Adventures in Life

I decided that I wanted to have a cheeseball for our festivities tomorrow...well, actually today since it is almost 1:00 a.m. Man, I need to get to bed...I have to work tomorrow. Back to my story. We could not find a cheeseball at any of the stores that we went to. So, while we were at the grocery store I had to call my mom to ask her how to make her cheeseball. I refuse to believe that the stores do not carry cheeseballs in the Chicagoland area. Instead, I have decided that there was a run on them and everyone was simply sold out.

Posted by at 12:44 AM | Permalink

If your new year's resolution includes keeping things clean, this will help out with your computer.
Thanks to Julie for the link.

Posted by at 1:54 PM | Permalink

Friday Gabe and I did some shopping using a gift card. I bought a cookbook that I wanted. We hit a few of the "After Christmas" sales, but we didn't really buy anything. Most of Friday and Saturday were spent watching the second season of Big Love. We finished it. A third season has been ordered from HBO, but I don't think that it will be out until sometime in June 2008. I think that we are getting ready to go to the grocery store...wow, that sounds exciting ;)

Posted by at 1:15 PM | Permalink

After work on Christmas Eve, yes, you did read it correctly...I worked on Christmas Eve, we headed to my parents. My Dad's birthday is Christmas Eve, so everyone was up at my parent's house celebrating when we arrived. On Christmas everyone came over and we exchanged ornaments during breakfast and opened our gifts afterward. We received a couple of neat gift cards. I really like a scrapbook for our dogs that I received. Gabe is ready to grill with some grilling supplies. He was pretty happy to get another fireproof safe. We have one, but it is full with important documents...we have a lot of documents. Too bad it isn't valuable stuff. He also received a Wii game that he has been wanting. I have and idea of what he will be doing while I am working and he is here alone. We had dinner later on and we drove back up North today. Things are mostly unpacked, but there are two rooms in our house that are a disaster...you guessed it, the rooms that have not been redone. We went to the grocery store and to Ikea. I bought some pillows, but I think that I might take them back and get some others. I haven't really decided what I am going to do with the den yet. Currently I am doing some laundry. I think that I might research a trip. The marathon of working every other day begins...

Posted by at 9:41 PM | Permalink

Merry Christmas everyone!

Posted by at 2:00 PM | Permalink

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Posted by at 7:33 PM | Permalink

Well, I haven't written anything for a while and we have been busy...so here it goes. Thursday morning I had an appointment with the dentist and Gabe worked. Gabe took half of a vacation day and after my appointment we left to go to Peoria to see Gabe's parents and sister for the holidays. We had lunch at Avanti's and then went to a green house. We all headed back to the house and met up with Laura (Gabe's sister)...she had been at work. We celebrated Christmas and then watched Ball's of Fury.
Friday we went to Cyd's for lunch and looked for Bald Eagles, but we didn't see any. We drove home and started doing things around the house again. I took a shower using my new gingerbread cookie scented bath wash. I smelled like a cookie and I considered taking a bite out of my arm :)
After work yesterday Aaron came over and we had dinner. Gabe made his stuffed mushrooms...they are one of my favorites! Gabe and I also celebrated our Christmas together yesterday evening.
This morning we woke up and the power was out. The beeping of our power supply sent Elsa into a seizure. This generally happens when the power goes out. I guess she likes her electricity (and hates the beeping noise). The power came back on and we started working on putting things away and finishing up Spain stuff. We now have a place to stay on every night of our trip. We have a few errands to run today...I will see if I can pull Gabe away from the Wii. I am really looking forward to watching some DVD's that I received for Christmas...maybe that can be on list for tonight.

Posted by at 4:05 PM | Permalink

We have been staying up late to finish working on the house. We are officially finished with the items for 2007. A lot of our time is now getting focused on finishing up with the planning for Spain. I am really getting excited about the trip. Sometimes I feel like Gabe and I could be travel agents if our current careers don't work out :)
I have been tired this week and I was looking forward to going to bed early last night (instead of our usual 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. lately). Well, we stayed up until around 2:00 a.m. making fudge and cookies for my co-workers and our neighbors. We still need to deliver the ones for our neighbors...maybe tomorrow. Maybe we can get to bed early tonight.
Other than planning for Spain, I am currently staying busy doing laundry and working on quilting projects. I have four going on right now.
Off to Blockbuster to return some movies.

Posted by at 7:58 PM | Permalink

Happy Birthday Anna!

Posted by at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am at work right now and things are little slow...don't worry, they are going to pick up pretty soon...I just looked at the schedule. I now have an internet connection via my cell phone thanks to Gabe. The connection isn't as fast as our DSL at home, but it is much better than nothing. Yesterday we went shopping in Schaumberg. I must say that this was a mistake and helped me to remember why I finish my Christmas shopping well before Christmas. The mall and the stores were extremely crowded and some of the lines to purchase items were almost out of the doors. I found a thing or two that I would have purchased if the lines weren't so dang long. I did manage to find something for our bedroom and the store only had two people in line in front of me!
Our bedroom is officially finished. So, before the end of the year our house checklist includes fixing the mirror in one of the upstairs bathrooms, some sanding of a wall, and replacing a kitchen faucet. Gabe said that he is going to replace the faucet while I am at work tonight. The rest of the things on our list are going to wait until next year. Actually there are only three rooms left that need work, but unfortunately they need a LOT of work. The den, a room without a purpose, and cleaning out the garage are all on the list for 2008.
As far as books go I have finished Double Cross by James Patterson. It is a very good book and I encourage everyone to read the Alex Cross series...they are one of my favorites. I also finished The Witness. It was pretty good. Worth the read if you are out of your favorite author. We started watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. We are only half-way through the movie and I must say that it has had me laughing out loud several times. I am a fan of Adam Sandler and so far this one is pretty good. We will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. The grocery store is on the list of things to do tonight...if we want to eat tomorrow.

