Ha, Ha, Ha, Finally Pictures!

At the airport waiting for the plane to whisk Bela off to sunshine and beaches -

What we watched as we waited...

Passing time while we wait longer...

Saying SEE YA through the glass between the terminal and us

Watching as she boards the plane

The last glimpse of her backpack as she boards the plane.

Our February bike ride.

Showing off my bright new spring outfit...trying to tease the Spring weather to come play

Tigger shows Chris all the different ways to use the wii fit board -

As a bed...

As a table...

or as a pillow...

Rachel had her first competition outside of the Palmer civic center at the University of Illinois.

Kristina thinks she's cute, but one day, I'll get her back.

Rachel with the flowers Chris and I bought for her.

Makenna found a better way to play with the wii tennis racket, use it like a real one!

Looking Fly in Uncle Chris' sunglasses.

And being adorable as our waitress..

Chris drives the train at the Engineering Open House

Makenna decides to show him how the kids are driving these days.

Here is when we met up with the girls and friends at Winter Park for a little geocaching.

We found a snake right at the start of our first hunt.

Rachel and the girls climbed a few trees.

Hey, hey - this was our second find of the day.

Then Chris and I found one in MC a few days later.

Going to Austin's Birthday Party!

Where he shows off his briefcase, and stamp collection.

There is a scavenger hunt for prize filled eggs! Ashley helps Devon.

Looks like the Austin and Friends are really enjoying the pinata that Uncle Chris and I got him for his birthday gift.

Casi just about gets knocked to the ground when Ally pulls the right string!

Devon looks happy with everything that he got!

Going inside the kids look at all the cool stuff they got in their eggs, and from the pinata.

The pinata and eggs had some sticky men in them, and once they started sticking to the ceiling, the kids started looking for someone to get them down...

And they found their sucker.. Actually Chris and Casi were in suckered into pulling men off the ceiling.

This is what I started with

But I worked real hard...

This was my result!

Chris spent the entire weekend fixing my blower, I had to drive with my glove compartment gone for a few days.

The simple lamp from hobby Lobby,

transformed into my one of a kind lamp!


Bed Room Wall Decor ~

Wall Decor~

*********************************************
I'd just like to say that I was adult and did not play with my napkin.

Can't take him no where...

Rachel

Ashley

Good Friday In Chicago!

Good Friday, was Goooood to us! Hahaha... and it all happened by circumstance that we would both get it off. I had asked if it would be possible to get this day off for a leadership conference at one of the colleges in the area. Because it was sort of left as a "We'll see, but don't count on it," I figured I better not register and waste my money. Well, turns out I got it scheduled off anyway for the leadership conference that I was no longer planning to attend. Chris got is off as one of the mandatory "days with out pay". So that is how we both ended up with the Friday off.

The day before Kristina says they are planning to go to Chicago to get some American Girl Dolls, and do some "Geo-ing". So I ask Chris if he wants to do some "geo-ing" in Chicago, and he says yes. So it's Friday morning and we're excited about going to Chicago. I call Kristina about 8:15ish and wake her up... oops, sorry.... I thought they were leaving early. Looking at the finances, I think hmm.... let's see about Blue Man Group! I have been dieing to see them again, and Chris REALLY wanted to see them. So, I asked what he thought, and he was all for it. I thought there would be only back row seats left, if any at all for that afternoon. Low and behold - PONCHO SECTION SEATS! ROCK ON! So we bought them and got two free tickets to the Sears Sky Deck, which we will use another trip.

Now we walk to the train stop, and jump on the South Shore to Chicago. We walk to our favorite eating spot Chipotle Mexican Grill. Then we call Kristina because they had arrived at the doll store. Chris and I decided we will meet them at the doll shop. Using the map on his phone, we walk 45 minutes up the PACKED street, then another 15 minutes down another street only to find the map took us to the OLD American Doll Place! And the new one is the other direction, way past where we started at. So we walk to the nearest purple line CTA stop, and buy our transit pass. We decide there is not really a whole lot of time left to meet up with the girls and go geocaching. We go to the theater, doors don't open till 3:30, so we dunk in dunkin' donuts and get some fruit blasts and sit for an hour. We watched the BOOT get locked on some cars in the parking lot, and got to see one lady return and throw a fit. (Free Entertainment, love it)

Then we enjoyed the Blue Man Group, it was awesome! We even got a picture after the show, and I had him "sign" my playbill. (blue man signature: a Kiss,) so I'll put that one with the one I got when I went with the drama club in high school. If you ever get a chance to check out the Blue Man Group out, you should! We rushed to the CTA to take us back to the loop. We had a short walk to the south shore station where we had about 10 minutes to spare, so we got some pizza and ate on the train. Where we were very good citizens and gave up our seats on the VERY packed train, to a mom carrying a baby seat and holding the hand of her 2 year old daughter. We stood for about 45 minutes before seats finally started opening up in our train car.

