2009 - a year of change

Here I sit on this New Year's Eve thinking about all the things that happened in 2009. I remember Chip and I driving home from my parent's house in Kansas City last January and talking about what we thought and wanted to happen in 2009.

To borrow a much overused phrase from our then president-elect, I wanted 2009 to be a year of "change". I had a few specifics in mind when I made this statement - some happened, some didn't. Some were good, some were not so good, some where expected, some not-so-much...overall I'm grateful for what this year brought and what lies ahead in 2010. Here are a few of the highlights...

A change in church
2009 started off with Chip and I feeling led to look for a new church. After five + years at our previous church, we felt that we were looking for something that would give us more of an opportunity to feel more involved and invested in not only the church and its members, but the community as well. We visited over 5 churches in the local area, but didn't feel like any of them were for us. It was getting to be depressing. I happened to be reading the newspaper at work one Monday and came across an article about a program called Kidstuff being put on by a church called Beachside Community Church. Why I read that article I have no idea, we didn't have any kids. Anyways, that article led me to do some research into that church. I liked what I read, so I mentioned it to Chip.

Chip did some research into the church as well and was interested in meeting with the pastor. We met up with Shaun, the church's pastor, at the Dairy Queen in Niceville. Chip came prepared with a typed up list of questions to ask him (what can I say, I am married to an engineer!) and Shaun answered everyone of them. We felt good about this new church and the goals and direction they were headed in, but it still took us a few more months to commit. The church didn't start having Sunday services until the end of August (which was 5 months away at the time), so it was hard to commit to something we couldn't "see" in action for a few months.

In the end, we did start serving in and attending the church and have really enjoyed all the new people and friends we have made, getting to be a part of starting up a new church (and all the hard work that it entails), and feeling like we are where we are supposed to be now.

A change in travel (a dream realized)
2009 also brought us many new and exciting travel adventures. Our first trip was to Albuquerque, NM in March. Chip had a conference out there so I decided to join him and explore the Southwest. Highlights included a hot air balloon ride, a side-trip to Santa Fe, and a death-defying tram trip up to Sandia Mountain.

Two days before I joined Chip in ABQ, he called to say we were a go to be on the Rick Steve's London & Paris trip May 24 - June 1. I cried when he told me that! I have dreamt of going to Paris for as long as I can remember - and now I was getting to go!!! I've blogged about this trip before, so I'll spare a regurgitation, but this trip was amazing and one I will never forget. All of the fabulous history, artwork, landmarks, and pastries and I saw and ate will linger with me for the rest of my life. I can't wait to go on another international trip - hopefully to Italy in 2011 ;)

2009 also took me to Austin, TX to visit my good friend Bethany. I had a wonderful time visiting her, her husband Ben, and their daughter Violet and thoroughly enjoyed Bethany and my "girls day out" which included hiking, pedicures, creme brulee french toast & frozen peach Bellini's, and a movie. Also worth mentioning was our lunch earlier in the week at Flip Happy Crepes - it was delicious and still fresh in my mind :)

I also went to Kansas City in August to visit my family and to belatedly celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. I got to give them both a fun surprise - the news they were going to be grandparents - disguised as a birthday gift. I'll always remember the look of shock, surprise, and then excitement on their faces once they realized what they were looking at (a framed ultrasound picture). I'll also remember my sister's reaction - priceless :)

A change in family
2009 also brought us the exciting news that our family would be growing by one, though not until March 4, 2010. We found out I was pregnant in late June. I was happy, but still in shock. Don't get me wrong, this was planned - as much as you can I suppose, but still it was a surprise when you realize that it is actually going to happen.

To make things even more fun, I found out Bethany was pregnant too when she called me to wish me a happy birthday...yay!! It has been fun to go through this with her and get to call or email her and talk about all the strange and new things we're going through. Then a few months later our other friends Austin and Ashley called to say they were pregnant, too. A baby explosion! It is fun to all go through this together.

