Welcome to Katie LeAnne's Blog

Fall Already?!

2011-10-26T12:14:00.005-05:00

I can't believe it's already almost November! Where did the year go? As usual Mike and I have been really busy with raking leaves and outside work. I did a lot of canning this summer and fall, so in a way I'm glad that is over! Other than that, nothing too exciting has been happening, although it will be soon because I'm going to be an aunt again in a few weeks!! :)

My friend Ebony also took our Christmas pics, so that was fun and the weather was beautiful! What can be better than the fall colors?

Summertime

2011-07-26T09:15:00.005-05:00

My beautiful Dahlia. I found bulbs at Walmart that said you can plant them in the spring and they will bloom in summer. I was a little hesitant, but they turned out great and it was a lot cheaper than buying a huge plant.

My zinnias are looking great too, despite the beetles trying to eat them!

I went blueberry picking in Indiana with my sisters and some of my nieces and nephews. The bluberries were wonderful! Together we got about 130 pounds! Yum!

Emily and Laura riding back to our cars after picking.

Of course Mike was thrilled (although he doesn't look like it in this picture) with his blueberry sauce for his waffles and his tasty blueberry pie!! (he wondered why in the world I wanted a picture of him eating waffles, but you can't say no to a scrapbooker!!)

My garden! Thankfully you can't see all the weeds in the picture! :)

My first tomato from my garden! I was rather excited!!

Spring!

2011-05-03T11:44:00.008-05:00

I love spring! I love the flowers, the green grass, being outside and working in the yard. It seems it flies by too fast though, just like every other season (except for winter, yuck)!

Mike and I have been enjoying walking around town at night after it's dark. It's so peaceful and all the flowering trees and bushes smell so good! I also love the smell of people's laundry that is drying, weird, I know. ;)

I've been busy working in the yard, although it's been raining so much that I can't get as much done as I would like. Mike, as usual, is really busy working on various vehicles for different people. I've been spending a lot of time at Dad and Mom's because Denise and the kids were here from Indiana for a few days and then again for Easter. We had a lot of fun playing games, riding bikes in town, and hunting for Easter eggs!

Some pics of hunting for Easter eggs.

Here's a pic of the view from Dad and Mom's house a few weeks ago, so beautiful in the spring!

Here's a pic of some flowers that I picked for my table; they smell sooo good!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

2010-11-30T10:01:00.006-06:00

As usual, nothing too exciting happening lately with us. I enjoyed putting up my Christmas decorations...which I maybe put up the Monday before Thanksgiving...but I was too excited to wait! This year I finally have my wood floor and our house looks so nice without the pink carpet and flowered kitchen walls!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I really enjoyed my two extra days off! This week is our birthdays, how in the world am I going to be 24 already?? Anyway, I love this time of year...Christmas decorations, Christmas music, yummy food...

Since it hasn't snowed yet here, I thought I'd post a webcam picture from my favorite place!

It's been a while....

2010-10-26T11:48:00.009-05:00

...since I've posted on my blog. I can't believe it's almost November already! October was filled with gorgeous weather, but sadly I couldn't enjoy too much of it since I'm stuck inside most days.

This past Saturday I made applesauce with my mom. We made quite a bit more than usual, 52 pints! It rained on Saturday morning for the first time in quite a few weeks and the pine trees next to their house smelled wonderful! After we finished our applesauce, Mike and I went for a walk in their woods. It made me realize just how much I miss living there. Here's a few pics I took. I took them from my phone... *gasp*...I know, quite rare for me because the quality isn't great, but that's all I had with me.

Glacier National Park, Montana

2010-08-10T13:05:00.007-05:00

Vacation!

2010-07-19T16:19:00.004-05:00

Wow! I haven't updated the blog for a long time! Mike and I are leaving on vacation to Montana this Friday though, so I will be sure to post pictures when we get back. We are excited since it's been two years since we've been there and this time will be a little different since we are going later in the season. Here's a recent webcam image from the park's website; isn't it gorgeous!

Spring!

