coconut marshmallows, pretzels, grahm crackers. We made taco dip, and Ashley's cheese ball with crackers, we had cookies, chocolates. Tortilla rolls. Yeah we went way over the top. But it was soo much fun!!! I can't wait to have a housewarming party and have all my family up! We probably won't go quite so far over the top, but plenty of yummies! And it'll be warm, so we'll be able to use the backyard to it's full potential.
Anyway, Heroes is on, so I gotsta go for now. I'll try to update a bit more regularly.. December 16 Interesting Christmas wordsI was helping Chasity come up with a word of the day for our Toastmasters meeting today (Christmas themed) and came across a word that made me want to do some research a-la-Shannon. The word I came across was wassail. The definition (thanks to Microsoft Bookshelf): 2. A festivity characterized by much drinking. Which to me sounded very medieval. I was actually picturing in my head our dinner in Las Vegas at the Knights of the Roundtable thing. We all had to raise our glasses and "hurrah" every now and then. I guess technically we were wassailing. But the origin is indeed Middle English. Specifically, [Middle English, contraction of wæshæil, be healthy, from Old Norse ves heill : ves imperative sing. of vera, to be + heill, healthy.], as per Microsoft Bookshelf. So basically it means 'to sing of being healthy'. The drinking part… On Wikipedia, here's what I found: And they go on to talk about recipes and such (basically fruit juices simmered with mulling spices (cloves?) and possibly 'fortified' with some brandy or other such spirits. Maybe at our Christmas celebration this year we should wassail with some wassail (maybe even make a wassailing bowl) and sing this traditional carol the Gloucestershire Wassail dating back to the Middle Ages. Here's the first stanza: Wassail! wassail! all over the town,
September 14 New house pics!I got some pics up!!! everyone be proud of me!!! They aren't the best pics, I had 'help' from my friends 5 year old, so many pictures are from a 3 ft tall person's point of view!! Also hard to keep the focus with two people holding the camera!!! It was dark when we went over today, so no outside pictures, but I'll get some of those up soon. I'm going to take a few of the work we do too, pulling up the carpet, the various stages of install (we're not doing that part), painting (yes, we've decided to go ahead and paint, ugh), deck staining, etc... September 12 Bad News todayNo, it's not about me, and we're still set to get our house tomorrow (yay!). At work today I went to get water with Chasity and we decided to get a quick walk in before heading back to our desks for a break and just to chat. We just chatted about the new house and random stuff for a while, but then she asked if she had told me about her lump. She had, last week, told me about a lump her doctor found on her thyroid, and he did a biopsy on it. Well, she got her results at the end of last week. Turns out she's got cancer. My best friend. The good news is that it's got a 95% survival rate and she has none of the symptoms of it turning bad or anything. It's papylly... something or other to do with her thyroid. She's going to have the lump removed next week, then they'll do some tests to see if it's spread, and she'll have to have some sort of radiation treatment to kill any remaining thyroid cells, and she'll have to be on thyroid medication for the rest of her life. She's very upbeat about the whole thing, which I'm very glad about. I'm sure it helps that it's not a very aggressive form of cancer and there is very little chance that it has spread and all that. Even with all that, I'm not sure I could deal with it so well. Honestly, I've never had someone close to me have something like this. Uncle Gary has diabetes, but he's always lived far away and we dont' see him THAT often.
I've done the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society for the last two years, and I've always known how great a cause it is and all that, but I think this makes it that much more meaningful for me. Everyone please keep Chas in your prayers, that they get it all and that it hasn't spread, and let's hope her scar has faded by February (she's getting married!!). September 07 Next Wednesday...we'll be homeowners! Yeah, I know, that's all I've blogged about lately, but come on, a new house, how am I supposed to think about anything else? 5 more days, 5 more days, 5 more days. and then... a couple more weeks before we get to move... :( I hope the carpeting doesn't take tooooo long, I want to live in my new house! I'll give ya'll my new address (email) once we're official.
