Quick Update

So, I wish I had exciting news to post, but unfortunately, Christmas was a bit hectic for us this year. Not in the best way... Christmas Eve was great and we spent it with my immediate family. My brother and his wife hosted a delicious dinner and we had a great time talking and watching the boys play with all their new toys. Baby Emily was soooo cute in her little Christmas dress (I'll post pics later)! Even Baby Allison made quite a haul. Unfortunately, I had been getting a sneaking suspicious that my gut was taking a bit of a downturn. And low and behold, on Christmas Day, it struck like gangbusters. I tried everything I could think of for some relief, but to no avail. I sent Matt on his own to celebrate with his family, but it was barely 5pm before I was saying uncle. I called my folks since they are closer than Matt and went back to St. John's... Matt met us up there and by 11pm I was admitted again.

The first few days were really rough, so I apologize if the horn didn't get blown as it did last time. I did start feeling a bit better by Sunday, however, they wanted to keep me long enough to transition me from clear liquids to solid food and from IV steroids to oral. So, I was released last night and am now doing my best to get caught up. We hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve and we will see you soon!

Welcome Baby Emily!!!

What's the best Christmas gift you can get?? A new baby, of course!! Well, my brother and his family were blessed this week with the arrival of Emily Elaine Emerson at 12:31am on December 11th. She's a beautiful little girl weighing in at 7lbs 4oz and measuring 20in. Jenn went in for her induction at about 2pm on Wednesday and a mere 10 hours later, there was baby Emily! Both Drew and Jack were very excited to meet their little sister. She's a very happy and healthy little baby and I look forward to taking advantage of my unemployment to spend lots of time with her... (I'll post some better pics later... The batteries in my camera always die at the most inopportune times!)

Decking the Halls, Home Improvement, and Date Night...

Well, I can't say my weekdays have been very eventful (mostly job hunting and Law & Order re-runs), but we sure have been busy during the weekends! The day after Thanksgiving, we went over to Matt's parent's house to meet Matt's step aunt and uncle for lunch as they were passing through town on their way to New Mexico. Grandma had hitched a ride down for the holiday festivities, so afterwards, we brought Grandma back to our house for dinner and had a great time catching up. On Saturday, we put up our tree and most of the decorations. It was pretty exhausting work, but the house looks really great. Then on Sunday, we celebrated Thanksgiving- Round 2 with Dan and Grandma over at Matt's parent's house. Mmmmm.... turkey.

I wish I could say this weekend was as productive for me, but Matt got a jump by asking Ian to come over and help reframe the plumbing stack enclosure. They removed all the yucky moldy wood and replaced it with fresh. Later, Katie came over and helped me prepare dinner and dessert- homemade pizza and fruit salsa... Yummy!! Matt still needs to finish covering the enclosure with luan, but he should be able to get that knocked out this week. Unfortunately, he will have a little more free time since his hours were cut at Vitran. All the "part-timers" were cut from 40 hours to 30 hours. The good news is that my application for unemployment has been approved and I should be receiving a payout this week and I also have an interview this week, too. I don't have too much info on the job, but I'm not ruling anything out. With all this additional stress, we decided that a date night was definitely in order. So, last night we used a gift certificate to go out for sushi and then drove around downtown looking at Christmas lights and other sights.

Turkey Perfection

While it has definitely been a rough 6 months for us, we still have a lot to be thankful for this year and yesterday we entertained both our families at our home to celebrate my favorite holiday. (Surprise! It's not Halloween!) After scrambling to get the house put back together after our "renovations," the place looked great and the food couldn't have been better. Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves, especially the boys who chased Denver around all day! He's one tired puppy today!!

Changes

Well, a lot has been going on with the Binnings these past few days. Saturday we got our new carpet which looks fantastic, Sunday we started putting the house back together, and today I was laid off along with 4 other people. Awesome. The good news is that they are covering my medical insurance through June so I don't have to worry about paying to have this baby. The thing that worries me most is that I may not be able to find a job that will hire a 4 month preggo. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that Matt gets this job at Proctor & Gamble, which pays a lot better than where he is at now. And if anyone hears of any job openings, please send 'em my way.

