HOLLA-WEEN and other to-do's

Eek! The time is once again flying by and I am certain that once the holidays hit, there is no stopping it.

We have been busy these past few weeks. We had some fun at UNI's homecoming, we took a short little trip to Orlando (Florida that is. Swimmin' pools, sunny days.) halloween festivities and also the Michigan St./Iowa game. I forgot how much was going on in such a short time.

It all started on the morning of Saturday the (uh, don't make me think about this)23rd. We got to hang out with Ian and help carve pumpkins. Ryan and I picked up a kid friendly carving set so he did most of the work on his own. I just held the pumpkin. Ryan and Ian raced to see who could clean out their pumpkin first, by being the smart one who picked the smaller of the pumpkins, Ian won.

Let the games begin

Ian wanted to put gloves on to touch the 'yucky' stuff and Grandma helped him out a bit.

Ian's pumpkin is the cat right behind him

And tada, here is Ry's finished face

That afternoon we headed to CF for the homecoming game and festivities (including going to the Hub to watch Marcus, much fun).

our salute to the days of UNI baseball

It's always cool to drink out of a trophy, if you haven't done this put it on your bucket list =)

We just got back from Florida. Ryan was there on business. I was able to tag along, ride the lazy river, catch up on a little r&r and reading. We stayed J.W. Marriot in Orlando which was pretty. nice. Ryan usually finished the meetings early enough in the evening that we had a good chunk of time to spend with one another. We ate well - of course meaning seafood on at least one occassion. Soaked up a few rays. The final night we were there, Ryan and I wandered over to Universal Studios. To my disappointment the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was closed (must go back) but we still enjoyed some fun and the warm weather (80's - 90's and humid).

don't mistake this as me hating the place, i was just sad it was closed

Finally this past weekend, we headed to Iowa City for unseasonably warm weather. The Iowa game was a blast, seriously one of the more exciting games I have attended this year. Maybe because Mich State was undefeated, perhaps the fact that they didn't score for a LONG time or the fact it was a perfect day for football. Who knows. Either way, here are some pics.









Well that was a mouthful. TTYL.

love:

Crazy September

Here is my annual post (Ryan, by the way). Labor Day weekend kicked it off. Ashley had a girls trip to Davenport and I was in Minneapolis filled with golf, Twins game, and typical male camaraderie ;). We capped of the weekend with friends for Charley Knoll’s 60th bday party on Sunday and nothing on Monday.



The next weekend we attended the Iowa/Iowa State game. We had a blast tailgating with Dr. O’Shea (Brendan) and his fiancée (Andrea) and Dr. Borgwardt (Derek) and his fiancée (Stacy). This was possibly the only game Amy Knoll may attend due to a baby on the way, so we made the most out of it. By the way, the Hawkeyes blew out the Cyclones…again.

I mostly mention the weekends since those were the busy times, but Ashley was very busy in August and September planning her Memory Walk for the Alzheimer’s Association. The event took place on the 18th at Riverfront Stadium (local minor league ballpark) and was a huge success raising over $75,000 at her walk alone. The chapter brought in over $250,000 at four walks! Thanks to all who participated, donated, and volunteered. I’m so proud of my little Coordinator.

That evening, we helped host a couple's baby shower for Blake, Amy and little miss Knoll. It was full of games (nice work Shaun) and plenty of fun.






The last week of September was a short work week for the both of us. We left Thursday night en route to a wedding in the Cincinnati area. Since we rarely drive through the middle of Illinois and Indiana, we decided to make a little road trip on the way. We stayed in Peoria on Thursday, and Friday we casually ventured to Indianapolis. On the way we stopped at a cool little Apple Orchard- gotta love those Honey Crisps. Downtown Indy was really clean and impressive. We spent the afternoon wondering the downtown center filled with shops and restaurants and enjoyed our little date-day.