When I was 12 weeks along we found out we were having a girl. We have a name, but have chosen not to reveal it until she is born. Not so much so we can pull a "I know something you don't know" type thing, we just want to make sure we are set on this name before people start calling her this and also because we don't want to know people's opinions of the name. We know someone will always not like it. Too bad, go have a child of your own and name it whatever you want :)

We are just 9 weeks away, give or take, from our little girl coming into this world. We're eager to meet her and begin this new phase of our lives. Her room is just about ready for her - whether Chip and I are is yet to be seen :)

So, what statement will I make about 2010 and my hopes for it...I don't really know. 2009 did bring some change with it, which I tend to enjoy and sometimes welcome. I'm not one for "routine". I welcome whatever 2010 brings as a chance to learn and grown, to have fun and make new memories. Life isn't always easy, nor the things that happen always enjoyable or predictable. But one thing I have learned this year is that those struggles and challenges remind me we aren't in control and can't control things. These things do, however, serve to make us stronger, develop our character, and teach us to be grateful for the blessings we do have instead of focusing on what we don't have.

As a close to this long-winded post, here is one of my favorite videos (and memories) from our trip to Paris. It is Chip and me eating some ice cream on a bridge in the Île de la Cité listening to an accordion player playing "Que Cera Cera".

Happy New Year to you all!

be my friend

Dear friends,

I don't condone caving in to peer pressure, but I have. Inadvertently, really. I have now joined Facebook. So, all you people out there that told me to do it need to now go on Facebook and add me as a friend, if I haven't sent you a request already.

That is all. Thank you. :)

my girl

Say hello to our little girl!


I had my 12.5 week check up a little over a week ago and the doctor told us she could tell us the gender if we wanted to know. Chip and I both wanted to know...I don't think I could have waited the whole 9 months. Anyways, she did the ultrasound and said we are having a girl! We were both very excited - especially since we won't have to deal with the whole Philip John Flater V name debacle. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she really is a she and that we won't get a surprise at the next appointment that it is really a boy. Which would be fine if it did happen, honestly. We'd be excited either way - just as long as they don't find a hidden twin in there :)

Now that I'm in the second trimester I am feeling much better! The queasiness has pretty much disappeared and food is starting to taste better again. Woohoo! I'm not craving anything yet, but at least sweets seem slightly appealing again. I ate chocolate the other day - the first time in months and it actually tasted good!

In other news, Chip and I are looking to buy a house in the area. No luck yet. We've seen probably close to 30 homes over the past few months, but I've only seen one I'd consider putting an offer on and it was way over our price range...of course! Most of the homes in this area are old, which I'm fine with as long as they are well maintained. Most aren't. Some don't even look like they've seen a fresh coat of paint since 1983. So who knows what will happen. Our lease doesn't run out until the end of April, but with the first time home buyer tax credit expiring the end of November and now a baby, we have a little more motivation. Though I finding it hard to "give up" and call Niceville my permanent home. Moving out of state doesn't seem like a option anytime soon. Oh well, I'll deal.

I'm so excited that this weekend marks the start of the college football season. I'm ready to park it on the couch and watch a few games. It somehow makes me think it is Fall even though the 90 degree temps outside remind me it clearly isn't. FYI to those of you with a Chick-fil-a, if you wear your team's shirt on Monday you can get a free chicken sandwich. Yes!! I love Chick-fil-a!!

Last weekend also marked the first Sunday service of our new church, Beachside Community Church. Chip and I have been involved with it the past 5 months. Up until this past Sunday we had only been meeting in small groups on Wednesday nights and occasional Saturdays for planning meetings. The first service went very well. Everything looked great, we had over 250 people attend, and over 70+ volunteers all make it happen. Hats off to the Shaun, Jim and the rest of the Beachside staff for their hours of hard work over the past 2 years to make this a reality. Chip and I are blessed to get to be a part of it and help invest our time and resources into helping start up this church. Our next service is September 13 at the Boys and Girls Club in FWB.