much love,
Kasi August 28 P.S.Oh, and it looks like we'll be coming home this weekend, apparently Eric's high school friend Keith is getting married this Saturday. So is there anything planned for Labor Day? Cause if there is... I'm in! nuttin'Nothing new going on here, I'm just posting to try to solve the mystery of the missing blog entries! (I went to my page and couldn't see the blog part, just the photos). Maybe a new entry will fix it! We're still just kind of waiting for Sept 15 to get here so we'll be new homeowners! We went and picked out carpet Friday (oh man is it gonna be EXPENSIVE!) and that's gonna take almost a week to install. So we're gonna have pest control come to the house on the 15th or 16th and bomb the hell out of it, just in case. Then clean over the weekend and next week as the carpet is being installed and hopefully move the following weekend! YAY! And we still haven't managed to sell our condo (I know, only like 3 weeks on the market...). We can make both payments, but man, just barely. I don't want to be 'just barely' right before the holiday season! I guess with renters that will pay the other mortgage, but such a hassle. Anyway, that's about it, that and studying hard again. I lost some time while house-hunting, but I'm almost caught up, at least in getting through the material. Still gotta learn it!! August 08 Check our our listingTake a look at our listing on CIFSBO (Central Illinois for Sale by Owner), and let us know if you think we should word anything differently, or change anything in the pictures, or if you think there is something cool about our condo that you've seen, or I've mentioned before that I didn't put in our ad. Or any other suggestions to make the ad more attractive. I already know we want to change the picture for the master bedroom, I think we can get one that shows it off better, it's much roomier than the picture shows. Plus it looks like I need to turn the TV off when I take the picture. :) http://www.fsbolocal.com/webapp/viewPropertyAd.htm?id=8759
We got our first call about it tonight, so I'm hoping that means our home is attractive to buyers and either they will come see it and want it, or more people will call. I'm going to put an ad in my company's employee newsletter thing too, since it's free. I really hope this place sells soon, I've loved it as our home for the past 4 1/2 years, but I'm ready to move on. Hopefully this place will bring someone else joy and good memories too. And we won't have to pay 2 mortgages. And we'll be able to afford the new carpet in our new place. Yeah, that would be good. :) August 04 We're buying a house!!!Well, we found the one, made our offer, negotiated, and now we're going to own a house on September 15! The link below will take you to the listing, check it out! But look soon, cause they'll be taking the listing down soon!
We'll be putting in all new carpet (except the hardwood and tile parts), and getting new appliances. Hopefully fencing in the yard so Sully can run around in it. Now just cross your fingers that this condo sells soon! July 29 Life as of lateYes, yes, I'm bad at this blogging thing, but there are just so many things to DO now that it's summer!! We spend many of our evenings out at State Farm Park, playing volleyball, softball, or ultimate frisbee. After vacation, we spent a good 2-3 weeks working on the kitchen (new paint and kitchen island/cart thing) and trim for the kitchen, half bath, and basement family room. The trim took so much longer than I expected, probably mostly because we painted it all white, and we're both sort of perfectionists when it comes to things like that.
But most excitingly, we've been house hunting. We've finally decided that we're through with sharing walls with others, done with condo issues, we need a garage for our cars, a yard for Sully, and extra bedroom or two, and just plain more room!! There are soooo many houses to choose from around here, it's very overwhelming. But we want to get one that we're going to be happy with for 7-10 years (or so). We hope to have saved up enough to build our dream house after that! We want a timber frame home just outside of town. check out this website to see http://www.timberframehomes.com/, they really are amazing, and supposed to be only about 20% higher in price than a traditionally built home. But for now, just a home with more square footage and all that jazz, in town, closer to friends, shorter drive to work, workshop for Eric, gosh, we don't ask for much, do we? July 09 Germany picsOK, I put up my Germany pics, beware, there are a lot of them. It may take some time for them to load and all that. No labels right now, hopefully I'll get them there in the future. If the pic is blurry, there's a good chance that Eric took it, he apparently doesn't believe in stopping to hold the camera steady. Just snaps as he walks by. He won't be in charge of the camera any more. :) June 06 Ready to travelFinally home from work, don't have to go back for 2 whole weeks!! This is my longest vacation yet! Well, I did take about 2 weeks when Eric was home on leave, and a week and a half for the wedding/honeymoon. We had a 4 day week last week, I worked 2 days this week, nothing next week, 3 days the week after, then 3 days the week after that too (seminar in Chicago on Mon and Tues). June is like the month of hardly any work!! Only 10 days total! weird
But we're all packed up, and we're leaving for Nokomis in a couple of hours. Then tomorrow it's down to St. Louis and on to Germany and Shannon!!