Saturday we journeyed to Oh-Tuck-Iana for Derek and Stacy Borgwardt’s wedding. The ceremony was in Indiana and the hotel and reception was in Kentucky, but the 30 minute jaunt required you to drive through Ohio. The drive was quite scenic. We were able to reunite with many of my college buddies and their spouses. Erik and Alison came from Denver, Tyler from San Diego, many from Chicago and others from the Midwest. The food was delicious, the party was a blast, and the Hawks won, so it was a good day overall. We ended the trip with a 9+ hour drive back to ‘loo hoping for some needed rest.

(camera died at the wedding)

I told you it was a busy month. I had a birthday over that time and am enjoying some new toys, especially my Ipod Touch 4G. I have moved up in the tech world, but still haven’t made it to Facebook yet. That’s my post and I will see you next year.

Big 14

I just realized that this will be my 14th post all year. Yep, sorry about that. I can honestly say that since my last post in September, we have been busy but I didn't think it would fly by so fast. I think it is safe to say we might get around to sending out Christmas cards in 2010? The last couple of days have required that I sit around and do nothing really so I decided that the least I could do was post an update. This was better than the other option, watching Top Chef and Julie and Julia when I have a selection of food I feel comfortable eating at the moment. Another thing I found while reminding myself what we did these past few months is that I am kind of lousy at pulling out the camera. Man, strike two. Don't hold it against me.

In October, Ryan and I celebrated our third anniversary. We got a bite to eat and enjoyed each other's company. Ryan is amazing and I never seem to get over how lucky I am that God choose him to be my husband. We dated for some time before we became engaged and thought we knew quite a bit about each other. Little did I realize that there is so much about him that has yet to unravel and I love watching all of it. He is extremely caring. He is intelligent (knew that one) and has an amazing ability to remember everything. He makes me smile on a day-to-day basis, normally not intentionally but just by being him. Each year keeps getting better.

In October, we also witnessed my cousin Tyler and Megan's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. The ceremony was extremely touching and personal. Plus, anyone who was at the reception would say that the cherry on top, was a big Hawkeye win. Congratulations you guys!

We also had a little halloween fun. As you can see from the photo. Ryan was a cowboy and I was a deviled egg. What you can't hear is the fan that was used to keep Ryan's costume up and running. Ha, it was kind of distractingly loud but I think that made it even better. As usual, we had our pumpkin carving night. The fall this year was amazing, with weather in the 60-70's we really couldn't complain and we took advantage of the lovely outdoors as much as possible. Not too long after that, we hung out with Ian and he thought the cowboy was pretty cool so he decided to try it on himself. It fit him pretty well.

The weekends in the fall were primarily filled with Hawkeye fun. That's right GO HAWKS! We can't wait to watch them again on January 5th. Anyway, we made it down to Iowa City for 5 of the games this season. I can say that only one of them was cold (it was the night game vs. Michigan - the theme song for the evening was the Blacked Eyed Peas 'I Gotta Feeling' seriously, I think it was played ten times). Other than that the weather was manageable. We wore t-shirts in November which we were very proud of and the Hawks came out 10-2 this season. Pretty Great!


A couple of weeks ago, we were able to travel to Arizona for Thanksgiving. We truly had a blast. We spent the first night with James, Angie, Cole and Caden. We had fun watching them decorate the tree. It was so cute, since Caden is just a little guy, he was only able to decorate the bottom of the tree but he sure went all out. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing (thanks again James, Angie and everyone else who contributed yummy food). Although it just seemed a little odd to be in 75 degree weather. We were with family so it really didn't phase us. They let us in on the tradition of the snowball fight. We had Arizona snowballs (marshmallows) and nailed each other with them for no rhyme or reason. As you can tell from photos, it got pretty intense.

Friday, Amy and Andrew had us over for a poker party. It was a really fun group of people. Steph was able to make it as well. As for the poker tourney, let's just say I have a darn good poker face so good in fact, I made it to the last table. You don't need to know much more than that. That night got pretty late, imagine middle school slumber parties but many more laughs. Ha. We all ended up staying somewhere in Amy and Andrew's house. Got up to a lovely breakfast, did a little shopping and went back to Jamee and Derek's (where we stayed for the remainder of the trip).