All our love,
Matt and Jen

Home Sweet Home

I am finally back home after my "vacation" at lovely St. John's hospital!! I wish I could say that I feel fantastic, but it's definitely going to be a recovery process. They sent me home on antibiotics, steroids, acid reflux meds, a plethra of other OTC junk, as well as with a prescription for Vicodin, which I hope I won't have to use... Unfortunately, as much progress as I had made on Monday and Tuesday was kinda negated by yesterday's experience with solid food. I realize that it's just going to take some time for my gut to heal.

While the last 2 months has been really tough, I feel better knowing that I hadn't been exposing the baby to all of these treatments during such an important time in his/her development. But what it really boils down to is that I was too stubborn to admit that I needed more medical attention and that allowed the pain to just get out of control. I may regret this later, but I hope that the little bugger got some of this trait because that means he/she will continue to fight to get as big and healthy as he/she can be. Thanks again for all the company and well wishes. It has definitely been appreciated by us both. Well, I'm tuckered out, so I'll talk to everyone later!

Helluva Coupla Days

So I know Jen usually does these things but there are things the out of towners need to know. As most of you know, this pregnancy has not been easy on Jen. On Sunday night she had really, really bad, sharp pain in her lower right abdomen. After failing to wish the pain away, (she's one tough woman!) we decided it was time to take her to the ER. They admitted her and started doing some testing. FOR THE RECORD, THE BABY IS OK. It turns out that she had a pretty bad Crohn's attack. It was the worst I had ever seen it. Apparently it can be stress induced as well as other factors (I think having half our house torn apart for over two weeks now counts). The doctors have her hopped up on morphine for the pain and have increased her meds to clear up her bowels. There is still more testing to be done, but she has gotten a lot better. They are waiting for a stool sample to test, but I'm wondering how that's going to happen on a clear liquid diet. Anyway, we are not sure when she is being discharged from the hospital, hopefully Wednesday, maybe Thursday. The silver lining is that they are checking the baby's heartbeat twice a day, so that's pretty cool to hear.

Things are looking much better, but it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I know the stress I'm under and cannot imagine what it's like being pregnant on top of all this. If anyone would like to call her to check in, please do. She's starting to go crazy from boredom.

In other news, regarding the plumbing issues, the ditch has been filled in and they finished the concrete work today. There is still a big hole in the upstairs bathroom, but the carpet people are hopefully coming on Saturday for the downstairs (provided the concrete is set). So, for the STL people, if you can make it, on Sunday we are having a "Put my friggin house back together" party. We haven't set a time yet, but we'll let you know.

That's about all for now. I'm sure Jen will post more (medical) details later this week.
-Matt

Refugees

So, thanks to the wonderful generosity of family and friends, we have had a clean, stench-free place to stay with running water the last few days! Thursday night, Steve and Barb took all of us in, with the hope that it would have been our only night away from home. Regretfully, there was no good pipe yet to be found, so digging continued. Since then we have been staying with my folks with the exception of Saturday night when we stayed at Sam and Susan's. Lynn and Mike had generously offered their home for the Halloween party, since we could not accommodate. It was great to get away for the night and see everyone. Definitely a big stress reliever!! I hadn't really realized how edgy I had become by that point... So, I guess thanks are also in order for putting up with me!! But with all hope, tonight will be our last night away from home... The outdoor excavating and connection of the plumbing work should be complete tomorrow. We still won't have a floor, but it's a step in the right direction. I'm going to wrap this up since the fumes are starting to get to me...

Here are some random pics of the progress as well as one of the puppy playgroup that is just too cute!

Too Good to be True

Well, the plumbers began the replacement of the stack yesterday and unfortunately, things haven't been going too smoothly... They originally predicted that solid pipe for a new connection should be accessed within 5 feet of the stack, however, now more than 25 feet has been dug in the basement floor with no end in sight. So, we have a lovely trench that goes from the stack in the family room through the wall into the guest room and finally into the storage room. It is anticipated that digging will continue outside the house (through our new landscaping wall!) potentially to the street. What gets even more complicated is that the pipe is buried about 8 feet underground outside... This may require additional equipment (and additional funds) to complete... Needless to say, the stress isn't helping my current condition and lack of plumbing is taking its toll as well...