2010-04-10T20:20:00.007-05:00

Mike and I have been keeping busy working in our yard the last couple weeks. Mike cut down three trees because two of them were not very healthy looking and the other one was hanging over our driveway. He made me quite nervous when he was up in the tree! He would stand on a branch and hold onto another branch with one hand. The chainsaw would be in the other hand as he cut the branches off. I'm very thankful he didn't hurt himself, although we still have at least one more to cut down.

We also had a lot of work to do with trimming bushes, cleaning out flowerbeds, ect. It's been fun seeing what comes up in our flowerbeds and what our bushes look like when they bloom since this is our first spring at our house. I'm also hoping to plant a few vegetables in one section of our flowerbed.

All this yard work unfortunately has put the inside of our house on the back burner. We still have another coat or two of paint to put on the kitchen. Also the hardwood and tile still have yet to be installed.

Marco Island, Florida

2010-03-09T09:39:00.008-06:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, Mike and I went to Marco Island, Florida, with my parents, my sister, and her two girls. We drove, so we didn't actually get to spend too much time in Florida. We got to Orlando on Friday night and went to SeaWorld on Saturday. We all had a lot of fun at SeaWorld and it was a gorgeous day! Sunday morning we drove to Sarasota for church and then after church we drove the rest of the way to Marco. We spent our three days at Marco on the beach and swimming in the pool. Here are a few pics!

Vacation!

2010-02-18T09:02:00.002-06:00

We are leaving for Florida today after I get off work! I'm pretty excited! Everyone keeps saying how cold it is there, but as long as it's above 55 degrees it will feel warm to us. We are going with my Dad, Mom, Michelle, Abbie, and Emily. Unfortunately it's going to be a lot of driving, but oh well.

We are very ready to leave our house for a week! Mike has been working long hours on it the last two weeks. Lloyd, Martha, and Dad have been helping a lot too. Every room on the main floor has been painted. It took a lot of prep time because of the paste and glue that the wallpaper left behind. I will post pictures when we get back in a week!

Quick Update

2010-01-28T09:01:00.002-06:00

So here's a quick update of what's been going on with our house....

Today our new carpet is being installed in all three bedrooms! I'm so excited! We will finally be able to move into the largest bedroom and actually assemble our bed and dresser. When we moved in we put our bed in one of the smaller bedrooms because we knew we would be painting the master bedroom. We also didn't put our bed together (head and foot board) or put our mirror on our dresser because we would just have to take it apart to move it anyway. Anyway, it will be so nice to have everything put together! I'm also excited about the new carpet smell! :)

When Mike removed all the carpet the other night and we were quite surprised to find hardwood in two of the bedrooms. Obviously the carpet was already on it's way, so we couldn't cancel the order. Oh well, it wasn't really pretty hardwood anyway and it's very different from the hardwood we purchased for the other rooms, so it wouldn't have matched. It also would have taken a lot of work to fill all the holes and we would have probably had to stain it again.

That's it for now...hopefully in the next week or two Mike and my dad can start installing the hardwood floor...

Only 6 more months...

2010-01-21T15:19:00.004-06:00

...until our vacation! I'm so excited because yesterday I booked our Montana vacation for the end of July!! It's going to be a loooong six months!

We weren't going to go on vacation this year, but the thought of not getting to spend our one week out of the year together sounded so sad! The picture below is from the webcam in the national park from a few minutes ago. Hopefully we'll be standing at this very place when we go on our vacation. Although it depends on if I can make it the 4 strenuous miles... ;)

Snow!

2010-01-08T13:24:00.001-06:00

Frustrations

2009-11-18T11:57:00.004-06:00

Mike has been busy the last few days working on the house since he's been off work because of the rain. He put the first coat of paint on the bathroom. It's a little bright, but I think it will look better after he puts the final coat on and we get the new mirror and lighting put in. He also took out the purple carpet and the purple linoleum in the bathroom. It's always frustrating to find that there are two layers of flooring to rip up.

