Superbowl Pictures

Chris and I upstairs at Mikes.

Sat Cheese!

This is Mike Jr.

This is Reggie and Mikes cousin in the back (I have his name on the tip of my toungue)

This is Mikes daughter Makayla. There is another boy but he was not there.


All the Boys. That is Mike in the black shirt.

Chris and Reggie having a laugh over some Sullair joke.

THis is Mike.

And here is Angie. We have the exact same camera.

...and into the hole she fell....

No, I'm not talking about Alice in Wonderland, I'm talking about me. Have I mentioned how horrible the pot holes are here? Yeah, well I hit the mack daddy of all pot holes last night. Busted my tire like it was nothing. I was near a very bad section of town but luckily just a block from the police station....BTW, I tried the insurance company but if you don't have an accident between the hours of 9 and 5 with State Farm for get it. The 1800 number said "The number you are dialing has a new message, press one for a text message." And that is your only option! Either you wait for a text message or you don't get help. I said forget that and walked over to the station. It took 2 hours to get the tire changed. Within those two hours, another car pulled into the parking lot with a blown tire and while I was driving away I heard what sounded like another one blowing in the same hole. So $290 later, I have a new tire. Luckily the rim was not damaged. The frame of the car however, was not so lucky.

Caught on something, the Midas guy says that the frame is going to cost more than the tire to fix. How exciting - I guess now I am driving a true ghetto cruiser.

Still Catching Up - Sunday

Superbowl Sunday was awesome! We tried a new church again this week. This one is a non-denominational one on the out skirts of town. The church is a very cute building. It has a little creek and covered bridges going from the parking lot to the building. The Pastor seemed to look quite young- which is not a problem, however I felt that he was holding some emotions in. You know? Like he seemed to be afraid to raise his voice he was sort of mono-tone the entire time. I want to keep looking. I don't think this one is "home". Of course Chris said, "We'll never find a church if you compare them all to Heartland." Can I just say that I am not comparing the church to Heartland- I'm comparing the feeling I got the first time I walked into Heartland and the feeling I got the first time I walked into this place. I didn't feel free to worship, no one was singing and dancing and yelling with a free heart. And to me, that's a big part of how I worship and I want to do it with other people. So the search for a church continues....

After church, we went straight to the movies to watch 27 dresses as I mentioned in a previous post- it is finally on the 5 buck club list. Of course we should have eaten lunch first because we ended up buying popcorn, nachos and drinks! We both thought is was a funny movie. Of course everytime I see Katherine Heigl (spelling?) I'm always thinking of My Father The Hero in the back of my mind and that movie has me laughing everytime I watch it. So perhaps I am a little bias.

After the movie we came home to eat the left overs and get ready for the big game! I got online and remembered that I never finished my One Tree Hill video and Monday was the last day for submissions! So I worked frantically on that while Chris made his chip dip. I worked just before kick off then ran up stairs to Mike and Angela's for the game. When Chris asked to borrow their crock pot, remember we have only the bare, bare essentials going on right now, Mike asked what we were planning with it- then he invited us up. We watched the game with them and Mikes Cousin and friend Reggie. It was a nail bitter but HURRAY! the Giants won and we were all excited that another Manning got to take the Patriots down! :) Reggie and Chris were both wearing Colts jersery's. I was going to add the pictures but like spellcheck, it is not working at the moment. I will try again after I curl my hair for work.

Catching Up One - Saturday

Thankfully, we have experienced that Saturday grocery bundle a few too many times and this Saturday we changed that dreadful experience by grocery shopping at 6:30 in the AM! That's right before I went to work at 7:45, we got up and went to Meijers to buy the last of the groceries... It was calm and nice. So I highly recommend getting your groceries early or maybe even really late.

Chris dropped me off at work, put the groceries away and then headed to the office himself. Dad West was in the area so Chris went to get him while I was at work. I didn't even recognize him in the back seat, if Chris wouldn't have been smiling like a silly person with a secret I never would have looked back there! Who knows how long he would have gone unnoticed by me.