Not so bad?

So, after our initial sticker shock with our first plumbing estimate, we had started to get a little worried. As a shot in the dark, we called our homeowner warranty company to send someone out for another estimate... Well, after his similar assessment, he believes that our warranty will cover the replacement of the stack!! That means our only our of pocket cost will be a portion of tearing up the concrete basement floor... We haven't received the green light yet from AHS (American Home Shield), but things are looking up! I can't say it enough... That's the best $500 we have ever spent!!

The Joys of Homeownership

Add to the list of many mistakes we made when buying our first house... Not having a plumber inspect the main plumbing stack prior to making a final offer. As many of you may remember, we had a horrible inspector, however, one of the things we made a point of getting documented was the suspicious leak around the plumbing stack. He couldn't find the source of the leak, but noted the enormous amount of barnacles on the cast iron stack and recommended replacement. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but after the previous owners refused to replace it because they didn't have time (or so they say), we requested a $900 allowance for repair. Well, of course, we thought we could put it off for awhile- after all they didn't have any problems with it, right? Wrong. Last night it turned into a slow waterfall, soaking the carpet and making it obvious that we couldn't wait any longer for repairs.

We have someone come out for an estimate today and it turns out that whatever genius suggested $900 would be sufficient was completely off. Try more like $8-10k!!! So.... here we are, unable to use our upstairs bath for fear of further ruining our family room, wondering how we can manage to get this fixed. If anyone knows a plumber that wants a little side work, please send him our direction!!! Other than that, we can do some of the prep work to save on labor, and we are consulting our insurance company and homeownership warranty for any assistance they can provide. What a mess...

Still Alive...

I have been really bad about updating lately, but I'm feeling pretty decent this morning and thought I would catch up a bit. Let's see... Yesterday we had Matt's family over for dinner as well as his Aunt Nona and Aunt Fran. They and two friends were in town from Wisconsin for a conference. Given that I wasn't feeling so hot, Barb came over early and helped vacuum, mop, and tidy up with us. They even brought all the food! The evening was fun and I love that my house is so clean!

On Friday night, Katie offered to come over and help put up the Halloween decorations. The motivation was a huge help to get me out of bed and everything looks really cute so far. There's still a lot of details to prep before the party, but I'm glad this much is done.

Last weekend, we enjoyed a Mexican fiesta over at Sam and Susan's home. The food was great and Matt was very proud of his homemade sopapillas. We had fun playing Phase 10 for a bit, but we headed home early. Also that weekend, we were offered free tickets to the Ram's game. Given their 0-4 start, I wouldn't have really paid to go, but since they were free! The seats were great and the first half was actually pretty good with the Ram's creating an early lead. Of courses, that fell apart in the second half.

I'm hoping that my absence of abdominal pain continues so that I'll have more fun things to post about soon!

Writers Block

I know I haven't blogged in awhile... Hopefully I have gotten to most everyone, so this won't be much of a surprise... Matt and I will be expecting our own little monster in 2009! I'm only 7 weeks along, but I'm already feeling the effects... Please feel free to check out our new baby blog at http://themakingofbabybinning.blogspot.com/ or click on the link to the left. My hope is that others can at least get some entertainment out of this experience! And for those of you that cheated.... :]~~~~

Breathing Easier

We finally feel like we're on the rebound because Matt started his new job with Vitran today. Jay must be pretty well respected there because they hired Matt without even really interviewing him! Regardless, they didn't want to start him off as a supervisor, so there's still some room for advancement, but it's a great start. From what I understand there is definitely a need for supervisors, so we hope that he gets promoted pretty quickly.