Last night Mike and a friend put recessed lighting above our fireplace. We couldn't put them quite where we wanted to because of the trusses in the attic. Mike had to spend quite a bit of time in the attic, much to his dismay, and came down sneezing and itchy after being up there for a while.

He also replaced the hall lighting and took down the lovely flowered and crystal light fixtures. Here's a few pictures.

Updates..

2009-10-19T10:56:00.006-05:00

We haven't done too much on the house lately, mostly because I can't make up my mind on anything. Since I can't decide on flooring for the house, we decided to start with painting the bathroom. I finally picked out and purchased paint so hopefully we can get that done this week. The walls needed a lot of prepping so Mike worked on that last week.

We had a friend come do some electrical work on Saturday; he replaced our fuse box with a breaker box. He will also be coming back next week to put recessed lighting in a few of the rooms and to replace some of the light fixtures, which I am super excited about!

Here's a couple pictures of the house after we moved our stuff in.

My new chandelier!!!

2009-10-12T14:16:00.000-05:00

I took these yesterday at our lake.

New House Pictures

2009-09-17T10:50:00.006-05:00

We closed last Friday on our house and we are moving in this weekend. This past week we have been cleaning and slowly moving some things in. Of course a lot of the cleaning has been done by my aunt, even during the day when we are at work... :)

As I warned you before, it needs quite a bit of updating. All these pictures were taken last week before we started working on the house. We started this week by ripping off the lovely flowered wallpaper in the bathroom. Hopefully soon we can start painting and replacing the flooring.

New House!

2009-08-17T13:43:00.004-05:00

Some of you have probably already heard, but we are buying a house!! The house is in Morton and is located behind my aunt and uncle's house. We weren't really looking for a house yet, but it is a family friend that is selling it so it just kind of worked out.

The house is older and needs quite a bit of updating, but that's what we wanted. Mike is really excited about the two car garage and I'm excited to decorate my own house! I will post some pictures before we start to work on it. There is some lovely hot pink carpet, purple carpet, shiny floral wallpaper, and much more to be excited about! Thank goodness I have a husband and dad that are so good at fixing things! So if anyone wants to rip some wallpaper off, give me a call! We are closing on it in the middle of September!

Mountains..

2009-07-31T09:44:00.006-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, I absolutely love the mountains! Every time I visit them, I can't wait to go back again! Even though we visited the Smokies this summer, it's not quite the same as going to the Rockies.

As I have mentioned before, I love to check out the webcams from Glacier National Park in Montana. Throughout the day, you can see the drastic weather changes that take place there. So here are some webcam images that I have captured recently. If you click on the photos, you can see a larger version.

Family and Friends

2009-07-13T11:55:00.002-05:00

We went to Mark Twain Lake, which is outside of Hannibal, Missouri, this past weekend for a family reunion. It was Aberle reunion, which is my dad's side of the family. Many of them live in Kansas so the last two reunions we have met in Missouri. It was nice to see everyone again and there's always interesting stories to be heard when we all get together.

Sunday morning we left early and came back home to go to my friend's wedding in Morton. After the wedding we got to see our newest niece, which is Mike's sister's little girl. They live in Kentucky but his sister came up for a couple weeks to visit since her husband is going to be gone for work (he's in the army).

That's it for now....

4th of July

2009-07-06T11:13:00.005-05:00

We had a good 4th of July weekend, despite the rain. Saturday night we went to my sister's house for my niece's birthday party and then to the Peoria fireworks. Since my office is right on the Riverfront, we have our own fenced in spot on the deck. They were pretty impressive and the crowds and traffic weren't too bad. Sunday was the Hopedale tractor pulls, and it was a beautiful day to sit outside.

Tractor Pulls

2009-06-29T10:14:00.004-05:00

We went to the first tractor pull of the summer yesterday just outside of Mackinaw. It was a such beautiful day! There were 107 antique tractors there; the most I've ever seen at a pull before. The looked so neat all lined up so of course I had to take pictures.

A little behind in blogging...

2009-06-24T10:14:00.003-05:00

So it's been over 2 weeks since my last post. I wish I had something more exciting to report, but sadly I do not.

