Here are a few random pics from Bella’s last visit. A few of these were taken at the Magic House and the others were taken up at Laurel Park.
Happy birthday Janine! November 6, 2009
Just had to give a quick shout out to my bestest pal in the whole wide world, Janine. Happy Birthday! Hope you have a good one! Looking forward to that Bloomin Onion at Outback tonight 
Little Red Riding Hood November 4, 2009
Lenny and I went shopping a couple weeks ago to find a Halloween costume for Bella and we settled on a Little Red Riding Hood costume. We weren’t sure if she knew the story of Little Red Riding Hood or not, so we bought The Brothers Grimm version of the book. O.M.G. What IS this book? Let me just share an exerpt with you.
“The clever hunter suspected that the old woman might have been swallowed by the wolf and might still be alive in its belly. He took a pair of scissors and began to snip. A red riding hood appeared. And out jumped a girl. A nightcap appeared. And out jumped an old woman. How happy Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood were that the hunter had saved them!”
Really? I mean, REALLY? I thought I knew the story of red riding hood, but apparently I forgot about the snipping part! We were dying laughing when we were reading this book to Bella. Who on earth would write a story like that for little kids? Seriously. If I would have known that, I think we would have gone with the Supergirl costume. Sheesh.
Anyway, here are a few pics of our Halloween festivities this year, including a trip to the pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago, a practice trick-or-treating session on Main St in St. Charles Friday night, the annual Orf Pumpkin Carving Party Saturday afternoon, and actual trick-or-treating on Halloween:
I’ve got the fever October 18, 2009
I feel fine, but I am running this fever. I know it’s not swine flu – I’m pretty sure what I have is WEDDING FEVER! I went to a wedding with Nikki yesterday to help her out with equipment and stuff since she was shooting by herself. It was so much fun! The bride was so laid back about everything - I loved her! Nikki took pictures of her and her soon-to-be husband together before the ceremony started, and even when there were buttons falling off of her dress, Sarah didn’t freak out. I think her fiance wanted to stop with the pictures when this little mishap occured, but she calmly laid back on the couch just as Nikki instructed her to do and said, “John, it’ll be fine! It’s MY dress anyway. I don’t care if there are a couple buttons missing. Let’s just get a few more shots in.” Ha, so NOT a Bridezilla! Way to go Sarah!
ANYWAY, after seeing those two lovebirds tie the knot, I am ever-so-anxious for the day when Lenny and I get to do the same. I came home last night and was playing around on stlwed.com, a local wedding planning website. I saw that there is a bridal show today at Harrah’s, so I think I’m gonna drag Lenny with me and go get some ideas for stuff. I’m sure he won’t be thrilled to go to a bridal show, (what guy is?) but at least he will enjoy all the free wedding cake samples! 
Also there is a venue down in old town St. Charles that I wanted to check out today. It was our goal by the end of this weekend to finalize our ceremony location, so I’m hopin we do that today. Wish us luck!
Date night at the Ho Hut October 17, 2009
There’s a new restaurant in town called Hu Hot. (notice the placement of the vowels there) It’s a Mongolian BBQ place where you choose all your (raw) food off of a buffet, then take it up to the cook where he grills it right in front of you. Great concept! Anyway, a few years ago my aunt Linda went to Hu Hot for the first time, then came back and was raving to my cousin Leah about how she went to the HO HUT for lunch and it was soooo good. Leah was like, “Uhh, mom, really? The Ho Hut? I think you mean Hu Hot.” lol Of course the Ho Hut name stuck. Lenny and I went there last night for dinner and we give it two thumbs up. Good stuff! Afterwards we went and saw the movie Couples Retreat. It wasn’t all that great – the previews made it seem like it was going to be a comedy, but there weren’t all that many funny parts to it. Oh well. We still had a good time. Especially at the Ho Hut.
I love this kid!!! October 14, 2009
Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon and evening with my favorite lil nephew, Carson. (He’s my only nephew, but that’s beside the point). Dean and Stacey are in the St. Charles community band, and they had a float in the bicentennial parade down on Main Street. They needed someone to watch Cars while they were in the parade, and I was the lucky winner. I love my one on one time with him, he cracks me UP!!! We had a great time together. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of the parade, but it was actually a lot of fun! We got tons of candy, and come on – how can you not have a good time when people are throwing handfuls and handfuls of candy at you? After the parade, we went to Steak n Shake with Dean, Stacey, Lenny, and Bella. Carson must have been having fun, because he asked if he could spend the night at our house. When we got back home, the 4 of us (Lenny, Bella, Carson, and I) walked up to the park and played for a bit. Later that evening, my mom and dad came over and we had movie night. We made big bowls of popcorn and watched Dumbo, which we hadn’t seen since we were kids! I had forgotten how cute that movie is.