One last random story. We bought a new vacuum cleaner 2 weeks ago. Our old one wasn't broken, but it was a 10 year old hand-me-down that just wasn't cutting it. I know everyone says how great a Dyson is, but I refuse to spend that much on a vacuum. For that price someone should be doing the vacuuming for me. Anyways, we bought a Shark Navigator which is basically a Dyson but less than half the cost - plus if you buy it at Bed, Bath and Beyond and use the 20% off coupon it gets even cheaper. All I can say is wow, and eww! I couldn't believe how much dirt, dust, lint, pet hair, etc it sucked out of the rug!! It was really gross, but our rugs looked and felt clean. They even looked fluffier. So we are very pleased with it and recommend it to anyone in the market for a vacuum.

Ok, I'm done writing for now. I'm sure you all enjoyed the bit about the vacuum. I know, I'm a dork. Whatever! I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend watching football, relaxing, and eating free Chick-fil-a :)

Summer Recap

I'm still here! I know I've been really bad about updating my blog the past two months. After surviving the terrible 4-day work week with the incredibly long days, I just didn't want to come home and spend anymore time on a computer after being on one for 10 hours. Can you blame me?

Here's a quick update of our summer (I liked Emma's Facebook-style list so much, I am going to copy it):

July:

-4th of July weekend we had our 4th annual "Party till the Cows Come Home" at Ashley Henkel's parents house. Fun was had by all. No diving contest; it's just not the same without Emma plus no one wanted to compete with me. I did eat plenty of homemade chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Mmmm!

- Double Birthday Weekend - Austin and Ashley came later on in July to celebrate Austin's birthday and mine as well. We went to see the college's summer musical Beauty & the Beast, I got to be Queen for the Day (awesome!), and we went to the beach where I burnt the tops of my feet really bad. Not fun! I did get a steam mop for my birthday (yes, I wanted that). I really like it. It is a Shark Steam Pocket Mop.

August:

- Chip went to Monterrey, CA for the annual Bombs and Warheads Conference, yes there is such a thing.

- I went to Kansas City to visit my family and celebrate my dad's "milestone" birthday a little belated. (I'm a good daughter, I didn't even mention the age he turned). I was able to give him his birthday gift in person, which was the news he was going to be a grandfather. Yes, you read that right.

Introducing....

our wee one! I'm currently 11 weeks along and due March 8, 2010. I seem to be feeling better now. I had a few week bout of all-day sickness. As long as I had a little something on my stomach at all times, I was ok. I still don't want any sweets, which anyone who knows me is rare! I'm feeling a little less queasy now, so maybe I'm getting past the morning sickness part? Woohoo!

It was priceless to surprise my parents in-person with the news - especially since this will be their first grandchild. I made a print of this sonogram picture and put it in a frame that said "grandkids". I'll never forget the expression on my dad's face when he opened it! He just stared at it for a few seconds and then his eyes widened and he asked me "are you pregnant?!" My mother, who was on the other side of the room, said "WHAT!?" They both were speechless for a few seconds, a rare occurrence, but then were excited. Telling my sister the news went even better! We simply put the picture frame on a table along the wall in the Family Room. She walked by and it was liked her eyes just found it. Her first words were, "is this a joke?!" Once she realized it wasn't, she was speechless too and then had to sit down. I think she was a little shocked. I guess she still sees me as a kid, so it is weird a "kid" is having a baby. Need I remind her I just turned 29?

- We need to watch the Weather Channel a little more. Apparently there was a Tropical Depression/Storm something off the coast that was coming towards us yesterday. We figured it out after a call from my mother. It wasn't so bad until our power went out at midnight...until 4:30 am. And then as soon as it came back on it went out again for another 30 minutes. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep last night. No AC=no sleep for me. I'm going to bed early tonight! I also noticed when I came home for lunch today that a big old oak tree fell on our neighbor's townhouse. They are out of the country right now, and we're looking after their place. Luckily after going in the house and looking around, it missed breaking any windows and doesn't look to have caused any damage to their place. Phew!