I'm excited that summer has finally arrived, although I don't enjoy the humidity that has come with it! I was threatening the other day to move to Montana where the humidity is nice and low! It can be 90 degrees there and it isn't bad at all. The plus side of the heat is that it makes the water in Phil & Jessica's pool perfect! I went swimming for the first time this year on Saturday. It was most enjoyable, although I did manage to slightly burn myself. Hopefully I'll get to go swimming more this year than last year.

Oh and we had quite an entertaining family picnic a few weeks ago when we caught a snapping turtle at our lake! Mike was fishing when he saw the turtle just off the shore. So naturally we put a piece of hotdog on a big hook which was attached to a roll of string and threw it in the water. We tried this a few times, but he swallowed one hook and got away with the hotdog several other times. So we decided that just a shovel might be more effective and finally got him out of the water. My dad was happy that we caught him because they can really clean the fish out of a lake.

I'm also really excited about the all the fairs and tractor pulls coming soon! Of course we will be going to the Hopedale pulls since that's where we met each other 3 years ago. :) That's it for now, try to keep from melting in this heat!

2 Years!

2009-06-09T09:46:00.004-05:00

Today's our two-year wedding anniversary! I can't believe how fast the two years have flown! To celebrate we went out to dinner and mini-golfing last Friday night. There was a driving range at the mini-golf place so Mike had fun with that. I tried it a few times; wow I have a lot to learn! I felt so dumb and of course there are people there watching..maybe I'll practice my swing at home before I go again.

Some couples I know get big gifts for each other for such occasions. Since neither of us are too big into gifts, I usually get flowers and Mike gets cookies or a pie. This time I made him a strawberry pie, yum!

Happenings

2009-06-01T11:46:00.004-05:00

As seems to be the trend lately, nothing too exciting has been happening with us. Our Memorial Day weekend was rather boring with the most exciting thing being our family picnic at the lake. Last week I continued to keep busy by planting flowers and putting mulch down at my parents' house.

This past weekend it was so beautiful outside! Saturday I was spent half the day at my sister's house in Eureka since she had a garage sale and the other half working in my parents' gardens. Mike and I also went to the golf course, which is a first for me. Mike golfed 9 holes, and I watched and enjoyed the weather. He even let me drive the golf cart! After seeing how difficult it is, I'm pretty sure it's not for me. I might try going to the driving range sometime just to satisfy Mike and to say that I tried.

Since this isn't a very exciting post, here are some cute pictures I took at the family picnic.

Another week goes by...

2009-05-19T09:47:00.005-05:00

Does time seem to fly by faster in the spring for anyone else? I absolutely love spring and it's already the second to last week in May! Last week I was busy buying and planting flowers for my parents' house and my house. Mike and I had a relaxing weekend; basically the only thing we did was go to Gridley for a family thing on Saturday night. It was nice to see some of our family from Indiana and catch up.

It was a lovely Monday morning because over the weekend the Peoria riverfront flooded...again. It's starting to get a little old walking on scaffolding to get to work! The flooding isn't quite as bad this time, but still very inconvenient. Oh the joys of walking past the Asian Carp and ducks on your way to the office!

I'm looking forward to the long weekend coming up! Mike and I are hoping to go camping one or two nights so hopefully the weather cooperates! We've been saying ever since we got married that we were going to camp so hopefully it actually happens this time!

I've attached a couple more pictures from our trip. I have more of them up on my Facebook page, but since some of you can't see that I decided to post some more here.

Our Tennessee Vacation

2009-05-11T12:17:00.008-05:00

Mike and I got back from Tennessee yesterday afternoon. It was an enjoyable trip despite the rain. The first part of our trip consisted of going to Ohio for a wedding. We stayed with Mike's sister Jen and her husband Jeff on Friday and Saturday night. It was nice to see their house and spend a little time with them. On Sunday morning we left for Tennessee and arrived at our cabin around 5:30.

Our cabin was very cute, although Mike wasn't happy with the steep road that we had to drive every day to get there. My poor car!! So much mountain driving!