(I so hope we don't forget anything!!) May 25 SICKI cannot go to school today, said little Peggy Ann McKay. I have the measles and the mumps, a gash, a rash, and purple bumps. My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I'm going blind in my right eye. My tonsils are as big as rocks, I've counted sixteen chicken pox. And there's one more that's seventeen, and don't you think my face looks green? My leg is cut, my eyes are blue, it might be instamatic flu. I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke, I'm sure that my left leg is broke. My hip hurts when I move my chin, my belly button's caving in. My back is wrenched my ankle's sprained, my 'pendix pains each time it rains. My nose is cold, my toes are numb, I have a sliver in my thumb. My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, I hardley whisper when I speak. My tongue is filling up my mouth, I think my hair is falling out. My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight, my temperature is one-oh-eight. My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear, there is a hole inside my ear. I have a hangnail and my heart is... what? what's that you say? You say today is.. Saturday? G-bye, I'm going out to play! -- Shel Silverstein
That about sums up how I've felt the past couple of days. I left work early on Wednesday, thought my head might just up and leave my body it felt so disconnected. I came home around noon, picked up some Cold-Ease drops (heard of them, they have zinc, they're supposed to help speed a cold along to get rid of it faster, or prevent it if you take them early enough), and I walked in the door, scared the crap out of Eric who was just getting out of the shower and didn't hear me come in, then I changed out of my work clothes and went to bed. I slept through the big storm, didn't get up until Eric came upstairs around 6 and told me that Herman was outside (president of our condo assoc.) and needed to talk to me about a tree. huh? Apparently, this mighty storm that I slept through uprooted one of the trees that line the back of our parking lot, and it was leaning on our fence, and neightbors tree, and if the wind blew anymore, could very well blow the tree into this old guys house. Yeah, it's a problem, so we (and by we, I mean Herman) got someone out there to take care of it, I had to write a check (I'm the treasurer). So I stayed up to watch the "Lost" finale. Anyone else follow that show? Man, it was a good one!! So many questions for next season though!! But I went back to sleep right after that was over, got up this morning around 6, once I started getting ready I decided that it just wasn't happening, so I stayed up long enough for someone to be in at work and called it. Of course my supervisor was late for once, so I ended up leaving a message anyway. But again, I went right back to sleep, stayed that way until about 10. Folded some clothes, got dressed and went in to work. Still not feeling well, but I just felt like a bum sleeping all day, and if i wasn't sleeping, then I should be at work. Our poor intern had to deal with Jim all day. That's another story in itself, but he's so absent minded that she almost didn't get away from him in time to catch lunch in the cafeteria. I'm going to have to make sure that doesn't happen again. He's her supervisor, and I'm her work coordinator or 'coach' as they've termed it. To make it even more confuddled, she's also got a mentor, and sits near NONE of us! oh well, I'll make it work!! That's my job!!
At any rate, I'm super glad that I only have a half day tomorrow. I can come home and take a nap, and then maybe have enough energy to get a little done around here. The kitchen is a mess (Eric and Mike attempted to cook last night, we had soggy cauliflower, cheese sauce (aka. glop) and brats. The cauliflower at least tasted OK, I just couldn't stomach a brat last night. I did manage to eat some Arby's tonight, but that's pretty much it other than NyQuil, DayQuil and Cold-Ease drops for the last couple days. Oh well, my stomach could use a little shrinking. :) (gotta find a positive side to being sick, right?) :) May 17 Trading SpacesI WISH my title meant that Eric and I were going to be on Trading Spaces, but alas, no such luck! (I need decorating help, at least help following through!) At any rate, Eric and I got this brilliant idea to switch our office and our bedroom. I should clarify, Eric got the brilliant idea and talked me into it. At 3PM on Sunday. It's Wednesday and there's still stuff that needs to get switched and organized and purged. Such a headache!! BUT, I like it. Our bedroom is now the smaller room, but that's OK, cause what did we need extra room for? It's not like we hand out in the bedroom, other than sleeping in and, well, ya know. But that's all on the bed, and there's plenty of room on a king-size! The awesome part is that now I'm not all cramped up when I'm at my computer desk, and I was able to rearrange my scrapbooking area so that everything is now in easy reach, and I can turn my chair without bumping my desk or my table or anything, and Eric can play his guitar and not have to move everytime I want into our out of my area of the office. He was also able to bring his BIG speakers up from the basement and hook them up to his computer and guitar amp and now he's happy cause he can be all loud!