Well, I think I have sufficiently covered the past few months. I'll try to be better about updating my blog a little more frequently. I probably will also cave at some point and setup a Facebook page. Apparently people might be looking for me on there? Whoopee, yet another thing for me to try to keep up with...and fail :)

they always come in threes

Thanks Mother for reminding me today that deaths usually come in threes. Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett and now....Michael Jackson!! Say it isn't so!

I talked to my mother at lunch today to see if she had looked at the CD of pictures I had mailed to her of our London/Paris trip. We talked briefly about Farah Fawcett dying. She then mentioned, "You know, these things always happen in threes. David Carradine died a few weeks ago, so it has been too long. I don't know who'll be next, but I bet someone else will die soon."

Well, two hours later Michael Jackson dies. Seriously, did she jinx him?

I have always enjoyed his music. I mean, come on, who hasn't danced like a zombie to Thriller?? Who hasn't mimicked his moon walk, crotch grabs and high-pitched shrieking? Well, maybe not the crotch grabbing.

Michael, you'll be missed...for your music. Not all the alleged things that you did behind closed doors.

a tale of two cities

We're back from our trip to London and Paris - actually we got back last Monday night, I've just been too busy to update my blog. It's hard to whittle down 1800 pictures to 30 or so of the highlights.

Our trip started in London. After our 9 hour transatlantic flight (LOVE the tvs in the back of the headrests on the planes and the 200 free movies!!), we landed in London around 9 am (3 am US Central time). After making our way through immigration we got on the Tube and went off to our hotel. Around 3 pm we met up with our tour group. There were 26 other people in our group from all over the US. Our tour was through Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door. We highly recommend his tours - small group, they take care of everything, and you really learn about the history and culture of a place. Our guide's name was Martin. He was from Wales. Martin was great fun and had a fun personality. Chip and I ate dinner with him one night in London at an Italian restaurant called Ask. It was nice to get to know him more and talk about life in the United Kingdom and how their economy is going through a similar time like ours is.

I found London to be clean, friendly for the most part, and full of interesting history. It was weird to see all the cars driving on the left side of the road. After nearly getting run over by several taxis, I finally figured out which way to look when crossing the street.

Some of the sights we saw in London were: the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, took a Thames River cruise, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the British Museum and Library. We saw the crown jewels, Henry VIII's armor, the Rosetta Stone, the Gutenberg Bible, pages from Leonardo da Vinci's journal (in his own handwriting), and many other neat things.

One of my favorite places to see was Westminster Abbey. You couldn't take any pictures inside, but I wish we could have. The architecture was amazing, especially the ceiling detail in the Henry the VII Chapel. One neat thing were all the people buried there: Sir Isaac Newton, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and George Fredrick Handel just to name a few. Like them or hate them, these people had an impact on our lives. The Abbey is also where every king and queen of England was crowned.

After a few days in London we took the Eurostar train to Paris. The train ride lasted about 2.5 hours and went under the English Channel. We arrived in Paris' Gare du Nord. I was SO excited to be there. From the train station our group got on a bus and headed out to our hotel. Along the way we saw the Moulin Rouge, the Champs Elysee, the Arc de Triomphe, and made a quick stop at the Trocadero to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower - one of many for Chip and I.

Paris was as wonderful as I hoped it be, though there was a lot of graffiti and pigeons everywhere. We found the people to be very nice and treated us well. It was fun to get to use my french. I was very proud of how hard Chip worked to learn key phrases and how he always tried to speak french when we went out.

Some sights we saw in Paris were the: Eiffel Tower, Seine River cruise, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Saint Chapelle, the Conciergerie (prison where Marie Antoinette was kept before going to the guillotine), countless museums including the Louvre, Montmatre, and several others. We saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Rodin's The Thinker, Whistler's Mother, several Van Gogh paintings, and Monet's Waterlilies. All were amazing! I still can't believe how many original paintings we saw! I was so happy when Chip finally agreed with me how cool it is to see the real painting as opposed to a print. You can see the brush strokes these famous artists made on the canvas as they painted, the globs of paint, and their signature. That is just the coolest thing to me!