The South Shore has gotten fancy and upgraded to Double Decker trains!

Us with one of the BLUEMANGROUP! Kinda scary, right?

Yes, the beloved Public Transit system! Saved us a lot of walking!

And we got to see bits of the city that we normally don't see.

Shopping Spree... but Not what you think!

Oh My, Oh My! After class this morning, I went over to Save-A-Lot to do some grocery shopping. This is my favorite place to shop when I have not made a list of dinners, or even a grocery list for the week. It's small and easy to get around in, plus there is not so much that you find yourself buying a ridiculous amount of food, spending a ridiculous amount of money, and then find you have no complete meal to cook! (Man I hate when that happens)

Anyway - I went on a great day! I got so much freakin' food, we're stocked for the next two, maybe three, weeks, seriously! I may have to go back only to get more milk or sandwich meats. Everything was on sale it seemed. Chicken Leg quarters, Country Ribs, Pork Chops, Beef Steaks, and Cutlets! I just piled it all in the cart, came home divided it up in portion baggies and tossed them in the freezer. I did no fancy recipes this week, no RR or Paula Dean, no steps to follow, just my own mix of spices and flavors, keeping it simple, keeping it real in the West kitchen this week.

Girls' Recital

Here the vids that my mom loaded on to youtube. They are very fuzzy. Hopefully the coach will put clear ones on youtube later. The first is Rachel's solo, then it is both parts of Ashley's performance, and then Rachel's trio performance. In the trio, Rachel starts in the middle and is wearing the white skirt. It's so hard to explain where Ashley is because there are so many people, but I'll try. She comes out near the end of the middle and is wearing purple shirt with blue jeans she is right behind the girl in pink. She ends in the back row and is second from the end. As you will see, they both did an amazing job! We're so proud of them both!

Group Projects Suck! (Lara's Rant)

Group Projects for speech classes should be banned! Last week my speech class decided on the topic of Lowering the Drinking Age. I'm in the group that does not want the drinking age lowered. So last week we thought of all the different categories we needed to discuss, and people chose which they wanted to do their part of the speech on. So... I signed up to discredit any possible reasons the other group would have for lowering the drinking age. We called this the Rebuttals, though it is not a debate forum.

I spent the week working on my speech for this category, and getting my sources all lined up, and only used the most credible. (While MADD has a lot of good information, I didn't think that was the most reliable source for credible statistics - not that they make things up, but you know...) So I got my information together, wrote my speech and went to class.

Rod decided he is going to lead the "meeting of the minds" we're having and starts going through the information that he found. He had little bits of everything, and other people who brought stuff had little bits of everything, most had nothing, and I had my one topic. Rod Says, "I want to do the rebuttals," I say "I've already done the rebuttals." We banter this about for a few minutes, when we all agree to get our outlined made up. Rod starts doing an outline, he wants to put the entire speech together right there. Everyone else is lost and confused and getting frustrated, but he claims he knows exactly what he's doing and again states that he's doing rebuttals, though last week, he wanted to do the brain development of young adults.

So after about an hour and half of not getting anywhere with Rod leading, I start assigning people topics to cover again. Rod's persistent that he's doing Rebuttals, so I take my neatly organized research, staple it in order toss it across the table and say, "There you go, I've done all the research for you." Then I tear my speech out of my notebook and slide it across the table and say, "Oh, yeah, I've already written the speech for you too." So now I'm writing another speech for the conclusion, and probably on brain development too since the girl I assigned that to, insisted on doing her section on fetal alcohol syndrome ??? I told her she needs to find stats on teenage mothers and drinking, and she wants to know why because alcohol has an effect on all babies no matter the mom's age.

So I tried to hide my obvious frustration by as kindly as I could explaining to her that we are trying to persuade our audience to not vote to lower the drinking age, and pregnant women above the age 21 having alcohol in no way supported not lowering the drinking age. She didn't get it. The instructor found it very amusing, he finally said we could be dismissed, and we dismissed. grr.... it's really not that hard.

And just to note how lazy some people are, we assigned one guy to be in charge of creating a PowerPoint. And a couple girls thought all they had to do was find the information and email it to him and he would write the speech on the PowerPoint. It is a speech class people, you have to give a part of the speech.

