Shower Time

If you don't already know...my sister is (finally) getting married in March to her boyfriend of over 8 years!!! This weekend we put her invitations together and had her wedding shower. The shower turned out really nice - we had all the guests either bring a picture of them with Michelle or we took one and then they each created a scrapbook page. The scrapbook turned out really neat!! Here are a few pictures:
This is a pretty close replica of what Michelle & Jarrod's wedding cake will look like. Trish and I decided that we had to try the cake out before Michelle served it to her guests. It definitely passed - awesome cake!!

Shelly & Ellen working on their scrapbook page.

 Jill (Jarrod's mom), Michelle, and Mom

Michelle's Girl's

Kelly (sister-in-law and guestbook), Trish (personal attendant), Nicole (jr. bridesmaid), Michelle, me (matron of honor), and Cara (bridesmaid)

So...

Here's the post I tried to put up on the 28th which was last Sunday...

There isn't too much in the way of exciting news, therefore, the lack of posts. The weekend was good - I went to a neighbor gals for a wine tasting on Friday night and then on Saturday, I met my friend, Terri, in Peoria to get my dress for her wedding. We found a pair of shoes for me and some other stuff to get her going on wedding planning. Pretty much just hung out Saturday night and Sunday.

I'll be in Peoria on Thursday and Friday for a conference and Jason's at the Bloomington Prairie Thunder hockey game with a friend tonight. We also have a benefit to go to on Saturday night (for the Michaels family) and then a Super Bowl party here on Sunday. I'll be sure to get some pictures this weekend to post!


Now on to current "stuff":
After a massive snowstorm on Thursday night, ISU, Country, and State Farm all closed on Friday. But, since I was already in Peoria working, we continued as usual. The good news was that I was home by 1pm and didn't have to worry about going in to work. I think they said we ended up with 10" of snow!
We didn't do much of anything on Friday night and last night we went to our neighbors benefit. What a great time! There was a great turnout - hopefully they raised lots of money for them! We met another neighbor there, too! Chris and Julie live on the opposite side of Tiff and Jon so it was nice to meet some more Butterfly folks there. Here's a few pictures:

This is just one room at Entourage filled with people!

The dad to be giving a very nice speech. You can tell he is so proud of and inspired by Tiffany and her upbeat attitude while on hospital bedrest!

Do you think he's ready for his FOUR that will be arriving in the next couple months?!

And, I'll leave you with a picture of Jason and I!

Tonight's the big Super Bowl party so I'll have another post for you tomorrow!

Back to work...tomorrow!

Wow, it has been so awesome to be off work. Not only has it been nice because of the much needed time off, but also because it has been soo cold! But, it has to end - tomorrow, it's back to work for me which is actually okay because I have plenty of stuff to work on when I get there.

Before I go any further, I need to send out a huge prayer request...my friend & neighbor Tiffany Michaels (Michaels blog on the right) has just been admitted to the hospital. She is currently pregnant with quads and has been having some contractions. Things seem to be getting better, but please keep her, her husband (Jon), these four little babies and the docs/nurses caring for them in your prayers!!

On to brighter news, this weekend was a great time. We didn't do anything Friday night. Saturday morning was the spa day which was very relaxing (and, if you've never been told before...don't get a massage when you are hungover, it's bad news!) followed by lunch at J.Buck's (yummy!!). Jason and I both took nice naps on Saturday afternoon and then we headed over to our friends (Jean Ann & Mike's) place for dinner. Dinner was awesome and the games were fun!! :-)

On Sunday, Jason and I went to the 2nd step of the membership classes at church. It was a really good class. We'll go to the 3rd one next month (since I have a meeting this Sunday). After that, I took my little sister to her tumbling meet in Peoria. Boy is it strange to go to a meet and have to pay!! I'm definitely not used to that after coaching for 8 years! She did great....here's a picture of her getting her medal! She's on the right in 3rd place. There were other kids in her group, but they weren't up there.

