Some more pics...

Like I said in a previous post, Dan and I planted flowers this weekend, so I thought I'd get some photos to show you :) Right now it looks a little sparse, but I'm hoping by June they'll have grown in a lot! Oh, and the other two pics are of Rori, just because I think she's cute and adorable :)

Starting to Feel Like Summer...

Even though it's still not the warmest here (I think a high of 63 today?) I'm still feeling like summer is fast approaching, and I couldn't be more excited about it! Last night, Dan and I were talking about all our plans for this summer, and I can't wait. If only I didn't have to work; those 40 hours a week really cut into vacation time! :)

Anyway, first up is my family and Dan's family coming to his graduation; yay! I can't believe that's in just a few weeks! Then we'll head up to the lake and spend Memorial Day (and our first anniversary) there, which will be fun. Dan and I are going to spend the 4th of July on Mackinac Island; we are SO excited. I haven't been there for probably 10 years or so, and he's never been, so this should be fun. We're staying at the Murray Hotel, which is right downtown. For those of you who aren't familiar with Mackinac, it's this really quaint island in Michigan (the UP) and it doesn't allow any motorized vehicles, so everything is horse-drawn carriages, bikes, or good old-fashioned walking (it's only 8 miles across, so it's not like you have far to go). I can't wait to visit; it should be fun!

I also want to hit Great America, the Dells, and a bunch of other fun weekend excursions; why oh why can't we be like the Europeans who have 6 weeks of vacation?!?!? This 10 days stuff really sucks, especially since I use half of it to travel home for Christmas (hint, hint, everyone should move to Madison to be by us :) ) Oh well. I figure when I'm a stay at home mom in just a few short years, I'll have unlimited vacation!

Some pictures!

Ok, so I promised some pictures. The first two are of the BEAUTIFUL bouquet that Dan surprised me with for our eighth anniversary. He is so sweet; I love him :) The third is of Maxine, who seems to be content no matter what, as long as she can curl up and sleep. Sounds like my kind of life! :)

Back to the Monday Grind

Well, it's back to work; ugh. At least we've had a fun couple of weekends! Last weekend, Dan and I went to see 88 Minutes, that new Al Pacino movie. I thought it was EXCELLENT; very captivating. Then, of course, the critics absolutely slammed it and said it was the worst of Al's career; go figure. Anyway, I liked it.

Wednesday, April 23 was our eighth (!) anniversary; Dan got me some BEAUTIFUL flowers and sent them to my work; I was so surprised! (I'll post pics when I get home). We just went out to eat that night at Red Robin (not exactly the most romantic place, but oh well!) and then on Friday, when we had more time, Dan made me a delicious dinner of steak and salmon with bernaise sauce. Yum!

On Saturday we did some mundane stuff, like grocery shopping and running errands, but yesterday we went to Jung's Garden Center and got some flowers for our front yard. Yay! We can actually plant flowers now! So we hurried and got about half of them planted (and they look great, if I do say so myself; I'll post pics of those too when I get home) before leaving to take Kirsti and Rori to that new Jackie Chan movie, The Forbidden Kingdom. It was all right; I think Dan and Kirsti liked it a lot better than I did! But it was still ok :) Then we grilled out at Dan and Tracy's house, which was really fun; the two Dans are masters at the grill!

All in all it was a fun weekend; I'm just sad it's over!

Yay for the weekend/update on Dan's job!

Anyone have any fun plans? I don't know what we're doing yet; I know I want to finish cleaning my bedroom (that was my project for last weekend, but somehow I didn't get around to it), clean out the fridge and clean out the guest room closet. Doesn't exactly sound like a weekend of excitement, now does it?

It's ok; we'll work in some fun stuff too :) I really want to go see that new Al Pacino movie 88 Minutes. I love psychological thrillers, mysteries, etc., so this sounds right up my alley! However, I also want to see In Bruges, since that looks kind of quirky and different from your standard movie. And, part of me wants to see that cheesy slasher flick Prom Night, but part of me doesn't (because then I have to sleep with the lights on and Dan gets mad :)). So we'll probably skip that one!

Other than that, we'll probably just hang out. Dan has a lot of studying to do, which means that our options are kind of limited in terms of going out. Oh well. I did get sucked into Harry Potter, so maybe I'll finish book 1 this weekend. For years I REFUSED to read it, because when things are SO popular, I almost refuse to like them just on principle (I know, it's kinda weird, but that's how I am. That is why I don't like the Packers; so many people are so gung-ho about them that I just have to be contrary and say, "Meh, they're not that great.") But I digress. Anyway, my friends Liz and Meghan (I work with them) are OBSESSED with Harry Potter, and they're always telling me how great the books are and how I need to read them, etc. So on Wednesday night I went to the library and got books 1 and 2, and I started book 1 right away. I have to admit, the first page alone just got my attention, and I was completely captivated within a couple of paragraphs. So now I'm more than a third of the way through the book, and I just can't put it down! So I'm sure I'll finish that this weekend and move on to Book 2.

By the way, did anyone watch The Office last night? Oh my gosh, Jim and Pam are so damn cute together! I honestly thought he was going to pop the question (and it was doubly sweet because Dan did that same thing to me; acted like he was tying his shoe, but then really proposed). Scrubs was pretty hilarious, too. I'm so glad the writer's strike is over!