Hanging In There

Chris' employer laid of 125 people here in MC yesterday. Thankfully he still has a job, however all employees are loosing an additional 2 weeks pay along with the previous one week salary loss in February. Which for me means....drum role please.... Lara gets to find a night job to make up the difference in pay and will not be striving to graduate in Spring 2010! But like I said, we're thankful he still has a job- though he finds out today how the reorganization will effect him this morning- a little disappointing, but not too disastrous. I guess you could say - We're hanging in there.

Isabela's Coming Back!

We're very excited that Isabela and her family will be spending a couple wonderful days in MC! Bels'a brother graduates from college and after the ceremony and celebration they will be making the drive here to see what Isabela did while she was here. I know visiting the High School and the Boys and Girls Club is on this list, as well as a day in Chicago. So in case you haven't noticed the updated events calendar- it's going to be a fun mid week for Chris and I. We have the Britney Spears concert on that Tuesday, then Wednesday Isabela and her family arrive. So Chris and I have both requested Wednesday and Thursday off for their visit. Yay! We can't wait to see her again and meet her parents... guess I better finish cleaning her room before she gets here. Hahaha, I organized the closet and took clothes to the Goodwill but have yet to clean off the dressers from left over chocolate supply and school supplies. We'll see ya soon Bela!

I'd like to say we, but it was mostly Chris.

This was a weekend of Chris just being amazingly wonderful, and me.... well I was lazy till come Sunday. Friday night I got home from work and Chris was slaving away cooking some beef steak, rice and browning rolls. Then we chilled out, started to watch Lady in the Water, but turned it off to play Mario Kart. We started out Playing Casi and Austin, then just Casi, then Brent joined the game too! This was our first time meeting up with Brent in a Mario Kart battle. He was totally trying to hustle us, telling us they only race, he kicked our butts.

Next, Saturday came. I went to work in the morning. Chris started working on my car. Oh yes, my once proud Cadillac that I let slide right into the category of ghetto cruiser. First off, I have yet to replace the broken body piece from the police officer not knowing how to use a jack two January's ago. Then my front tire began ever-so-slowly deflating. My center caps on my rims have always been nasty ugly from wear. Then the emblems started falling off, then I lost one center cap completely! Then my battery died and my CD changer failed to communicate with the rest of the stereo system, my brakes started squeaking, and then my blower motor went out for my heat and AC. I know your telling me, "time to get rid of it." But Chris replaced my rotor's and my brake pads, he bought a new blower motor and replaced that - Sadly the relay (?) was fried, so that is on order -

Sunday we had to go to Auto Zone to pick up a part, so we left around 7:45 in the AM and did three geocaches in a small park. We found two of them. We though the third may have gotten mowed down recently by the underground cable line people, but I think maybe we just didn't go out far enough. I didn't think it would be outside the park, but judging from other people's comments, it was quite the hike. We'll try it again some day. The part was not in at 10 so we went to taco bell and headed back to AutoZone, finally it's arrived. Then, Chris continued finishing the jobs he was working on the day before. I found new center caps for only 60 bucks on eBay - Then i went outside where Chris was still working on things and polished my rims (something that I thought was a waste of time.) I thought for sure they were rusted and I just needed to buy new ones. But nope! Them babies look BRAND SPANKIN NEW! Well, the three I got done anyway. Hopefully I'll finish the last one this week. They already look sharp when it's driving, so they are gonna look super-duper mega sharp once I get the new center caps on them.... and I don't have to worry about any emblems falling off of these ones.

later that afternoon as we were wrapping things up, and getting ready to take the car for a test spin to check the brakes, the neighbor kids were outside and we were going back the graveyard cache we couldn't find before. So.. Chris invited them along. We took them to the one we found and let them search, then we searched for an hour for the other one, and even with three extra sets of eyes and another clue from the owner, still couldn't find it. So we took the kids to the park ones we found that morning. Their mom lives right across the street, so they go to show us their house, and they found the two caches pretty easily. I think they had fun. We brought them home and Chris finished his homework while I curled my hair. :)

Brother Update:

Cathy has asked about my brother, so I thought I'd make an update of what we have been told.

First off, the worst thing second to death from being hit by a drunk driver: The drunk driver is totally fine with out a freakin' scratch, and based on the fact that he pulled the "I'm having chest pains" at the scene, I'm guessing he could care less about my brother.

My brother however is not as well as we all would hope, but he's alive and he was wearing his helmet so his head is fine (insert your own joke here).