Besides that, we've been kinda laying low. On Friday, I was given a half day (with pay) by my boss so that the account coordinators could go to the spa together as a treat! It was a great time and afterwards Matt met me at Helen Fitzgerald's for an S&R happy hour. Then on Saturday, we went over to Ian's mom's house for dinner and a movie. Sunday was spent at my folks' house helping them get more settled into their new digs. Then finally yesterday, Matt's parents came over for a BBQ. We look forward to seeing everyone next Saturday at Katie and Ian's dinner party. All for now!

Movin' On Up

As many of you know (and some of you generously contributed your time and energy), my parents took on the huge task of moving this past weekend. I really believe that this will be a great move for them. It's a smaller house which is perfect for the two of them, it backs up to woods and hardly has a lawn to mow, and it's in a great central location. Strangely enough, it's in a subdivision that was inhabited by many of my elementary school friends, so it's kinda nice for them to be back in my old stomping ground, too. So, we made it through the bulk of the back breaking labor on Saturday then spent most of Sunday getting the new house "put together." The latest report I have from Matt (on his 3rd day working over there) is that almost everything has been transported to it's new home. I will post some pics of their new digs once it's a bit more presentable. (And I can maneuver around the boxes!) Thanks again for everyone that contributed to making the move as smooth as possible... We owe you guys!!

In other home news, we have officially been homeowners for 1 year! Looking around, I can see how much we have done to the place as well as how much more needs to be done. Obviously, it's been a hectic year, so I'm optimistic that September and October will allow us more time to polish up the place.

Since, I can't blog without a picture or two, here are a couple from Scotty and Tracy's birthday bash a couple weekends ago! See ya soon!

Abundance of Awesomeness

Matt and I are back in the Show Me State after spending 3 1/2 days up in Milwaukee with my friends Chris and Sarah. When we told people that we were travelling 6.5 hours to go to a state fair, we got a lot of crazy looks, but lemme tell you, it was awesome!!

The Wisconsin State Fair held every year is certainly not your ordinary event... Aside from the chickens and cows, there are tons of vendors, exhibits, and concerts to see. And of course the best part... The food!! We ate grilled cheese sandwiches, honey lemonade, apple cider donuts, the infamous cream puffs, root beer flavored milk, deep fried cheese curds, roasted corn on the cob, and deep fried s'mores just to name a few items... We don't recommend the s'mores, but everything else was fantastic! Matt and Sarah also rode down a HUGE slide and all of us took a ski lift across the fair grounds. The whole thing is so huge it fills the Milwaukee Mile raceway and surrounding areas. The weather was really perfect, too. It rained for a bit while we were at the fair, but cleared up in less than an hour.

While the fair was all that I expected it to be, I was really blown away by the rest of the city. Milwaukee has an incredibly vibrant downtown with a very active nightlife. They actually have a special park on the lakefront reserved for the practically weekly festivals!

After our arrival Friday night, we headed out for dinner at Elsa's which was very swank. There is a sister restaurant also in New York and they actually swap the art back and forth to keep the atmosphere fresh. In our efforts to try new foods, Matt and I split a pork chop sandwich, which was good (but not great). We went all out on the beverages, though. I had a yummy mango martini while Matt had his first experience with absinthe. It was banned in the US for a long time, but is now available in select bars. It's surprisingly sweet after pouring over the sugar cube, but with a bit of a licoricey after taste. Quite strong, though! From there, we headed to the much hyped Safe House. Sarah has been telling me about this place for years, so I had to see it myself. It's located in an alley without any signs whatsoever. You walk into this little vestibule, where you get this schpeal on espionage, then you are asked for the password. Well, Sarah and Chris of course didn't give us this information, so this bookcase opens to reveal a secret doorway, and we are left alone with the inquisitor. She makes us frisk each other in order to ensure that we are not hiding any concealed weapons and after she is satisfied, the bookcase opens. Once inside the bar, Chris and Sarah are cracking up..... Because it was broad casted all over the entire bar! From there, we wandered around exploring all the interesting details of espionage. The best way to describe it is kinda like the City Museum... on crack!