Anyway, we spent most of our time hiking and driving places. We saw a lot of beautiful waterfalls and streams even though sometimes we had to hike in the rain. Two days we spent in town and at our cabin because they were calling for thunderstorms, and it's not fun being on a mountain when it's thundering and lightning. We ended up hiking about 21 miles in the 4 days that we were able to hike.

The highlight of our trip was definitely the bears that we saw. It's a good thing I don't use film anymore because I would have wasted a whole roll on just the bears! We saw them in Cade's Cove, which is an 11 mile loop that you can drive or walk. There are a lot of old buildings in this area and there's a good chance you'll see wildlife too. Here's just a few pictures that we took.

More Rain???

2009-04-30T09:04:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's raining again! Tomorrow is May 1 so that means no more rain, right? I bet that's what all the farmer's are thinking. Anyway, it's been over a week since my last post so I thought I'd share what has been going on.

Obviously nothing too exciting otherwise I would have run to my computer and of course posted it! :) Anyway last weekend was an enjoyable and busy one. Friday I had the day off so I went where any other girl would go, shopping! Although I must say I didn't have very good luck. I stopped at my Mom and Dad's house after shopping and declared that I want to open up my own clothing factory. What is wrong with clothing designers??? So frustrating!!

Saturday I helped Mom get ready for out Fritz family gathering. It was an enjoyable evening although there was a little sadness in the air at the missing place at the table. I always make name tags and put them at every spot when we get together. I admit it was really hard to throw one away because it was no longer needed. Hopefully I won't need to do that for a long time, although next year we'll have a new spot and a new face at the table. :)

Sunday was Bob and Jenny's wedding. It was such a lovely wedding! If you weren't there you defiantly missed one of the most creative centerpieces I've ever seen. There were subtle touches of a chemistry theme. And how could I forget the cans of Dr. Pepper!! So neat!

Moving on...tomorrow Mike and I are leaving for Ohio and then Tennessee for the week. I'm pretty excited, hopefully we'll have good weather! Hopefully it won't rain as much. Here at the office they are saying there is a chance of another flood. As far as I'm concerned it can flood because I'll be gone anyway. :) I'll be sure to post pictures when I return.

Spring!

2009-04-20T09:18:00.003-05:00

So it officially felt like spring to me last Friday when I finally got to mow my parent's lawn. If you know me, you know that I love to mow the lawn on my parent's riding mower. It's so peaceful and it always looks so nice when you are finished. Since my Dad was at work on Friday, he didn't have a chance to beat me to it. He says he doesn't have time to mow, but then he already has it done by the time I get there. I don't particularly like it when he does it because he just goes in circles to get done as soon as possible. I, on the other hand, like to make nice neat lines. Anyway it was most enjoyable (the sun tan doesn't hurt either).

Nothing else too exciting has happened recently around our house. I'm looking forward to next weekend when we can get together with the Fritz family. It will be nice to see everyone again, but hard at the same time because it's our first family gathering without my aunt. I'm also counting down the days until Mike and I go to Tennessee for a week the first week of May.

That's it for now.

Friends!!

2009-04-09T09:09:00.003-05:00

Last night we got together at Kaiser's with a group of friends, and of course I took my camera!!

A picture of the girls! Notice the impressive elk in the background. :)

Birthdays!!

2009-04-07T09:31:00.005-05:00

We go to a lot of birthday parties for our nieces and nephews! With 16 of them; it seems like we are going to them all the time! These are from Wesley and Holly's birthday party a week ago.

Wesley turned 5!

Holly turned 10!

Even though it was the shirt and hat that Wesley got, John wanted to wear it. He can even say "John Deere".

Nothing New

2009-04-06T14:25:00.004-05:00

I wish I had something exciting to report, but I regret to say it the past week was rather quiet and uneventful. Although that's fine I guess because I don't particularly like change anyway. Thursday night I finally got to see my friend, Britt, and meet her finance! It was good to spend time with friends that I don't get to see too often.