Saturday night, Derek, Jamee, Ryan and I were able to visit the McRae's, Steph, Patrick (of course) and Brian and Shirlee for a while. Angie and James stopped by as well. We stopped by to drop off a few things for Kate's Crazy Christmas and were able to go on a walk, play around, watch Kate's famous dance moves and get a lot of laughs in. While we were shopping for toys, we came upon whoppee cushions that we just couldn't resist getting for Olivia, Will and Kate. They had a little bit of fun with those. Will would ask, 'Excuse me, could I whoppee cushion you?'. They were just balls of energy. When we were on our walk, I was hanging back with Kate and Steph while Olivia and Cole were running ahead of us and Kate asked, 'Why does Olivia keep playing with that hot boy? Does she like him?'. Will also started teasing Derek about his shorts (which were plaid). Will kept saying, 'Hey Mr. Underpants Man, why aren't you wearing pants?' Ha. He thought Derek had his boxers on. It really was too cute. It was just a true blessing that we were able to see everyone at home, hang out with everyone we haven't seen for a while and enjoy each others company.

Sunday, we had a pretty relaxing day. We hung out with Derek and Jamee and enjoyed our last day in Sun Country. Sunday night, the four of us went out to eat with Amy, Andrew, the munchkins and Amanda and Charlie. We had such a wonderful trip, it is always hard to leave after having an amazing time and knowing that we seriously could not ask for a better family to surround us. We LOVE you all. Thanks for a wonderful reminder of the blessings we are constantly thanking God for.

Here are some photos, like I said, I am really not that great at pulling out the camera but I was able to get some and borrow a few others. Check out Amanda and Amy's Blogs for more pictures of the trip and our shenanigans.

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And that brings us to December. I was well aware that it would be a crazy month with Christmas parties, get-togethers, Christmas shopping, decorating, cooking, etc. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy these activities but I need to remember to PAUSE during all of this and remember the real reason we celebrate this time of year. I love our series at church right now, its called Waiting. It is going through a few stories in the Bible that are examples of when people were waiting for God to speak to them, whether it was in the middle of crazy times or in silence. He has a plan and we are part of it. It's not the other way around. I love small reminders like that. I also love the music this time of the year, it is extremely powerful and I could listen to it for hours on end, especially when the lights from the windows are twinkling on the snow that recently fell.

Here is a pic of our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.


This is the Christmas bouquet that my parents brought over, wishing me a quick recovery. I felt they matched this portion of the post and they were too pretty to keep to myself. Thanks again Mom and Dad!


Derek and Jamee and Curt and Chance are planning to come home for the holidays. We can't wait to see them and spend time with our family and friends. If we (I'll say that so Ryan has a little bit of ownership of the long gap) don't blog before then, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! LoVe, love, LOvE!

Low Key Weekend

Ryan and I are extremely lucky to have a group of friends who we feel are an extension of our family. During the summer it is easy to go grab a bite to eat, listen to a band, go to one of the events in the community but when the weather drops, it is hard to leave the house. This time of year we spend a lot of time just hanging out at home and making our own fun.

This weekend was no exception. Friday night we went bowling. It seems like I haven't done that in a while. The couples battled it out and Matt and Amy won. Saturday we had game night which is an evening of board game Olympics. We normally have the guys vs. the girls and place a small wager such as having the losers make brunch for the winners. This time the girls lost, I am not going to attribute the loss to unfair judgement but I thought I would throw that out there to create the larger picture. On Sunday, we put our dogs in costumes and carved pumpkins (which were more advanced than last year).

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Halloween!

In the tradition of our Halloween, we had our second annual pumpkin carving night. I thought that I would post the outcome. On Halloween we handed out candy to the kids and I had one of those moments I swear would never happen. I think that it is called a mother slip. I never understood how people have those moments where, "I sounded just like my mother." I have always thought that you can muzzle comments like that but I found out sometimes it just slides right out of there. I handed out candy to a young boy and this is what I said, "It looks like you have a lot of candy... just don't eat it all tonight or you might get cavities." What??? Who says that? Mom I blame you, I am better than that. Regardless, Happy Halloween!

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