1)His ankle is badly destroyed, saying that they had to "rebuild it from scratch" makes it sound like a cooking recipe, but it sounds like there wasn't much left to work with

2)His legs are badly injured... i.e. they are both broken in several spots I think. He is STILL undergoing various surgeries.

3)He had to receive a hip replacement.

4)Doctors speculate it will take Months, not days, or weeks, but months for him to walk again at best. After that he will most likely not be able to stand for long hours.

5)He has to have some skin graphs done because of the something, something to do with the doo-hickie thingie and something about you know - the burns, the scraping of the roadway, the skin attached to the front end of the guys car (okay, little much but just to show how drinking and driving is unacceptable).. and probably some other things that I don't know...

He is still in the hospital doped on meds no doubt. Once released from the hospital he'll be living in a rehab center. And that is all I can think of at the moment, my hair is up in rollers for the night, it's surprising I can even think at all. I hope I got all my information correct as I'm about third or fourth on the telephone tree, heck the ways those things work he's probably enjoying life at a luxurious resort with a bruised elbow... seriously, joke.

"...I am socially Awkward...."

Ok, maybe not so much.... BUT, it was a great Saturday night for Chris and I as we took a seat at The Young People's Theater Company fundraiser to enjoy Second City: On Tour. There is no question that we need to give a shout out to our "all-growed up" baby girl Isabela for saying that she really wants to see Second City when she comes to America... So we never had the chance to get to her a show (AHEM, we might have but it had like warnings everywhere for offensiveness, and language...) Like I said, we never had the time, however had she stayed a whole school year, we would have had plenty of time. :) .. so only because she mentioned this did we even know what Second City was, so when I saw they were stopping in MC, we made plans to go. IT WAS GRRRRRREAT! So freakin' funny, we're going to HAVE to see another Second City show in Chicago.

I wanted to share our funniness with you all, but I couldn't find any clips of this particular group together... so I found separate clips of three of them.

The first is Tim Baltz. He is the guy at the beginning telling the other guy his girlfriend "lost her clothes".

The second one is Vanessa Bayer doing a stand-up routine.

This last one is my favorite, it's soooo funny. It is Steven Yeun. It's exactly how they did all the skits at the show here. But most importantly it involves CHUCK E CHEESE. (I miss working there now, hmm... funny.)

Found another one!

Hey, Hey I noticed a cache right near the library this weekend, and well... decided it's my day off, I'm taking my books and CD's back today... I'll check it out. This one was sooo much fun because it was actually INSIDE the library! (With permission? I do not know) But Kristina and the Girls can ask their library about it maybe... basically it was a piece of paper taped to the inside of the back cover of a reference book and you just signed the sheet. I was all over that library hunting before I finally decrypted the hint, then I went to the regular books, then typed it in the computer and found it is a reference book. I think I may get a magnetic key holder to put on the bottom of a shelf if the library will allow, then people will have 2 to find when they go in for the one. LOL - I was squeezing my head in between the shelves looking for a magnet of some kind at first.... at least it was not that busy.

School Updates:

I got registered for my summer and fall classes yesterday, and Chris finished his first class last Monday, and got the homework for the first day of his next class. He passed this class with a 94% - A! Yay for Chris!!! He has 19 more to go including this one.

I however discovered that if I take on two - 3 credit classes this summer and a 1 - credit course, then take 1 set of two hybrid classes, I can have my associates degree next May! So here is what I'm looking at:

This Summer:
EDUC 130: Multi-Cultural Classroom
SOCI111: Intro to Sociology
EDUC 156: Transition to Baccalaureate

Fall 09:
History 235: World Civilization I
Math 127: Mathematics for Elementary Education I
EDUC 201: Computers in Education
Chem 101: Intro to Chemistry I

Spring 2010:
SCIN 111: Physical Science
Math 128: 1st 8wk Hybrid - Mathematics for Elementary Education II
Math 129: 2ND 8wk Hybrid - Mathematics for Elementary Education III
ENGL 240: Children's Literature
EDUC 230: The Exceptional Child

... so let's keep our fingers crossed that this works out and I can keep moving right along to PNC to wrap it all up and start teaching.