Our last day in Paris we took the train out to the Palace of Versailles where King Louis the XIV, XV, and XVI lived. The size and opulence of the palace was still amazing even considering today's standards. Again, it was just the coolest thing to be in a place where so much history took place. We tour the palace and saw the famous Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed that ended WWI. We also saw Marie Antoinette's bedroom. Our audio guide said 19 princes and princesses were born in that room and 2 queens died there.

After 10 wonderful and action-packed days we boarded a plane for home. I always get vacation let-down when I have to come back to real life. This time was no different. At least I have the 1800 pictures and dvd of videos to remind me of what a wonderful time we had.

Ok, ok time for the pictures! Click here for about 30 of the pictures from our trip. I'd love to write more about my trip, but know most of you are falling asleep at the keyboard right now. Even my mother won't read it all, she'll just scroll down to the pictures so don't feel bad :) Enjoy!

anniversaire heureux et bon voyage

Today is Chip's and my 5th Anniversary! Yay! Five years have gone by pretty fast it seems. I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful husband who takes such good care of me and loves me.

In celebration of our anniversary we are taking a trip to London and, drum roll please....Paris!!! I'm over-the-moon excited to be going to Paris!! I can't wait to see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, go to the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa (!). I also plan to eat my weight in crepes and pastries :) I promise I'll post tons of pictures when we get back. Until then....au revior mes amis!

old friends, new town

This past weekend we went to Tallahassee to see some old friends, help some other friends move to town, and see a show 15 years in the making.

On Friday afternoon we went to the Leon County Civic Center and saw Cirque du Soleil's show Saltimbanco. I have been wanting to see it for 15 years. Long story short, when I was turning 13 this show was in Chicago (where I lived at the time) and I wanted to go for my birthday. I ended up not getting to go, but 15 years later I made it! Chip and I both enjoyed the show. Cirque's shows are always artistically beautiful and fun to watch.

While in Tallahassee we got to see our friends Joel and Kristine. It was great getting to hang out with them and catch up. Kristine is almost 12 weeks pregnant, so it was cute to see her starting to show. I also realized this weekend that I have known Joel for 10 years - that's a long time! I can credit Joel for introducing me to Chip - thanks!

On Saturday we helped welcome our other friends Austin and Ashley to Tallahassee from Jacksonville. Austin is starting FSU's Medical school in just a couple of weeks. I still think it is too perfect that the biggest UF Gator fan I know is now a Seminole! Life can be funny!

As part of their welcome to town, Chip and I took them on a tour of FSU's campus. I showed them my old dorm and buildings I had classes in. Ashley even asked about the location of a certain "incident". The highlight of the tour was taking them to Doak Campbell Stadium. As luck would have it, the gate was open so we went inside. Austin, being the staunch Gator fan he is, was hesitant to enter, but we made him. Hello, he's a Seminole now!

Once we got inside we noticed the gate to the field was open, so we went out. It was SO tempting to go run out on the field, but there was a "Stay Off the Grass" sign. Not very official looking though. So after a moment of hesitation, I made a break for it. I didn't go far, but for those few seconds it was pretty awesome. How many people can say they ran on the turf at FSU's Stadium?

We had a great weekend! It was so great to get to spend time with everyone and help some great friends move closer to us! :)

too perfect not to post

I had a moment of eupohoria a minute ago while logging into my Yahoo email. On Yahoo's homepage they have a highlight box of recent news & human interest stories. The one that was on there a few minutes ago was entitled "Eradicate this font." I said out loud, "I hope it is Comic Sans", and wouldn't you know when you click on the story it was about Comic Sans!! I'm glad to know there are others like me out there.