In case you can't tell from the dark pic, it says "Espionage .055km"

By the time that Saturday night had arrived, it was decided that we definitely did not have enough time to see all the sights, so we decided to stay through Monday. Then on Sunday, we woke up, picked up some breakfast and headed down to the South shore of Lake Michigan. It was incredibly beautiful with the waves crashing into the break water and the downtown skyline in the background. The dogs also had a great time playing in the water and with each other. Afterwards, we were able to fit in a quick trip to West Bend to see Matt's Grandma J. After lunch and more walking, we headed back to Milwaukee for our final evening. We stopped at a local discount market to buy our much needed cheese curds... $40 worth! Then on to dinner at Barnacle Bud's. It is located on a nearby river and mostly only patroned by boaters. Then after driving around a bit more, we checked out one more bar down in the 3rd ward. This area is kinda like Soulard, U City, and the West End rolled into one.

So, sadly it was then time to return home. We really did fall in love with the city and we hope to return very soon. I will be uploading pics tonight, so you can also check out my facebook account to see them all!

My name is Jen, and I'm addicted to Facebook

I know I've been a terrible blogger as of late due to my obsessive addiction to Facebook. I can't help it. The games are a lot of fun. But at least I am in good company. While in Indy this weekend, we actually busted out the laptops and started playing each other in Scrabulous, Text Twirl, and Space Wars. Fortunately, that isn't all we've been doing. We enjoyed a great weekend spending time with friends- talking, laughing, swimming, shopping, and playing. Of course, we travelled up there to enjoy the Brickyard 400 festivities. On Saturday, everyone but Susan and I (Sean's just too little for the loud cars and hot sun) headed downtown to see practice. Afterwards, we met up with them to go swimming in Andi's (Mike's new girlfriend) pool. With such a late night before, and an early morning to come, we headed back to Pam and Bryan's fairly early and those of us up to it watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Too funny! The next day, while the husbands were at the race, the wives took the kids for a walk and then played in the pool. I was certainly sad to be leaving early, but from the sounds of it, the guys were pretty much wiped out by the end of the race! If you want more pics, I have them posted on my facebook page...

Holiday Weekend

Well, I'm back to work after my much too short 5 day weekend! We definately stayed busy with happy hours on Thursday night, Joe's Crab Shack and Ameristar casino on Friday, dinner with my family on Sunday, and a dinner party with the gang on Tuesday! In between all of our social activities, I was able to get caught up a bit around the house. Not much fun, but productive. I really could've used another day (or another month!) but at least I got a good start... I've got pictures at home that I'll add later.

Busy, busy, busy

I know I haven't been very good at keeping up lately... So, here's the skinny on what the Binning clan has been up to.

Last Saturday was super busy with my cousin, Shannon's wedding. There ceremony was beautiful and the priest was quite amuzing. Most of my family (even the out of towners) were also able to make it in! Unfortunately, we didn't get much time to catch up because we had another event to attend.

From there, we ran home, loaded up the car and headed out to the big Talley 4th of July BBQ. We spent the rest of the evening playing games, running around in the rain, and blowing things up! (I'll add more pics later.)

One other exciting thing is that we are starting to get produce from our garden! Here are the first fruits of our labor!

My New "Do"

I had a productive start to my weekend, so far... Started off this morning with a trip to the farmer's market in Tower Grove Park with Julie, then we attended our first yoga class at my gym. I've still got a long way to go, it appears! My balance wasn't so great, so holding the poses was pretty tough. But I'm excited to challenge myself and add something new to my routine. From there, I went to get my hair cut. I like to cut it short since I don't get to the stylist very often, so Yasmeen suggested something a little different- a swing bob. I wasn't sure at first, but she's never steered me wrong before. I am really impressed on how it turned out!! She's worth every penny.














I was going to work out in the yard, but now that it's raining, I guess I need to find something indoors to do. Bummer.