Posted by at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have been donating to Toys For Tots for several years now. Unfortunately, this year Gabe and I did not purchase the toys and make it to the donation location in time (today at noon was the last drop off location that I could find). The good new is that you can donate online, so that is what we did. The donations are primarily used to purchase toys for older children. If you are in the giving mood and would like to make a donation to Toys for Tots click the link. Donations are tax deductible.

Posted by at 10:36 PM | Permalink

You will get a holiday surprise from all of us if you click on the link. Thanks to Barby for sending me the info on the site. Do it yourself and post a link on my site for everyone to enjoy.

Posted by at 10:02 PM | Permalink

Why is it when I don't check my email for two days I end up with 300+ emails? That is not including what is filtered out by my junk mail filter. So, you can guess what I have been doing this morning.
We went around to a couple of home improvement stores last night trying to buy things to finish up the bedroom/bathroom. We just couldn't seem to find what we were looking for, so we came home and watched Spiderman III. I was pretty disappointed. It just wasn't as good as I expected.
Gabe is at work right now and I am trying to get a few things done. I am getting ready to make some fudge for his potluck at work tomorrow.

Posted by at 11:22 AM | Permalink

Friday evening Gabe and I went to my office Christmas Party. It was at a sushi place called Tsukasa. It was very good. The party started at 8:00 p.m. and we closed down the place. We stayed until around midnight (they closed at 10:30 p.m.). The drive home was around an hour, so I was pretty tired for work on Saturday...and boy were we busy.
Yesterday (Saturday) night we went to Gabe's office's Christmas party. It was at Dave and Buster's. We all ate and then broke apart to play some games. Gabe and I played the Jurassic Park game (we played it last year too). This year we beat the entire game...hmmm...what are we going to play next year?
Friday we ripped up carpet and I started pulling staples out of the hardwood floor in our bedroom. Initially we were going to replace the flooring with another hardwood floor, but the condition is better than we expected, so we decided to keep the current floor. The trim has been replaced and most of the things are back in their respective places. There are a few small things that need to be done in both our bathroom and our bedroom. I almost think that this point of redoing a room is worse than working on major projects in the room. It bugs me when we are so close to completion, but there are a few minor things that still need to be done here and there. I can't officially mark it off of my list until EVERYTHING is done in the room.
Today we woke up early to go to Ikea for breakfast. Then we went to the "As Is" section and purchased a leather couch at a significant markdown ($328 off). We had been eying it for a couple of days.
After running errands we came back home and built a gingerbread house. Clara (one of our dogs) liked it when we dropped candy on the floor and ran around licking it up. It is well after midnight and I have to work tomorrow (or technically today), so I am going to bed.

Posted by at 12:32 AM | Permalink

Congratulations to Tony & Maren on the birth of their baby girl (12/6/07)!

Posted by at 12:53 AM | Permalink

Happy Birthday Troy!

Posted by at 7:34 PM | Permalink

We have been working on the house a lot. Our bedroom is painted and now all we need to do is install the floor and new closet doors. Gabe is going to take half of a vacation day today so that we can work on the floors. The bathroom has a few small finishing touches for our part of the update. The bathtub and shower doors are going to be professionally installed sometime in early January. We watched the movie White Coats yesterday. My advice would be save your time and watch something else. I could see how the series Scrubs could be based off of it. However, I really like Scrubs and White Coats just didn't do it for me. We are going to my office Christmas party tonight and Gabe's Christmas party tomorrow night. I have been reading Double Cross since Monday. Actually I read it on Monday and for about a half an hour yesterday. I only have about 50 pages left, so I just need to find some time to finish it. Hopefully today, otherwise tomorrow. I just donated a sink, vanity, mirror, faucet, some bathroom hardware, another sink, and counter top to Family Rescue. They found one of my listings on Craigslist, but then I gave them quite a bit more. If you have some things that you don't need they would greatly appreciate the donation. They will even come and pick up your unwanted items. I was going to have a rummage sale this spring, but now I am seriously considering just donating everything.

Posted by at 11:49 AM | Permalink

Thursday I did quite a few things on my list...yippee! Friday Gabe took the day off of work and we hung out. We went to eat at Meson Sabika (yummo!) and came back for ice cream cake. We stopped at Blockbuster and watched Waitress last night. Sometime last week I finished Under the Rose by Diana Peterfreund. It is the second book in the Secret Society Girl series. It was slow to get started, but it picked up and kept me reading well past my bedtime.
Instead of my normal 30 minute drive home tonight, it took me closer to an hour. I spent a good 15 minutes chipping about 1/4" of ice off of my car. I need to buy a new window scraper...I broke mine with the first good sweep across my ice covered window. When I drove my car into the garage to park it (thank you Gabe!) both Gabe and I enjoyed looking at the car. Except for my windows, the entire car was covered with a sheet of ice. Well, I have had a long enough break. We are working on one of the upstairs bathrooms and our bedroom.

Posted by at 8:55 PM | Permalink