My distaste for Comic Sans began a few years ago when I first got involved in the world of graphic design. It's not that I hate it completely, it's just used too much and in the wrong places. Comic Sans is great for something geared towards children, though I think there are better fonts. It is not, however, suited for anything meant for anyone ages 10 & up. The article sums it up best when they say using Comic Sans on anything and everything is like "showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume." I couldn't say it better myself.

So please, next time you are doing a PowerPoint or making a flyer think about the font you are using - and refrain from using Comic Sans.

deep in the heart of texas

For my spring break this year I went to Austin, TX to visit one of my closest friends, Bethany. As always, we had a great time catching up and hanging out. It was sad to go home; I wish we lived closer to one another so we could see each other more often.

Heres a few pictures of the highlights...

al-b-quirky

Last week Chip and I returned from a trip to Albuquerque, NM. Chip was out there for a computer seminar for work, so I decided to fly out there at the end of his training to see the sights.

ABQ is quite different from the humid, flat terrain of Florida. It was nice to see something different. My sinuses, and skin, didn't quite adjust so well. I had nosebleeds and very dry skin. Oh well!

While in ABQ we went to the Biological Park, home to the zoo, botanical garden and aquarium. I loved the zoo! It was well set up so you could see all of the animals closely, plus they were active since it was a glorious, non-humid 65 degrees. We also went on the Sandia Tram. It was fun to ride in a glass box dangling from a cable thousands of feet above the craggy rocks below. It is the world's longest tramway as well. From tower 2 to 3 is over a mile! You can barely see tower 3 in the distance when you pass tower 2! The view from the top was great, you could see for miles.

The highlight of the trip was going on a hot air balloon ride. Albuquerque is famous for their international balloon fiesta every October. It was fun to glide through the air in a big, colorful balloon. Our captain, Randy, was very nice and has been flying hot air balloons for 28 years. Can you imagine doing that as a job? Man, my job is boring!

Here is a slide show of some of the highlights:



In addition to all of the activities and sight seeing we did, we ate a lot too. Chip and I try to stick to a "no chain restaurants" rule while on vacation. We pretty much stuck to it the whole time we were there.

Of course, ABQ is full of new Mexican/southwestern food. So our first night there we ate at El Pinto. It was pretty good. All dinners were served with sopapillas - fried bread. You pour honey on it and eat it to fan the flames of the chilis - that are in everything! If you aren't a spice fan like me, go for the green chilis since they tend to be mild.

Another restaurant I enjoyed was called La Provence. We had a friendly french man named Jean Francois as our server. He was very attentive and very nice. Chip and I had croque monsieur's - a ham and Gruyere cheese sandwich with bechamel (white sauce) and baked in the oven. Delicious!

We also ate at the Frontier Restaurant which was right down the street from La Provence. This place should totally be on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." It was a fun place that is crazy busy! It has been there for 38+ years and apparently is popular. The food was pretty good, too. Most of the places we went to eat were around the University of New Mexico. There just seemed to be a lot of fun places to eat there with a wide array of food types.

We drove by a place called the Dog House on our first day in ABQ. I loved the sign because it reminded me of my dog Frank! It is an old place that serves, you guessed it, hotdogs. I'm not a big hot dog fan, but we ate their one night after eating a big lunch. The food was actually pretty good.

Before we left for ABQ I looked online for places that sell cupcakes. Ever since going to the Magnolia Bakery in NYC and I have renewed love for these tasty treats. I did a google search and found 2 places to go. Both had the most amazing array of flavors I've ever seen. I knew I had to eat a cupcake everyday I was there - and I did. I had a chocolate chip cookie dough, s'mores, grandma betty, and red velvet cupcake. All were tasty! We got them from Cupcakeology. Check out the website and drool!

In the mean time, enjoy these pictures of our tasty travels!



Well, that's the highlights of our trip. It was a lot of fun. This week I am headed out to Austin, TX to see Bethany. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures and stories to share from that trip. We always have fun and crazy times when we get together. I'm so excited to see her!

doing my civic duty/the bachelor sucks (yes, i watch it)

A few weeks ago I got the dreaded summons for jury duty in the mail. I had to call Sunday afternoon to see if they needed me to come in or not - most of the cases plea out before they go to trial so they don't need the jury. They did release the jurors - numbers 220-500...my number was 123. So I would be heading down to the courthouse the following day.