Catching Up

Well, the last week has been pretty busy with work and play and I haven't made much time to update, so time to catch up! Last weekend we headed up to Cicero's to see Adam and his MN band, The Virginia Company, play. Cicero's is a great venue and the show did not disappoint. We also got to catch up with some of my friends that we don't get to see too often. All of Adam's family was there as well, and I got to talk to his little (well, not so little anymore) sister for the first time in years! She's all grown up!! I just can't believe that Adam and I have been friends for 13 years... It's so easy to lose touch with people, especially when they move out of town, but whenever I see him, it's like no time has passed.

Then on Saturday, we got to have another reunion-- with Sam!!! He is finally home from 10 1/2 months in Iraq. We headed out to Scotty and Tracy's to have dinner with everyone. The babies were adorable, of course, and it was nice to get a chance to catch up with everyone for a bit.

For Father's Day, we spent the evening at my brother's house with my family (since Matt's dad is in Alaska!). We had a great time making our own pizzas and playing with the boys.
This weekend, Matt is out of town on a float trip with friends from work, so I'm holding down the fort. While I'm sure I'm going to be a little lonely, I'm looking forward to getting caught up on things around the house and such. Well, that's all for now. Talk to you all soon!

Memorial Day BBQ, finally!!

You know, I couldn't even tell you why, but this past week has been a crazy one! (Aside from the 25+ people we had over at the house on Monday...) The day was a great success with a big turnout among family, friends, and co-workers. So, here are the pics from the big bash, finally!

Turns out the weather was near perfect considering the weather forecast for storms all day!

Here's my nephew Jack saying hi to baby Sean... He loves babies, which is great since he will be a big brother come December!

Grill Master Dad! Mmmm.... pork steaks!The Boo Brothers (aka Drew and Jack)

Sister-in-law, Jenn rockin' the Wii.

Sean and mommy Susan. Sean was the life of the party! Everyone wanted to play with him!

And this is what happens when you leave your camera unattended towards the end of the evening! Sorry Barb, I had to!

Busy Week!

It feels like I'm really behind in updating, so here's a quick one... Let's see, on Wednesday we picked up (with Scotty's help) our new mattress. It is soooo much better. We put the old one downstairs just in time for our last minute house guest, Ryan. he was passing through town on his way to TX for a training program and needed a place to stay for the night, so we were thrilled to have him. Well, one night turned into two because his briefing was pushed back til today. On Sunday, we made BLT's (with real bacon!), played Mario Cart, and he helped us do some prep work around the house for the Memorial Day BBQ. Then later, we met up with Katie and Susan and Sean for dinner at CPK. Afterwards, Katie joined us back at our place for games and drinks.... Lots of drinks. Let's just say we cleaned up the liquor cabinet. But it was certainly a fun time. Gotta run! I'll post about the BBQ later...

Putting on the Ritz

Well, this weekend was mostly centered around putting the final touches on the house and finishing last details of projects for the Memorial Day BBQ... Saturday we got the carpets cleaned, which also forced us to clean up the nightmare we call a guest room. We also mulched the front and back yard and got our flag hanging out front. I still have to tackle the office and my mountain of receipts, but that's a great evening project. And of course, there's still a lot of cleaning to be had, but nothing really out of the ordinary, which is such a relief. I'm getting the feeling that this event is going to go very smoothly, comparatively. But I think I always say that... :)

This weekend wasn't all work and no play, though. Friday night I had dinner with Susan and Sean, while Matt enjoyed the beautiful weather playing frisbee golf with a co-worker. Then on Sunday, we took my parents out to lunch. While we were in the county, we decided to shop for a new mattress. After three stores, we actually found what we wanted at Sam's! We've got to make some arrangements to get it home, but we should have it by this weekend, I hope. Than later that evening, Katie and Ian came over to make guinea pigs of us with a new cake recipe. It was, of course, delicious! After getting to bed a little late last night, I'm kinda worn out, but fortunately the day is half over already... Matt actually took a personal day today to get some errands taken care of, so the lucky duck got to sleep in!

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend... We got a lot done, but got to play too!