Almost everytime Darrell visits we have him make Potato Soup. He makes the best- so we stopped at the smaller grocery store to buy a few more items because we were not planning on him coming by. (BTW- I bought the stuff to make Amanda's ot Roats but even after she cautioned me that I needed a pot that could go in the oven- I forgot! I don't have one! Well- I do, but it is at the house in Kokomo, not in this apartment with barely nothing.

While the boys were cooking I ran to the good will! Boy did I get some goodies! I got 5 sweaters, 2 long sleeve t's, 2 turtle necks, 4 plates, 4 bowls that match (yes we have been surviving with one bowl and three plates that don't match for almost 6 months) I got a brand new Old Navy coat and brand new boots. I got a tank top and a purse. All for $40! The dress and matching shoes I got last week is posted also. My problem is I keep buying and buying and never donating because I like it all so much and just want to wear it till it can't be worn any longer.

After lunch, we headed to Sullair- Chris showed dad around while I worked out! I just worked my upper body because I had jeans on. I've had that tour one to many times to go through it again. Everytime we walk through there Chris gives me the layout. But he is excited so I let him. After Sullair we went out to get some Cold Stone! Yummy! Dad got a mix with Chocolate Cake Batter and some new Chocolate, Chris got Cake batter and Cinnamon Roll stuff, and I got just cake batter mixed with a little vanilla. One of the girls in two of my classes works there. I saw her come in but didn't say anything because I don't know her name! Plus I sit behind her in each class so I'm sure she hasn't noticed me. I did tell her this today (tuesday) after our test because we both got done at the same time. She said she has seen me in the EDU class because I am always already sitting there when she comes in. So.. I guess now I am rude for not saying hello- who knows. Well I am off to work- more post to come tonight.

YoYoYo

Go Check Out My Neicer-eeeewwwwnies ice skating! THey are looking fab-u-low-so!



After I do my school work I will post!

Videos I told the girls I would post

Chris is sledding inthe first clip. The second clip is a bit longer! It has Austin sledding and calling for help because he is about to hit the fence and then it follows me on my journey to not snow boarding! I did try it a few more times later on in the fun. The next one is of Chris and Austin coming down the hill and Austin is trying to eat the snow hitting his face! Funny stuff. Enjoy.

Anyone for hot chocolate and skipping work?

Snow, Snow Go Away, Come Again Another Day!

It feels like we should all just call off work and have the whole city shut down for the day- except for the obvious needed convinence stores, of course everyone will only be walking to those after the winter storm we had last night. I remember when Danville was shut down once and Shane, Casi and I were walking on the ice covered roads to the gas station next to Royal Donut. That was fun- we were slipping and sliding all over the place. Last year, the City of Kokomo was actually shut down in the middle of the day. You had before a certain time to get off the roads and any businesses that were open and any one driving after that time got a ticket. Chuck E Cheese wanted to stay open- the DM thought we were making it up! Because he was in Indy and they were not getting nearly what we were getting...we got pure ICE. So that was a crazy day. But about thirty minutes before time expired (around 1:00pm) we had only had one family the entire day and corporate finally sent us home. I've included a couple pictures from this morning.

Chris just called and said that the roads have not been touched yet. Knowing how freaked out I tend to get- he's going to come get me when it is time for work. I need to be there at 10:15, so I have still have a bit. Moving on anyway...

I still have a bit of grocery shopping left to do at Meijer they have a lot of really good stuff that is Buy One, Get One Free. Walgreens also has Lip Plumper and Fructis Garnier shampoo & conditioner free after mail in rebate. And I am so excited that 27 dresses is finally on the five buck club list! I don't know that we will be going to see it this weekend- I guess it depends on the weather and the roads.

I went to Save-A-Lot after my morning class yesterday and it is right next door to the goodwill- so I ran over there to see what is on sale. I ended up getting Chris two dress shirts that were 50% off. ($6.35 total - one shirt was brand new so they marked it up from the normal $4.00) Saturday the whole store will be 50% off.