Enjoying the SunShine

Chris and I were out-n-about yesterday enjoying the beautiful day. We met up for lunch at Subway, then I went to Hobby Lobby and spent a hundred bucks a little too easily. Everything I bought, I bought for the bedroom. I bought a metal shelf/ledge, and a big decorative metal square thing to match (that explains it right?) I also got a new night stand lamp that Chris says is about two inches too tall for his liking--- he is going to cut the pole down a little. I also got some ribbon and flowers to decorate the lamp because I love the lamp, and the lamp shade - except for the goofy light green around the rims, so I am going to change that to a deep red to match the bed spread. And the flowers are from the wedding materials and I hope I can get to them to stay like they are with the pins in them because they have this awesome 3D effect that I am loving! I also got an aged looking golden sign with Psalms 119:105 on it. And last but not least, a deep red cross that has GRACE written inside the second cross. I am going to try to get Chris to hang these up tonight when he is done with his homework.


*****************************

We also went Geo Caching yesterday. This was GREAT exercise because we rode our bikes to the cemetery that is 2.4 miles away (yes, that's one way... and there was a big 'ole hill!) We found one of the two caches. I asked the owner of the one we didn't find for a clue, so maybe we can go out this weekend and finally find it. I made cool labels with a hula girl and my Geo name, on them for me because my name is HulaGirl25. For Chris.... COLTS picture and his Geo name WESCHR2381. This is because sometimes you find the cache and the pencil is gone, or it is broken, and you discover yours is not in the bag anymore.. lalala.... so, the labels are fun ways to mark our find as well.

*****************************

With my allowance this week, I bought a little craft storage box with the multiple boxes in them to store my eye shadows, because I am tired of dealing with them little containers. I searched and searched for one that wouldn't leak them all into each other, and I found one near the beads at Hobby Lobby where each compartment has it's own topper. So this morning I took the sifters out of the containers and poured them each into their new homes... (however cautious, I still managed to get it all over my hands and on my robe.) Then of course, I labeled them with their names so I can buy them again if I liked it. This container is pretty cool because it has two rows of 7, and you have to push a button on the side, and push up on the compartment you want into in order to get them to open. I thought that was kind of nifty.

The Weather Permits

We went on a Geo Cache today with Kristina and the girls. We found two of the three - which is pretty good without a GPS! I'll get pictures up when I can find a way! We hope you enjoy following our Geo adventures by watching our additions made on the sidebar of this page. And yes, we totally plan on finding the one at Dunn's River Fall in Jamaica because that is our "off resort" retreat this time anyway!

We're Here For Ya Brother!

My brother was in a terrible accident this week. Apparently there is not as much information as we'd like at the moment. I've heard shattered bones to broken ones. Dad says his ankle and hip are really bad. Casi mentioned rumors of two broken legs and a broken thumb. No mention of head injuries, so hopefully that's all still intact and working normally- :) . He was still in surgery last night, we're praying for a positive response from the doctors today. (I for one, would like to not have to worry any longer!) As far as the accident goes, my mom says the driver was drunk when he hit my brother who was obviously enjoying a nice warm, rain-free day in Tennessee (much unlike ourselves here) on his motorcycle. He was air-lifted to a hospital in Chattanooga. So we'd like to ask, if your thinking about it, please send warm, healing prayers for him.

Savings, Savings

I'm excited that I just saved $30.31 at Victoria's Secret, haha I saved more than I spent. I got 1 biofit bra, 1 panty, 1 pair of sheer beach pants, and 2 liquid eye shadows for $23.66 after shipping. I used a combination of three coupons - One was my Angel Rewards for $10, another was the February Bday coupon listed at retailmenot.com, and the last one (also on retainmenot, but I got it in my catalogue also) was $10 off bra purchase (of certain style) + free panty. I'm surprised that the coupon worked for the bra because it was on sale for 29.50 (usually VS won't allow discounts on sale merchandise) and because VS ships by price you spend... I think I got the lowest shipping cost possible from them. (no ,I don't have the luxury of having a VS store at the outlet mall.... yet.... they could still put on in there one day! :( Which is why I must resort to the shipping fees)

Taxes are Done!

Whew- we finally made it to get our taxes figured. Usually we wait till the very last weekend we can to get them done, but I needed them figured so I could fill out the FAFSA for school, so I can apply for scholarships and/or grants, which you can only apply for if you've filled out the FAFSA. The deadline for those however is Tuesday. So I'm all taken care of in that department.

We drove ALL-THE-WAY back to Kokomo to get those done by the same people who had been doing them for us. We also got some Donato's Pizza (yum, yum!) and we spent a few hours over at John and Eva's (our former neighbors with the soup and pie's). Of course, they sent us home with soup and a pie! Haha.

The house in Kokomo looks mostly the same, but we've heard the inside looks amazing! John says he's had a lot of people in and out doing work. He was outside working on his John Deere when we left, we thought about stopping in but then we saw he had like five other people there as well, and decided we'll see about hitting him up next time.