Today was a fun day, too! I got to spend it watching my 6-month old nephew. He is getting to be so much fun!! He is sitting up on his own (not for very long, but he can do it!!), and he now has his two bottom teeth. Last time I watched him I thought teeth were coming in because he was drooling like crazy and now they are here! He is getting so big and is very strong!

Andy, the other thing we had to do today was replace the rear U-joint in the Durango and get the transmission fluid changed...not a fun task for the pocketbook, but hopefully it prevents something really bad from happening and the vibration we've been feeling is gone! Woo hoo!!
So, it's back to work for me tomorrow....have a great week!!

This has been such a great week!! I only went to work on Monday and Tuesday and that was pretty much to get some stuff done for Theatre Festival. Then, I was off Wednesday through today! Yeah! I spent each day doing some cleaning (and of course, getting a nap in on Thursday!) . It feels good to get the house all cleaned. Unfortunately, it won't stay this way long since I'll be back to work and busy on Tuesday (we're off on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. day). We're not doing much tonight - just hanging out watching tv and playing on the computer. Tomorrow's the spa day with the neighborhood gals and then we have dinner plans with some friends. On Sunday, we'll go to church and then I'm taking my 'lil sister, Aireol, to her tumbling meet in Peoria. I'm looking forward to another day off on Monday. Karen is bringing Caden over for me to watch him all day...he's just over 6 months old now! I'll post updated pictures as soon as I get them.

Theatre Is...Over! (the Festival at least)

Wow! So, I just calculated how many hours I worked this week...let's just say that it wasn't such a good idea! I figured up that it was 76.5 hours in 6 days, but it was a great Festival. For those who don't know what I am talking about, every other year ISU hosts the IL High School Theatre Festival (on the opposite years it's at U of I) and I have been working with a committe of 30+ high school teachers since January 2007 to plan this year's event which happened over the weekend. The committee was great - very young, with lots of great new ideas - but, I'm kind of glad it's over and I get to work on something else for a while. Besides, I only have about 12 months and then I'll be back at it!

Today was nice, but I was just exhausted from the week. Jason and I went to church this morning -didn't know we were going to get a lecture on sex, but that's what it turned into. Good sermon, but I was surprised. Then, we went to Applebee's to use my gift certificate from Christmas - the food took forever, but our server was great about it. We got groceries and then Amber took a three-hour nap until Amazing Race started (probably why I am still up at 10pm!). Next week is the season finale...I'm guessing Ron & Christine (a father/daughter team) will win.

Okay...so I know some events have passed that I didn't recognize on here in the last few days...First,

Happy belated 28th Birthday to my sister, Michelle!!!

I did call her on Saturday (her actual birthday), but just haven't had a chance to put it on here. Also,

Happy 6 month birthday to my nephew, Caden!

This was yesterday. Hopefully we'll have new pictures soon that I can share. I can't believe it has been 6 months!

Work has been and will be (at least until Saturday) a little crazy for me. The rest of the week looks like 12 hour days (at least!) so be thinking about me!! You probably won't see another post until next week...sorry! As you might tell, this one is getting done at 6:05am and only because I couldn't sleep!! When you start dreaming about work or waking up because of work related stuff that's no fun!

(And, by the way, I'm not sure why this post isn't formatting right!)

Happy New Year!!

Each year, Jason and I like to do different things for New Year's Eve. Some things we've done in the past are: the hotel party, downtown Bloomington, just hanging out at someone's house, etc. This year, we received an invitation from my cousin, Kristin, to come North and go bar hopping with them. We thought this was a great opportunity before we have kids to head out of town (3 hours away). The only other people we knew were my two cousins and my aunt, but we had a great time! Time went by so quickly! Thanks for the invitation, Kristin!!

My cousins & aunt -- Casey, Doris, Kristin, and me!

asey and I dancing away!

Kristin & Casey ringing in the new year!

Happy New Year!!!