Holy wow!

Oh my, I just rode 24 miles on Ben mountain bike... it was on the road mostly on the Pere Marquette rail trail... not much in the way of hills or really even bumps in the road but I'm exceptionally impressed with myself. It took about 2 hours and for a girl about 30 pounds overweight I don't think it's bad... The coolest thing is that I rode more miles than Ben golfed today.. :)

Little girl

I just thought I'd put another pic up of my little babe... a week from today I should have her home and probably watching her sleep :)

Nothing but Nets...

So I have never watched American Idol... before this season. Ben actually doesn't mind watching it, so we have been sucked in. So tonight they are doing their "tele-a-thon" which is great since aren't we always asking people to use their good fortune to help others. Well they just did a piece on malaria, which reminded me of another person who used his connections as a writer for Sports Illustrated to encourage others to purchase mosquito nets. Rick Reilly is far and away my favorite writer. This is part of the reason why. Normally you only see the initial article and no follow up. Well again here is another article that tells of all the good people are capable of doing.
I'm intrigued to see how well this "tele-a-thon" works. Oh and one of my goals this year is to make a significant donation to a good charity that serves my area...
Oh and please read the articles I've linked, I know he's from a sports magazine but he writes so well and its quite touching... here's the link to the charity also... Nothing but Nets

This week

So this week I am living alone since Ben is in Houston doing training. I'm having trouble getting motivated to do stuff around the house.. including making dinner. I don't know if you guys remember my dinner skills in college, but I'm reverting back to them. That can of corn/package of frozen corn is looking great right now. Ok so I'm really not going to have just corn, I think I'll call out for some pizza...

Otherwise we did quite a bit of demolition in the yard this weekend. We broke up a slab of random concrete in our backyard, although it's still there since we have to get a dumpster to dispose of it... There were also two hideous bushes in the front yard that took up half the yard. They once probably looked really nice, but they had since overgrown so much that they created a circle 12 feet in diameter. Way to big, and it started out as an easy job, just a few scratches on the legs here and there but cutting the branches off went pretty well. Then we got to the enormous stumps and tried to use a chain and Ben's truck to pull them out but it ended up being harder than we realized. In the end we had a few neighbors over trying to help and we managed to finish the job. We now have a birch tree with a 12" circle of dirt around it in the front yard... I'm sure our neighbors love us (especially since we really don't have a plan yet to fill it.)

So that entire process took about 5 hours outside and since I didn't expect to be out so long I didn't put any sunscreen on... BAD IDEA!!! I'm so burnt, and itchy... besides aloe, do you guys have any ideas for me?


Oh and updated puppy countdown: 11 days till she gets here. The breeder wants to keep her another week, which is fine with us, we want her healthy and ready to go when we pick her up. We did spend a bunch of money on her things this past weekend, we now have her kennel, dishes, some food, a food storage container, leash, collar, clippers, a few more toys, and my favorite - potty bags for picking up after her! I'm so excited!!!

Houghton

I tell you what... I love fishbowls... especially when you get to enjoy them with a great group of people :) Unexpected though when we got to Houghton I just dropped Ben off at the Triangle house and went to the hotel. no hanging out, no dinner... so instead I met up with Jer and we drank at the ambo, then the dog where we saw Shaggy and tried to hook-up with Bailey and Marco, but no luck. We wandered down to the Triangle house where it was packed and I felt exceptionally old. Not just because I didn't recognize anyone, but because I remembered how much I hate being in that house... it was so dirty. Jer and I did see little Richie's little brother so that was kinda funny... he was trying to remember my name and was coming up with an s... then so... then finally I let him know he was on the right track and he comes out with it. It was pretty funny, then sad to find out he is a junior.... So OLD!!!
On Saturday I got my hair done at Regis so I didn't' have to worry about it once we got to copper harbor. It only cost me 30 bucks... that's what I pay to get a hair cut... I love Houghton.
We got pizza at the ambo for lunch, after Jer and I met up with Marco at the Delt Sig house. We tried for Bailey again but she had a meeting all day. So sadly we didn't get to see her at all.
The night was a lot of fun. dinner was ok, the drinks were a Mariner normal, cheap but weak so I didn't get as intoxicated as I wanted but I did play several games of photo hunt... not the dirty kind though - they didn't have it. :)
Sunday was a horrible drive home, the weather was great but I was so tired! And yesterday I was doing some work in the labs and basically looking down all day (which I have to look forward to doing all week) so today I went out and bought those heating pads to help me not hurt all day... pray that it works for me!

Countdown to puppy (with no name still): 9 days!!!

Is she not the cutest puppy ever... excluding of course all of your guys' puppy!


Up to Houghton tomorrow for Triangle formal, I'm really looking forward to seeing Jer and hopefully Bailey at the wonderful Ambassador for Fishbowls and pizza. See you back here on Monday!

Weekend

I'm pretty excited for this weekend. Ben's parents are coming for the weekend, they are leaving tonight from Green bay and stopping in Manistique for the night. They should make it here by noon tomorrow after which we should be shopping at Birch Run and going to dinner at Uno Chicago Grill. We need help with a few things around the house and so they are bringing lots of tools for us to use and are offering their services. They will be leaving on Monday after Ben and I go to work, so we get two full quality days and a reason to clean the rest of our house.
Well I hope everyone has a great Easter and I'll let you know how the weekend goes.

I just read Crystal's blog and I have to say that I'm super impressed by how life is turning out for everyone. It's inspiring to read how Jer is almost done with her Masters, Crystals embracing her new situation even writing for a online magazine, and of course the cutest kids (great playdate pics by the way). All of you give me so much to look forward to...
Thanks guys!

So since I don't have internet access at work, and it's too much to do
this at home I tend to write my blogs in an email and then paste them
into the website after work. So if the formatting is off I'll try to take
care of it, sometimes I don't catch it though.

We went to see Blades of Glory on Friday. I'm really not sure how to
rate this movie. Yeah it was funny, I had to look away a few times
when it went a little far. There was a plot though it was exceptionally
far fetched and a lot of the acting was mostly obnoxious. However, I
obviously expected such things before I got there so it did live up to
my expectations. It didn't hurt that I had a few drinks before
watching it.

We watched a few other movies at home this weekend too... Stranger
than Fiction, and Night at the Museum. It was pretty relaxing. And
when we weren't watching movies we raked. I finally started to take
care of my yard! And now I've sadly heard that there is a possibility
of snow this week... poo...

Puppy news, no name yet. I think I should be a bit more open to the
fact that Ben doesn't want that name, I don't need to be quite so
stubborn. We did a little price shopping at PetSmart, and my pocket
book cried. I think we will be buying our crate online. It's half the
price to get one that's selling on Ebay for the exact kind we want...
that'll cut the overall price in half thankfully.

Other news, the job is going well. I'm finally getting out of my office
a few days a week. However I'm not sure what to do when I don't
have things to do outside my office. The person I should be watching
has other work that I won't be involved in so there isn't a point to
watch that work and it's hard to track down others to watch (the
buildings pretty big and I hate using the PA). So I'm still trying to
work on writing goals, do more online training and read more
procedures. Or really read the procedures again. I'll be honest they
really didn't make any sense in the first place. Otherwise the people
are nice and the atmosphere is pretty good.

Ok, so since I'm doing this at work and feeling kinda guilty I'll write
again later!