Chris has been working out like a work horse! The last weigh-in picture on Sunday was 211.0! Hopefully when I go to get the rest of the groceries I will remember to stop and buy a soft tape measure, so he can keep track of his inches also. He's doing great!

Woo! Yay! The repair guy just knocked on the door for the apartment. I'm so glad she didn't send scary handy man Frankie this time. He never cleans up his mess- there are still piles of rubbish on the yard from when he fixed the steps in September! The new repair guy said that the back top half of our screen door is breaking off- but he thinks he can fix it.

All right I'm gonna call it a post here. Have a great day!

Yay! Way to go Chris

Chris has finally learned how to blog. He did it all on his own too! I had to help a little when he signed on under my normal email but that is not this sites log-in email address. So after he made the post he was like, "what the?" Cause it is another blog that I try to do at times. But I never would have known he was posting if it wasn't because he was on the wrong name. (at least not until I checked the site) So...Congrats Chris! ....anyway....

We got our power/gas bill - last month - $266, so we turned the heat down, stopped cooking as many oven meals and kept all lights off as much as possible. This months bill $420 ! Pardon my french but we about crapped our pants when we opened the email. So I guess at the rate we will need to get a loan just to pay our insane utilities bill. Tonight when we go work out we are going to stop at the Meijer and pick up some clothes pins and hang our clothes to dry and see what happens. (now I'm just wanting to make sure that we are not paying for the entire house, because it feels like we are.) We even wrote down all the meter readings to see the difference at the end of this billing cycle.

Yesterday went by so fast. We went to the post office, ate lunch at Wendy's, stopped by the goodwill, bought groceries at meijers and chilled out at the house. Chris got 5 new pairs of pants 2 of which still had tags. Dresses were 50% off so I bought a cute little red number and even found some BRAND NEW red heels that fit me perfect to match for only $4.50! Now I just have to wait for the weather to warm up so I can wear it out and about.

This morning we went to the Methodist Church that is only a block away and then came home and ate some pizza. I got most of my homework done and we are about to leave to go work out now. I am going to suggest Cold Stone when we are done because Chris had me wanting some yesterday, but we never got around to it....so maybe tonight? We are waiting for 27 dresses to make it to the five buck club- it should be bumped next weekend. We've been watching the Winter X Games for the past couple of days and last night we watched the figure skating championships...at least a few and the winner. Maybe Rachel will be on there in a few years, I haven't seen her skate yet but I hear she is a natural.

Well I have 6 more pages to read for my EDU class then we are going to work-it-out. Talk to you later,

Chris' First Post!

Hello everyone! Mom called last night to tell us that Thom is back. Welcome Home Thom! I am very happy to have him home safe and sound. I know Matthew and Heidi are happy as well. Lara and I are planning to go to the store later and perhaps even the Goodwill to get some more work clothes. Everyone at work is commenting on how well I have been dressing. What they don't know is that most of it comes from the Goodwill. They have some very nice name brands that are like new. Its is very easy on the budget. We talked about going to a movie later. Not sure what we will see but it will be fun what ever we do. Now that we know where the Coldstone is maybe we can go there as well. This is my first post. Hope it does not sound too stupid. It is quite easy. I will try to post more often. Talk to everyone soon.

213.5 another one down.

Well, the weigh in is official- another pound gone for Christopher, 213.5--- We just wanted to take my picture, I'm at 103. Chris wants to let everyone know that he thinks he is at a disadvantage with working out two or more times a week so he is also going to start measuring inches. Two people have asked him if he is losing weight- while he is, one pound at a time, he thinks he must look slimmer than only being 3 pounds less.



Homework has created a piled mess with things to do. I am managing right now so hopefully I can keep it up for 14 more weeks! Our house payment lowered again this year- while that seems like a good thing- all it truly means is that the house has lost a little more value again. We are trying to schedule a day for the movers to pack up the house and move it here. Once all our junk is out of it we will be able to make a few repairs and get it on the market. Keeping it now is just eating at our savings account.