Since this was such a huge undertaking (both our desks basically had to be disassembled and moved and reassembled, it was a 3 person job!), we were without internet for a while, and I was so afraid that something big woudl happen while I couldn't be in touch! When Eric tried to hook up the cable in here, he accidentally mixed up two cords, so the internet wouldn't work. He even called Insight and they sent someone out to tell him that. heehee, at least we're up and running now. And things are MOSTLY put away. We still have to switch the closets so our clothes are in our bedroom, hang some pictures, and just get all settled (I've been sleeping like crap!). I took some pictures of the mess in progress, I'll post when I have the after pictures too. But I didn't ever get any before pictures. OH well.
Anywhoo, I'm super tired now, feeling a little loopy :) I'll check back with ya'll later! May 06 Garage Sale, Relay for LifeI'm the co-captain of my Relay for Life team this year, and I was put in charge of the garage sale fundraiser we had today. I found out I was in charge on Monday! yikes! I had to get out there so early for me on a Saturday (8:00, ewww) and all through the week I had to recruit people to help me and collect donations of old junk from people in the department. I don't think the Relay advertised it very well, you'd think that with over 50 teams and 50 booths participating that there would be lots of people shopping, you know how they are when there is a town-wide or neighborhood garage sale. But it was very slow, way less people looking that I was hoping or expecting. We did manage to raise about $135 for our team, getting us that much closer to our $3,000 goal, but I was just hoping for more. Plus afterwards, we had to pack everything back up into my vehicle (I drove Eric's Trailblazer) and then I hauled all the leftovers over to Goodwill and there I had to unload it all myself. At least we finally got rid of Sully's kennel, he hated that thing anyway and we just don't have the room to keep it if he's not going to be using it. The other stuff was from other people on the team, so I didn't REALLY care that it just got shipped off, it's to a charity after all. But I was there all day, from about 8:30 until 3:30, then the forever that it took at Goodwill. Then I went to Sam's for a couple of things real quick, but I'm so tired that I didn't even feel like looking around really. I'm thinking about going to take a short nap.
Today is also National Scrapbook Day, and my favorite scrapbooking website, www.twopeasinabucket.com is having an all day online crop. I'd love to sit down and scrapbook the rest of the day away, and I might, after I take a nap. mmmm, sleep.... April 27 Exam is over, birthday is coming upI took my exam on Tuesday, and since then I've been pretty much trying to forget everything that I tried to cram into my head!! So I exaggerate, but seriously, I've been doing some pretty serious vegging! My big plan was to start running every single day after work, but both Tuesday and yesterday I got home and just felt like laying down, then my brain wouldn't stop so I didn't go to sleep until late. Today I finally took Sully out and we did a little over 3 miles and ya know what? It felt GOOD! I gotta remember that feeling when I'm feeling lazy and not wanting to put forth the effort to put my shoes on! Plus I need to get some new shoes and break them in before Germany! But it feels soooooo good to not have to study, for a while at least.
My birthday is on Saturday, this is the first year in a while that I'll actually be able to celebrate it ON the actual day. We're planning to go paintballing at this place about 15 miles outside of town. We're hoping that it doesn't rain, there was only a 10% chance, then 40% now I see about an 80% chance with winds up to 30 MPH. We may be postponing.... that's OK though! Eric got me a new watch for my birthday, I'll try to post some pictures, I just don't think they turned out well, the flash makes it just shiny. The face is pearly, it's a very pretty watch, I just have to take it in and get a couple links taken out so that it fits. :) He did good!
Hopefully I'll be getting my Ipod this weekend, that's gonna be pretty cool too! I have to fill it with tons of songs for the flight to and from Germany. That and just because! After that I'll be pretty darn happy for a while. Anyway, I'm going to try to get all caught up on my blogging, I believe I have a murder mystery to report on, and fun night out, and I'm sure I'll remember tons of other things that I MEANT to write about. Peace out for now! April 01 First reactionsI was going through some old emails, forwards and stuff that I don't usually read every time I open my email. I found this one from Keila, never seen one quite like it so I thought I'd post and try it out. Thanks Kiela!
