Rainy Day Fun...Both Inside And Out!

I had a great lunch with Steph and Gloria today in downtown Toledo.  We went to an Irish Pub named Blarneys.  Afterwards I ran some errands and had time to kill before our softball game so I decided to make some jewelry.  I've had some barrettes that I've been wanting to make into rings. I also made a necklace and earings to match.

I also turned a necklace into a bracelet but forgot to take a photo of it. Now I have some new jewelry to wear. 

We got a call from our team captain telling us that our game may be called off due to rain. Thankfully, the clouds broke during our scheduled game time and it stopped just long enough for us to play. This was our first playoff game and we won: 9-3. Matt had some good plays fielding grounders (especially amongst all the dirty puddles). I played catcher again and the only thing I can report is that I got quite dirty doing so. ;)

The Re-Organizing Continues...

Hmmm...I wish there was an interesting way to say that my day consisted of reorganizing the office and making pulled pork for dinner. Done, that's it. That was my day. Not flashy, but it was productive to say the least.

Matt's day, on the other hand, was a lot more fun than mine. He participated in an orientation that was geared for new recruits; however, Matt and some other 6-month employees were invited to participate as well. At one point, they were sent on a scavenger hunt that took 1.5 hours. Many of the tasks were geared to get everyone oriented to their surroundings by finding company specific items or meeting essential people. I'm not sure how this was relevant, but apparently they were also required to play 5 rounds of ping pong in one of the buildings. Hmmm...I didn't realized that ping pong was an essential component to making glass. ;) Matt and his team had the court side advantage, given their longer duration with the company, so they (of course) won the scavenger hunt. He was quite proud to come home and report his big accomplishment of the day. They also got a free lunch, so all in all, it was the perfect work day. Once again I must say, ahhhh.... to be Matt.

We had a nice dinner with Steph. The pork cooked all day in the slow cooker and we had yummy sides to accompany it. Afterwards, we went to our favorite ice cream place and we all enjoyed eating our decadent desserts poolside at the apartment. Wow, now that I re-read my blog, I certainly did make up for a boring afternoon. As for Matt - well, his perfect day continued into the perfect night! Geez! ;)

Things Look A Little Different Around Here

Every 6 months, or so, I get the itch to switch things up a bit.  I've been doing this since I was a kid and I can always tell (when I get that itch) that 6 months must have passed.  Then, when writing it down in yesterday's blog, I realized that I'd been experiencing that itch for the past couple of days.  So what did I do about it?  I rearranged the living room furniture of course! :)

Here's a before shot:

And here's what it looks like now:

As you can see, Bonnie has made herself quite comfortable. Why on Earth would Chazz sit on the cat scratcher when he has that big comfy chair right next to him! Matt came home last night to this big furniture change-up surprise. He and I like this new layout so we are going to try it out.

Today, I'm tackling the office.  As you can see, I have my work cut out for me!

An Artistic Weekend

When we first moved to Ohio one of our first exploring trips took us to Ann Arbor, MI. It was at that time that we found out about their huge art fair in July that takes over the entire downtown. This past weekend we went to the fair and I cannot believe how quickly time has flown. Can you believe that Matt and I have been in OH for 6 months! I can't...

We went to the art fair with Matt's boss. She is really nice and it's been nice to get to know her on a social level on top of a business level. We play softball with her as well, so that is how we have gotten a chance to see her outside of work. She mentioned that she was going to the fair the same day as us so we thought it would be a nice idea for us all to go together. We aren't used to mixing business with pleasure and I think if Matt wasn't a hard-working employee, this wouldn't work. But thankfully Matt is a good employee so his boss can let her guard down and we can enjoy each other's company! :)

I bought someone a Christmas gift while I was there. I won't mention her name, but I'll give you all a clue. Her name can be spelled the same in either direction and she gave birth to me. Now I know these clues don't divulge a lot, but I think with some hard work, you can come up with it! ;)

While we were there, we had an awesome lunch. Ann Arbor is the closest we've come to replicating our restaurant experience in Chico. Probably because it's another college town.  We sat upstairs so this was our aerial view.

We all had an awesome day. Here are some random photos I took of the town.

I love how the sign below uses air conditioning as a selling point.  But I'll tell you this - it's smart because we were so....... HOT!

Before we left, we had to go to the local cupcake shop.  I go every time I visit and I haven't been disappointed yet!