You should see Carson with Bella. He is the sweetest thing ever and takes SUCH good care of her! He pushes her on the swings, holds her hand when she crosses the street, everything. Have to give a shout out to Dean and Stace for that one – you really have done an outstanding job with his upbringing. He is very polite and so well behaved! He really is a joy to be around and I can only hope when I have a child of my own, that they are half as sweet and well behaved as Carson. I love him more than you will ever know.
Crab Cakes October 9, 2009
I’m crabby. And I don’t feel like I have anything positive to say right now. So I’m just not gonna say anything at all. But I still felt like I should update the blog. So there ya go.
That’s all, carry on.
Back from the hiatus… October 3, 2009
…and we’re engaged! Are you surprised? Probably not, because if you are reading this blog you more than likely know me pretty well, so you’ve probably already heard the news. I’m gonna give a quick recap anyway.
In mid-September, we went down to Panama City Beach with Donnie, Jen, Jason, and Janine. The four of us (Jason, Janine, Lenny, and I) got down to the condo about 6 hours before Donnie and Jen did (long story). So one of the first things we did was went to the grocery store to get all of our groceries for the week. While we were there, I thought Lenny seemed a little quiet, so I asked him if something was wrong. He said he just wanted to get the shopping over with so we could get back and go to the beach! I figured he was just mad because we were spending so much at the store. Ha! So anywho, we finished up our grocery shopping and headed back to the condo. It had been raining since we arrived in town, but as soon as we got all the stuff put away, the rain actually let up so we decided to go down and sit in the hot tub for a bit. After 30 min or so, Lenny said to me, “I’m gonna run upstairs and grab a couple of drinks for us, then we can go for a walk on the beach.” I was like “Sounds good to me!” Little did I know, he was really headed up to get the ring. As soon as he left, Janine said ”Do you mind if I tag along?” I said “No, of course not! The more, the merrier! Let’s all go.” So then Lenny comes back a couple minutes later and says, “You ready?” Janine said to him “I’m gonna come with you guys, is that cool?” Poor Lenny, his plan was almost foiled! lol He was pretty calm about it and just said “Umm, actually I was just kinda hopin to go with Gretch this time.” So then Janine immediately is like “Oh, I see how it is! Fine. I guess I will just go sit upstairs and do nothing.”…just givin him trouble about it. I guess L felt pretty bad, so as we were walking away, he turned around and winked at her and then she got the hint and knew what was up. We walked down the beach a while and then sat down on some of the lounge chairs on the beach. I was checking out the scenery and looking at all the condos on the beach, then when I turned back around to face Lenny, he was holding the ring out. I won’t go into ALL the details, but he made a lil speech about how the ring means so much to him and he has waited 35 years to find the right person to want to spend his life with. Awwww! In case you are wondering, when he said “Will you marry me?” I said “YES!!!” And then I bawled. I’m such a softie!!! The ring is absolutely GORGEOUS – he did an awesome job picking it out. We had gone ring shopping a couple of times, so he knew what style I liked, and he hit the nail on the head. We’ve been bombarded with the “Have you set a date yet?” question since we’ve been back, and I’m happy to say we are planning an October 15, 2010 wedding. Pencil it in!!!
Here are some pics from our trip.
CinderBella September 6, 2009
I love when Bella comes to visit, cuz it means I get a break from doing all the housework!
Before you go accusing me of being her evil hopefully-one-day stepmother who forces her to do all the chores, please know she practically BEGS to do this stuff. Anytime I try to do the dishes or vacuum or do laundry, she is right there saying she wants to help. And believe it or not, she knows what she’s doing and does a pretty good job, too. Guess it’s never too early to get em started, right? Child labor laws, schmild labor laws!!! ; ) Watch her grow up and want to work for Merry Maids or something. ha
Better think twice September 1, 2009
This is kind of graphic, but sends a good message. I think it should be shown in all driver’s ed classes!