Chris and I have signed up for a bowling night to benefit Junior Achievement. We both need to raise $60 each. So if you want to make a donation you can mail it to us or you can send it through Pay Pal- however I am opening a small online store (just for family) to purchase some homemade goodies of which the money will go towards Junior Achievement. I'll hopefully have the site up for a while because I am also doing a Breast Cancer walk with Casi and we both need a minimum of $1,800. So this is one of our fundraising idea's- we got more in development. I'll post the link once I get the store up and running. We'll see how it goes.

Chris has to make an emergency run for work next week to check out a machine that caught on fire. It's a brand-spanking new machine so there is reason for concern. He's out of town with work and his boss today but he should be home before I am off from work. Next week I have to get that loose filling replaced. Thursday is a busy day- I have a dentist appointment at 8:30, Class at 10:00, Work from 12:15 - 2:15 and Class again at 4.

Well I better get off from here because I am actually in the mood to clean the house and that is what I am going to do. I actually got up at 4:30 today and already cleaned the Bathroom and the Kitchen- detail cleaned. (Better get it done while I'm willing)

Ok so I lied...

So my mom informed me not ALL the weekend photos were posted- only because I couldn't figure out how to get them off the new camera she gave to us! I wanted the birthday pictures to be separate anyways- that I did on purpose.

So Rachel had a wonderful birthday party and if you visit her site you'll read that we got her Barbie Golf Clubs....Yes we know she's 9 - maybe a little old for Barbie in the age of Hannah Montana and The Bratz but they were semi-decent price and looked like a good quality so we splurged a little on her present...only to find that the box that was rather tall only contained golf clubs 1/3 of the size of the box. Rachel was such a great sport about it too- She gave them to Ashley, so as Aunt Marianne said...now we owe her another gift! I have a great idea that is a bit high on price but I know she'll love it. I just have to run it by Chris and her mom and grandma first. It's not Hannah Montana but....oh I can't tell you! She may read this-- (and don't go getting all excited on me Rachel it's only a thought at the moment.)

So to revive my good name, here are the birthday pictures- You can view them all here.RACHEL's BDAY or visit the 2008 Photos link to see all the new photos you may have missed!

Date Night!

Friday Nights Dinner was 100% Delicious. It only took minutes to get from preparation to finished. I have posted the recipe on the family website: Across The Pond. If it looks good to you or if you don't believe me, you can go there to the recipe's page and try it yourself. Yummy. After Dinner we were going to go see a movie when we decided, "What the heck, Let's make a date of it!" And we did, we headed to the closest COLD STONE CREAMERY for dessert. Next, we headed back towards home and did some browsing at the local Meijers for about 45 minutes and picked up some Kittie litter and a new toy for tigger (who needs to be on a diet). We did all this before we utilized our free five buck club passes to see "I AM LEGEND". Yes I caved- I had no desire what so ever to see this movie but I went. Not that I had much of a choice. I know when Chris fails to ask what I want to see- then he REEEEEAAAAALLY wants to see something. I'm glad we did see it though, it was really good. At first we couldn't decide if we even liked it or not when we left the theater. We jumped several times but we have concluded that we may even want to see it again on the big screen. I think the biggest mistake Friday Night was going to the 9:45 showing because I was almost late for work on Saturday Morning. But we had fun. When I got off work Saturday we warmed up some left overs and got packed to go to Danville. The original plan was to catch the train, have mom pick us up and spend the night at her house. In the morning we would spend some time with Rachel for her birthday and then have mom take us to Brent and Amanda's house to spend time with them then we would ride the late train home. Yeah, that didn't happen! We lost our Multi-Ride passes! Yes they just disappeared. We ended up driving to Danville- I was very upset because I have a load of homework and I was wanting to get my math done on the train. After a quick nap in the car I was fine. It wasn't too horrible I guess. But I really do prefer the train. So we drove to Danville and then there was a family lunch set up at 1:30 which we didn't get to until 2:00. So it was 4:00 when we left and decided to just come home. We will have to schedule a weekend to spend with Brent and Amanda within the next couple weeks. It just got too late this time. See All the Pictures Here! or visit the 2008 Pictures Link to veiw all pictures from this year starting with the newest.