Friday I had the day off work, although I would have rather gone to work then to a visitation. I helped my mom clean their house for visiting relatives from Kansas that were also coming for the visitation. After cleaning I also went to the visitation for Mark Wiegand. Wow, talk about a big visitation! Dad thought more than 1000 came through the visitation and 500 at the funeral.

That evening we went out with another couple for dinner. They have 3 kids and every other weekend the kids stay overnight on Friday with one set of grandparents. And two weeks later, they rotate to the other set of grandparents. How neat is that?? Anyway, we often go out with them on the Fridays that they don't have the kids.

I worked at Garden Gate on Saturday because the owner is related to Mark and needed to go to the funeral. Saturday night we went to Mike's parents' for dinner and the evening. Sunday I had a headache so we didn't go to church. Sunday night we went to my mom and dad's for dinner.

That's it for now!

Enjoyable Weekend

2009-04-01T09:45:00.003-05:00

It's Wednesday already! Where did the week go? Last weekend was a really nice one! Sometimes Mike and I are really bored on the weekends, so last weekend we were glad we had something to do.

Friday I had the day off work, which is always wonderful. I cleaned and started working on my scrapbook. Friday night I went to dinner and shopping in Peoria with my sister, Michelle. It's always nice to catch up with her!

Saturday I was pretty busy trying to get the house clean and making food for that evening. We went to Trent and Heather Barth's for dinner and then to Metamora High School to see their musical. Mike and I really like going to musicals, and I couldn't miss it because they were doing "The Sound of Music". It's always been my favorite, especially since I was in it when I was in high school. They did a good job and we all enjoyed it (although I'm not quite sure if Trent did). After the musical, we went back to Trent and Heather's for dessert. We stayed way too late and were pretty tired the next morning!

On Sunday we went to Phil and Jessica's for a birthday party; I'll try to post some pictures of it later.

Monday, again!

2009-03-23T10:42:00.005-05:00

It's Monday, again! How does it come so fast? Where does the weekend go! Nothing too exciting happened this weekend, as usual. Saturday I went to Michelle's for the day just to hang out and scrapbook. Of course we got more talking done than scrapbooking. That night Mike and I went out to eat with our friends, Keith and Angela. We went to TGI Friday's in E. Peoria, and then we drove to the riverfront by my office to check out the flooding. Then we watched a movie.

Sunday was pretty uneventful; we went to Mike's aunt and uncle's for dinner. Then we watched Fireproof. I can't say as I was too impressed, but oh well. This morning I had to get up at 5:15 to go to Michelle's to babysit and get her girls ready for school this morning. She works one day during the week and my mom usually stays there but she was sick this morning. I don't do well with no sleep and really early mornings, especially on a Monday! Hopefully I can keep myself awake today. The things we do for family!

Long Weekend

2009-03-18T13:33:00.005-05:00

Hi! I had a nice long weekend, 5 1/2 days! We got off at noon on Thursday and didn't have to come to work until today because of the flood. Friday I went scrapbooking at Lori's all day. I didn't get much done, but it was fun nevertheless.

Saturday and Sunday Mike and I just kind of relaxed, worked around the house, and hung out at his parents. I had a horrible cold, and on Saturday I completely lost my voice. Mike thought it was hilarious. My voice still wasn't back on Sunday ,and I was kind of miserable; so we didn't go to church. I was disappointed because we were going to go to Morton church because my friend was getting announced.

Monday and Tuesday were rather uneventful. I stayed at home most of the time and relaxed and spent time outside enjoying the wonderful weather!

Flood!

2009-03-11T09:09:00.005-05:00

One of the interesting things about working on Peoria's beautiful riverfront is the occasional flooding that takes place. The company I work for moved our office to the riverfront in April 2008. Since then this is the third time it has flooded. This past year has been unique in that it doesn't usually flood this bad in a period of just one year. Our building is thankfully up on a platform (next to Joe's Crab Shack & Old Chicago) whereas the River Station is not. So our office is safe from the flooding, but our parking lot gets covered in a couple feet of water.