Type your FIRST REACTION when you hear these 35 words:
1. I need some: time 2. Sex: where's Eric... :) 3. Relationships: I like close ones.. 4. Your Last Ex: can't even remember who... Joe? 5. Power: Amber's power went out the other night 6. Marijuana: bad 7. Crack: worse 8. Food: love it, but it makes me fat 9. The President: dummy 10. War: hate it! 11. Cars: I was just talking to a friend the other day about cars. She's going to get a new one this summer, she's kind of .... well... comes from a family with plenty of money and it shows. She wants a brand new car, nothing else will do. Oh and they're getting a new one simply because there is a rattle in her current car. Less than 4 years old, also brand new when she bought it. Whatever, I'm keeping mine until I have kids, or it dies. I love my convertible! 12. Gas Prices: unbeleiveably high 13. Halloween: haven't been able to celebrate for years because of my exam, but once I'm done (one more exam in that time period) I want to have a costume party, or go to one, either way! 14. Politics: yawn 15. Religion: eh, I don't generally like to talk religion, but I feel like I'm spiritual. 16. MySpace: msn spaces!! 17. Worst Fear: getting very badly hurt and having to live in pain for the rest of my life 18. Marriage: being married is comfortable 19. Fashion: I'm not much of a fashionista, I hate clothes shopping, but I like having nice clothes 20. Brunettes: not me 21. Blondes: I used to be more blonde, but I like my hair color 22: Work: hasnt' been fun lately. Should get better soon though, my exam will be over in less than a month 24: Football: Eric is my football star! 25. One night stands: not for me thanks 26: Pet Peeve: slow drivers, you don't have to speed, but geez, go the speed limit! 27: Pixie Stix: sugar high 28: Vanilla Ice: ice ice baby, dadada da da da da da dum. songs going through my head. Did you guys see him on that one reality show? he's kinda strange. 29: Porta Potties: avoid at all costs, smelly 30: High school: distant memory, it was fun, but I love my life now much more. 31: Pajamas: I could live in them! 32. Wood: hehe, dirty minds... 33. Surfers: like, totally dude. 34. Pictures: love 'em! Gotta learn to take better ones! 35. boyfriend/girlfriend: awww how sweet! March 23 Emma!I put pictures of Emma up!! I got to see her the friday before last, she was just 5 days old and absolutely adorable! Some babies (lots of babies actually) aren't terribly cute for a couple months after they are born. Our family seems to produce adorable babies, right from the start! Hopefully Eric and I will be so lucky (someday)!
She slept the whole time we were there (which wasn't all that long since Eric was hungry... wuss) Laurie tried waking her up by taking her onesie off, she apparently hates to be naked!! Is this common for babies? I've not been around a lot of tiny babies, but from what I remember of toddlers, they LOVE to be naked! But anyway, she was having none of it, I think her eyes fluttered open once for just a second, but she was determined to get her nap on. I'll see her awake plenty in the years to come, so I didn't mind. Too too cute. If anyone wants me to email them pictures, just let me know which ones (I left the numbers on all of them), I know Laurie wants some, and probably Shannon, probably Mom too. :) I promise I won't make you wait too long!
February 10 TaxesSo I did our taxes last Friday, got them all e-filed through Turbo Tax (great program, by the way, if anyone is looking for one), they were accepted by Sunday afternoon. THEN, Sunday evening, Eric hands me ANOTHER W-2 from guard. WHAT?!? The one he had gotten already was apparently only from his job over the summer, this one was from the regular guard dates. Apparently they handed them out at guard last weekend. Yes, AFTER the Jan 31st deadline for mailing the forms to people, not to mention that Eric isn't even IN guard anymore, so they gave his W-2 to a friend to give to him. Guess they're trusting (yes, he gave it to him right away, but still). I was soooo pissed off. So tonight I went in and did the whole amended return thing. Avoid this at all costs, it sucks. I normally fully understand all the tax stuff, but this was confusing to me. Plus i have to mail the forms in, plus send a check for the difference in the return even though we haven't gotten the return yet (guard NEVER takes enough taxes out of their paychecks, and doesn't take out ANYTHING for state taxes). So now I'm just hoping that they deposit the return money before they cash the checks, otherwise, well, they won't get the money :) So annoying, but hopefully I got it all squared away, I guess we'll find out if they don't show up at our door demanding to do an audit!!
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