Oh, and I wanted to add that Dan started his part time work at his new job three or so weeks ago, and he loves it! His official title is a Test and Validation Engineer, and they already printed out business cards for him, so I'm guessing they want him to stay! Right now, he just works 10 hours a week, because they were so excited to get him on board. Then in June, he'll go up to 24 hours a week (because he has to take summer classes on Monday and Wednesdays, so those days are out) and in August he'll go full time. I'm not sure exactly what his company (TCS Basys Systems) does; it's something with heating systems for industrial buildings???? I don't know, but it's tied to his electrical engineering degree, so he's happy! :)

Well, I suppose I should get to work, since my magazine goes to print on Wednesday. Have a good weekend!

Jesus Christ Superstar!

Last night, Dan, Tracy, Dan & I headed down to Milwaukee to see the "original" Jesus: Ted Neeley, who portrayed (the ever-so-attractive, I might add) Jesus in the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar. We saw him last January, and it was excellent; we couldn't even really tell that he was older (he's now in his 60s, which sounds weird, but he's the original!) This year was fun and entertaining, but my, what a difference a year makes! He just sounded so much older; his voice had that kind of wobbly vibrato that comes along once you hit a certain age (or so I've been told). Dan leaned in to me several times to whisper, "Look, it's grandpa Jesus!" which of course made me snicker. But all in all, it was excellent. (Although we both had a hard time not laughing when he sang, "After all, I've tried for three years... seems like 30," because I whispered to Dan, "That's because it has been!" Ah, yes, sometimes the most innocuous things make us laugh. :)

We went out to dinner beforehand, and we had actually made reservations at this steakhouse, but I (stupidly) wrote down the wrong address, so we ended up in the wrong place. Since we were already short on time, we decided to go to Mader's, this German restaurant that was right by where we thought the steakhouse was. We had said we wanted to go there anyway sometime, so we figured, why not do it now? It was delicious; Dan and I both had lobster bisque, while Dan enjoyed the authentic German beer and I had some of the best Lambrusco I've ever had. Tracy had some delicious sauerbraten, which I tried and actually (gasp) liked!

We ended up being a little late to the show and missing the first song, but oh well. All in all it was a very fun evening. I'm just sad that Ted is getting so, well, old! But he was still wonderful to see; and we had fantastic seats where we were in like the 8th row up from the stage. So we were very close, which helped at the curtain call, when I started waving and screaming, "Ted! Ted! Over here!" (Dan complains that I screamed in his ear and he's now deaf; I don't buy it.) He looked in our direction, but I don't know if he actually saw us. Ah well. It was a fun night!

Yay; it's the weekend!

Woo-hoo; it's Friday, I'm finally starting to feel better (I've had a sore throat, cough and raging cold ever since Saturday), and we have a weekend full of fun things to do! Tonight, we are going to Marll's (the owner of my company) house for a going away party for an employee who's been there like 8 years or something. Then tomorrow, we're heading out with Tracy, Dan and the girls for Dan H's birthday. I think we're going to go hear some science lecturer at Hilldale Mall, and then we'll probably head to the Great Dane for dinner.

This past week, even though I've been really sick, I somehow got SO motivated to clean (that happens sometimes when I'm sick). As a little motivation to keep going, I decided to take before and after photos of my living room and kitchen, so you can see the dramatic transformation :) (ok, maybe it's not that dramatic). But it definitely is rewarding to see the difference! I'm hoping to tackle the bedrooms and bathrooms this weekend. Just a warning: the before is pretty bad (and yes, I'm a clean freak, but somehow I let it get like this. don't ask me how). (And for some reason the color looks off; the red of our wall and curtains is really much more vibrant!)

Before:







After:







Here's my kitchen, which wasn't as bad:

Before: (yes, Maxine's chowing down as always)


After:

Hello!

All right everyone, I finally decided to get back into the blogging sphere, since we've had a lot going on! First of all, I had an AWESOME 26th birthday; Tracy and Dan had said they wanted to take us out, so we should just come over at 7-ish. So we did, and we just walk in (since we're on very casual terms) and there's my MOM!!! I was so excited that she flew in to surprise me! So we hung out that night and had a St. Patty's inspired dinner of corned beef, cabbage, etc.

On Friday I only had to work a half day, so we all met up at Ginza for lunch, which was delicious. Of course, it was kind of disturbing to see SNOW flying around outside since it was, technically, now spring, but what can ya do? After lunch, we went shopping for things to fill each other's easter baskets; I got Dan some magazines on VW Bugs and Home Entertainment systems (his two favorite things in the world). He got me some awesome historical fiction novels.

The rest of the weekend we just hung out; Saturday we went shopping again and then went to Pedros, since my mom loves that place. Easter Sunday we went to church, of course, and Dan and I were surprised that we actually enjoyed the service. We are not religious at all, but this church (a Methodist one) seemed to really emphasize doing good toward your fellow man, and how Easter should bring with it the hope that we have the power to help others. It was really quite interesting, and we liked it much better than "normal" church services.

Of course, when we got home, it was time to look for baskets, which was fun. Rori and Kirsti were SO excited, especially Rori, since she got a princess bike! She literally screamed when she found it; it was so cute! The adults had fun, too; my mom put together an AWESOME Easter basket for me, which was fun; it was like being a kid again! :)

Here are some pictures from our weekend:



Me, just reading about one of the books I got; big surprise! :)









My mom and me both finding our baskets


Dan and me at church; Rori resting after a hard day :)




Dan finding his Easter basket in the princess bathroom, how appropriate! (Just kidding)