Back in September we couldn't come to work for two days because the water was covering the lovely and somewhat scary scaffolding that is set up for us to walk on. Yes, scaffolding. It is set up so we can get in one of the stairwells. When it flooded after Christmas, we were off for the holidays anyway so we weren't affected. When we came back our parking lot was like and ice rink.

Anyway, here we are again this morning with a flooded parking lot. Thankfully it doesn't smell bad like it did in September (the smell of nasty river water and dead carp). It wasn't in our parking lot last night when we left work, so the river came up very quickly last night. You would think that people would be smart enough not to leave their car parked where it is going to flood, right? But there are two cars parked by River Station that have water up to the headlights.

The good news is that there is a possibility of a day off tomorrow depending on the rise of the river levels! Here are some pictures of when it flooded in September; it's not quite this high yet, but it's getting there.

2009-03-09T10:34:00.004-05:00

It's been quite a while since I made my last post. Although I admit nothing real exciting has happened since then to make me rush to my computer and write.

Last weekend was a good one, lots of family time. Friday night Mike and I went out to eat with Mom and Dad Fritz, Michelle, Abbie, Emily, Lynette, Nate, Laura, and John at Olive Garden for Michelle's birthday. It was quite fun, although with all those cute kids how could it not be? I got an absolutely hilarious picture of John sitting on Nate's shoulders with this huge grin on his face. The funniest part of it all is that is holds onto Nate's hair for support. Then we stopped by Mom and Dad Fritz's for a few moments before returning to Mackinaw.

Saturday we had a baby shower for Mike's sister, Rachel. Mike's other two sisters and their families came for the weekend. That evening we all gathered at Mom and Dad Rasmussen's. It's quite a house full with two new babies and one on the way. It's going to be quite noisy at holidays and family from now on!

It was a good relaxing weekend! Although I admit I'm a little tired and I miss that hour of sleep. I need a vacation! Too bad it's still two months away!

Beauty

2009-02-23T15:56:00.009-06:00

Mike and I visited Glacier National Park in Montana last summer. Since then I have been checking their webcams that they have linked to their website. It's really neat to watch the scene change throughout the day. They especially have very dramatic weather changes in the winter. Here's a couple of the images that I captured from the webcam. Here's the link if you want to check it out. http://www.nps.gov/glac/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm

My New Toy

2009-02-23T15:40:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited because I finally got a treadmill!! I looked for a used one last winter but decided that we shouldn't be spending the money to buy one. This winter I didn't even look for one, but I just happened to be reading a small newspaper that we receive weekly, and I saw one for a really good deal. It was owned by an older couple the next street over from us. Hopefully I can keep myself motivated because so many people buy one and then never use it. Mike is really good about motivating me so hopefully we can both push ourselves to work out.

A Trip To Remington

2009-02-23T10:13:00.000-06:00

My husband, Mike, and I went to Remington, Indiana, this past weekend to visit my sister and her family. My sister, Michelle, and her two girls also went too. We left on Saturday morning and got to Remington about 12:30. It was so fun to play with all the kids!

I got to give Brittany and Ashley their birthday presents. Brittany turned 13 and Ashley turned 10. They grew up so fast! They all showed us what they are learning in school and all their projects. Brittany showed me all of her beautiful art projects, she is very talented. She takes an art class at the AC church school.

It only took me a little while to win Natalie, who is 2 yrs. old, over this time. She's a little shy at first but if you read her a book, she will love you forever. She even let Mike read her a book! Mike had a lot of fun playing with Brendan. They played Brendan's racing game on the computer and some wild games of basketball in the basement.

It was so nice to be able to spend a little time with all of them! We wish we could have stayed longer!

My New Blog!

2009-02-23T09:30:00.000-06:00

Hi! This is my first blog so I'm kind of excited. If you know me, you know that I am a terrible writer, so don't expect to much when it comes to my posts. I created this blog for anyone who is interested in my rather boring daily life. I love to read people's blogs, so I thought why not create one myself. I love to share my pictures with people, so there will probably be quite a few. Feel free to leave comments; I would love to hear from you!