Valentines Day-

I hope everyone likes the new background! I was getting depressed by the Colts one since they are no longer in the playoffs and the season is over for them. So I thought-
Valentines Day! So enjoy these lovely chocolates from us.

Chris and I did not go work out last night but we did go Wednesday. I don't have a picture because I thought we would go on Thursday. On Wednesday I ran 2 miles on the treadmill!
I did the first mile in 14 minutes 17 Seconds and the second mile in 12 minutes 45 seconds. I'm pretty happy with those times. In 6Th and 7Th grade I used to run it in 5 minutes 35 seconds for Mr. Humercous. (If I matched his sons time of 5 minutes 13 seconds he would bring his son to work with him- but I never made it there.) So my legs were too sore to do it again last night. But he just didn't want to go because the night flew by. We may go and take the picture tonight, though we are using our five buck club passes to watch a movie. We haven't decided which movie though. He wants to see I am Legend and I want to see anything else! :)

I went to the dentist yesterday for a cleaning and while I have no cavities I do have a filling that is coming loose. So I still have return on the 31st to get that taken care of.

The first day of all my classes have finally come and gone. I am excited that Spanish 3 will be offered in the Spring as long as the five of us that need it for our degree sign up for it in February. I'll have a busy semester because there is a teller leaving the bank which means I'll be working a lot more hours, I am taking the three classes and my education class requires me to do two hours of community service learning every week. My Spanish class is 30 minutes away and runs until 9:45pm. Posting may few a far between if I have trouble keeping up. So just be prepared just in case.

I am trying three new recipes this week! love Beef-N-Broc though I have never made it myself- So hopefully it taste decent! I bought a flavoring packet to reduce cooking time. The Bow tie and Broccolini and the Cheddar Vegetable Quiche are new to me. The Broccolini seems really simple; I've already altered the recipe slightly. As far as the Vegetable Quiche is concerned- who knows. It seems to remind me of a vegetable pot pie thing. We'll see.

We are going to Danville this weekend for Rachel's Birthday on Sunday. It is our last weekend to use our multiride passes. I want to iceskate still but the there are hockey games all day on sunday at the civic center. Mom also has gift certificates to jockos so we'll be eating there atleast once. And Chris will be able to get his ICE from the Donut Shop. He loves those little circular ice chunks.

Well I go to get ready to get to work and finish a bit of homework! Have a great day.

Family Fun Weekend

Our Visit to Science Central

Sunday we drove to Fort Wayne very early in the morning to meet with Mom, Rachel, Ashley, Casi, Austin and Devon. The original plan was to go Ice Skating but the indoor skating was only from 2:30 - 4:30 and we couldn't wait that long to get out and about. So Chris decided on Science Central. The kids were semi-excited when I showed them pictures from our last visit, but thrilled like they were about ice skating.

We had an entertaining time playing Nerf darts in the house while we waited for sleepy boys Austin and Devon to wake up. Casi killed Rachel and Ashley, but Ashley was a horrible dead person- she couldn't stop smiling. Just like her Aunt- I can't pretend to sleep with out smiling!

Finally the boys got out of bed and we headed to Science Central. Austin taught me how the pipes make music sounds when you bang on one end. Rachel and Ashley walked on the moon. Devon loved the black hole, but hated the slides. We all got to be weather people on TV but Austin stole the show. The hardest part was the 90 degree angled room! Standing up was hard to do...not to mention the kinda queasy feeling in your stomach just from looking in the room. We learned about two sided mirrors, compasses, pressure, electricity and lots more. Check out our pictures here.

SCIENCE CENTRAL PICTURES.

Lara Hair Color!

Thanks for the reminder Amanda! Here is my new hair color- Chris and I think we did a pretty good job! I can't see much of a difference on my computer screen- hopefully you can on yours. (mine is old and dark!) But that's it- It has a light red tint to it- and my other high lights make the look!

By the Way- I did not work on Part 2 of the vacation video this week--- maybe next week--- in my defense- I told you not to hold your breath.