Malibu's Demons

Malibu may not be the friendlist cat, however, she has never really been aggressive. When I was roommates with Adam, she didn't exactly care for his cats, but she was certainly civil. All this said, I can't believe what happened on Saturday. We were outside working in the yard with Denver and Malibu, and the neighbors cat came walking up to our gate. Apparently, he has been having some behavioural issues lately, so they were hoping the new environment would help. Regardless, he immediately started growling and hissing at us, which in turn, caused Malibu to go birzerk! Her tail puffed up, she started hissing, spitting, clawing, the works. So, I finally got her into the house, but it didn't stop then. She was on the offensive and even started to chase Matt when he turned around to leave the room. Quarantining her to inside wasn't really doing it since we needed to get in and out as well, so I was able to chase her into the guest room downstairs with a broom. For another 5 hours, she wouldn't stop growling... Even while I was giving her tuna!

So, finally we had to leave and decided that she would just stay there until she calmed down. When we returned at 12:30am, she was crying to get out and since then has been sweet as pie. I guess she realized how bad she was and was trying to make it up to us??

Happy Hour

Well, it's been a pretty uneventful week, but I had plans last night with a bunch of people from work to celebrate the departure of one of my sales reps. We met up at Helen Fitzgeralds in Sunset Hills, which has fantastic happy hour specials! I had 3 martinis for $9!! I still think that it must've been a mistake... Regardless, we all had a good time sharing our opinions on office policies, our family lives, as well as some conversations that are not exactly work appropriate! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, so no pics to share. Time was flying by and before I knew it, it was 11pm. I finally got into bed a little before midnight, but could not seem to clear my head enough to fall asleep. So, after a long sleepless night, here I am trudging through the last day of the work week. Hopefully, my trusty cure for a long night out (Steak n Shake) will keep me going until 5pm! But really, it was a great time and totally worth the hangover!

Curb Appeal: Phase 3

It's finally done!!! We are so incredibly happy with the way the landscaping turned out. Yesterday, we finally got the plants into the ground and while it's a little sparse now, we are hoping that they will fill in soon. I also plan on adding some hostas and maybe tulip bulbs come fall. We have also picked out a new front door and light fixtures, so hopefully the budget will allow us to complete the face lift soon...
While we had the tiller on hand we also got the vegetable garden in place. It is 5 x 11 feet and we hope to get a good harvest of tomatoes, bell peppers, summer squash, and raspberries later this season. All in all, a good days work!

Mommies Nite Out

It was determined that the mommies desperately needed a night away from all the new enormous responsibility, so the girls headed out for a night on to town! With everyone's hectic schedules, we were able to get Susan, Tracy, Jen and myself together on such late notice. After a barrage of emails, it was decided that we would meet in centrally located St. Charles at the new Spy Bar. Since the new ownership, it's not quite as swank, however, it is certainly worth the trek. We enjoyed appetizers and martini's as well as a little after dinner dancing. While we love hanging out with the boys, it was nice to have a little "girl talk." You know, household tips, child-rearing, and husbands... It was a little hard to hear with the Z107.7 DJ there, so who's up for lunch and maybe mani/pedis next time?!

In other news....

Since I am waiting on the laundry to finish before heading to bed, I thought I would add some of the pics from Shelby Anne's baptism on Sunday... Unfortunately, our camera doesn't have a great zoom so you can't see much from the service...

Shelby getting dunked and not liking it!!!

Babies, babies, everywhere!!

Not too much else going on, I guess... Matt got his "walking papers" on Monday stating that July 3rd will be his last day at LSI. (I would imagine that most of you know already that the company he works for lost the Chrysler contract and got the boot, but just in case.) But they couldn't even keep them on to give them the paid holiday on the 4th! I'm hopeful that this forced transition will be a good thing for Matt's career as well as our family, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Worse case scenario, he stays til the bitter end and gets 2 weeks severance and 1 week of remaining vacation time cashed out. That will at least buy us some time! As for me, I've started weight-lifting at the gym so hopefully I can convince my metabolism to start burning off the all the ice cream I consume. Oh, and most exciting!! I am about to make the last Bob (the landlord) payment!! Well, I guess I should go and pay bills... Yuck... See you all soon!