I have only been summoned one other time, while I was in college. Since I wasn't in the county I was excused. This time I wasn't so lucky.

I got down to the courthouse at a little after 8 am and went through security and was taken to the Juror Waiting Room. There were about 200 chairs in there. Eventually the room filled and the Clerk of Courts came in and swore us all in. He said that there were 4 cases on the docket that day and that a computer would randomly select the names of the potential jury pool. If selected, you went on to be questioned by the attorneys who would decide if they wanted you or not. Then we watched a 15 minute video about what you do as a juror and the different types of cases you would hear.

After the video they called the first group - my name wasn't called. About an hour later they called 2 more groups and again my name wasn't called. Another hour passed, and they called the final group...again my name wasn't selected. They held the remaining 30+ of us who hadn't been called for other cases to wait until the first group came back. If the attorneys had rejected them all they would need us. Of course, they didn't and I was eventually sent on my way.

I was a little disappointed. I was kind of hoping I'd get picked. I've never been on a jury before or in court and thought it might be a neat experience. Instead I got to miss 3.5 hours of work and sit in a room watching Fox News. Oh well, at least it made the rest of my day go by fast!

Changing subjects, I watched the finale of The Bachelor last night. Yes, I watch that show. Every time it comes on I say I'm not going to watch it and then due to a lack of other interesting programming being on I get sucked in. This season was much like other seasons. A previous bachelor reject gets the tables turned and now gets to be the one doing the picking and since they know what it's like being dumped on national TV, they won't be anything like that. WRONG. Jason, the bachelor, is just like every other moron who goes on that show hoping for true love...in a completely unrealistic, highly-staged-for-ratings ploy by ABC. Needless to say, this bachelor sank to a new low by proposing to one girl, dumping her on the After the Final Rose show following the finale, and then proceeding to hook-up with the girl he didn't propose to some 30 minutes later. It was awful. Judging by the backlash I've read about online today, most others agree.

While I type this entry, I just saw on the news that yet another person Obama has picked for his cabinet has "accidentally" forgotten to pay a portion of their taxes. Seriously?! Several of his appointees have had this same "unfortunate lapse of memory". What is wrong with people!? Can anyone be honest anymore? Everyday I watch the news and see billions more of money we don't have being spent on some ailing bank or company and then I hear about the president's budget that apparently contains "earmarks" that he swore once he got into office that he'd eliminate. Like the high speed railway from CA to Las Vegas and something about tatoo parlors. Give me a break! Can someone with some integrity, a backbone, and some decent ideas please step forward and run our country! So much for change! We need it. We're not getting it.

Anyways, off my soapbox I step. I didn't intend to rant, but I couldn't help my self. I'm sure some people may disagree with me. That's ok. You're entitled to your opinion, I'm entitled to mine.

Well, off I go to make dinner. I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing interesting to talk about. Hah!

The Christmas/New Years Post

Finally I have had a chance to sit down and update my blog!

Chip and I spent 2 weeks in Kansas City for the holidays. We decided to drive this year instead of flying since it would be a lot cheaper. It took us about 16 hours to drive there. We split it up over 2 days, so it wasn't so bad. We made a few stops along the way to see various points of interest like Graceland and the St. Louis Arch, so that made it more fun.

Here is a slide show of some of the pictures we took. As you can see there are a lot of pictures. We got two new cameras for Christmas this year - a Nikon D60 (love!) and a Canon Powershot - so we needed the practice :) While in KC we went to the Truman Presidential Library and saw an exhibit on WWII photography and went to the casinos a few times. We also spent a good bit of time playing the Wii. We particularly liked doing the Wii Fit so we didn't get fat over the holidays because we did a lot of eating.




I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!