One happy camper! Don't worry, they weren't all for me - two for Matt! :)

Volleyball Galore

Earlier in the week I was asked to join a volleyball tournament that took place last night. Matt's boss was on the team, which needed an extra girl, and she thought of me - wasn't that nice of her?

We all had a lot of fun hanging out with co-worker friends and I got to meet all the recent newbies that started this week. Matt's been busy training them the past few days so I'm sure they are getting a good lay of the land. I even met one of the newbies' wife and I told her that she was immediately initiated into the DWC...the Displaced Wife's Club! Man, if any of you thought I was in a holding patter, check out my new recruit's story - she's been a real trouper. She and her husband just got married LAST MONTH and they moved from Kentucky. She's also going to school right now, which means she had to transfer to a different school. Geez, and I thought I had a lot going on while I was moving!

At first we did well in the tournament. We won our first two games which, I was told, kept us in the winner's bracket. Then we lost our third game, which put us at the top of the loser's bracket (yeah, that's what they actually called it!). Then we played against the top losers and we lost. So, essentially, we lost to a bunch of losers! :) I actually was fine with the loss because while we were playing, it started to rain and I wasn't really into winning if it meant that I had to be soaked while doing it!

Another Tour...A Different Tourist...

This evening our plan was to take Steph on a tour of Matt's work (since she hadn't been yet) and then have a BBQ at the pool. Whereas we enjoyed the tour, unfortunately a torrential downpour started while we were in the building. And of course, did any of us have an umbrella????  NO........

The storm came out of nowhere! It didn't look bad when we left the apartment and since we took her car, I was unprepared. Since the BBQ option was out, we tried a restaurant Matt and I hadn't been to and had a very tasty dinner. However, since we didn't have umbrellas, we walked into the restaurant soaking wet from head to toe and we got quite a few looks from other patrons. I think they all felt sorry for us because they gave us looks of pity rather than that looks that just screams, "Look at the idiot's that just walked in without umbrellas!" I'll take their pity - we were miserable!

As for our daytime activities, Matt was all by his lonesome training the newbies. Literally everyone else is either away on trips to factories or meetings. Personally, I think he likes to train because he is so natural at teaching. Hopefully he agrees with me because he is going to have quite a few more days of training before he and I are eventually shipped out to a more permanent city.

As for me, nothing fun to report.  I did manage to concur Mt. Laundry with no injuries!  I guess I'm ready for Everest now. ;)

The Past Couple Of Days...

Once again I'm falling behind in my posts. I find that I've recently been falling behind in one thing or another. I wasn't motivated to keep to keep up with my normal chores so I've been playing catch up and now I'm neglecting the blog! Geez, Kirsten, I remember a time when you had the stamina to work an 80 hour week. Just shows you what happens when you are out of practice! Well, enough of that! :)

Some introductions are needed - hello, my name is Kirsten and I'm now the new official kids events coordinator for our apartment complex!  OK, OK, I built that way too up, but I'm happy with the decision. As you know, I coordinate two events per month here at the complex. One has been an evening event and one has been a daytime kids' event.  Well, as I've indicated in the past, the evening events have not been well attended. I attribute that to the fact that's it's too hard for people to come out for some fun in the middle of the week due to work, dinner and kids. On Tuesday, after yet another successful kid's event, it dawned on me that perhaps tenants don't need me for the evening, but rather the families are more in need of daytime kids events. I spoke with the complex manager today and he agreed. So, I'll now be focusing on kids events only. Next month we are going to have a coloring day and a sundae bar event.  How fun are those?! This is becoming the perfect job for me! Oh well for Matt, he'll just have to tell him company that I'm the bread-winner now and that he'll have to stay in OH for my job! Yeah right! ;)

Yesterday we won our softball game. Matt and I each got an out - I was so proud of Matt when he caught a pop fly out in left center.  I played catcher the whole time.  I really like playing catcher for softball. I didn't think I would, but it's really satisfying when you get an out and the other team doesn't score a run.  

And as I mentioned above, on Tuesday I had my second event for this month.  We watched Milo and Otis and quite a few families showed up.  The kids were so well behaved, however, I think that may be because I hid a lot of the items that were banging on the last time!  I'm so sneaky!

I Can Talk To A Horse - Even If His Name Isn't Mr. Ed

We went back out on the boat this past Saturday and once again it was a lot of fun! This time we went with some new couple friends that Matt works with. We had a go at giving wake boarding a try and we had some successful and many unsuccessful attempts at getting up out of the water. I just love the lake we discovered - it's so different than anything we had in Chico.  :)

The next day Matt went back out on the lake with another work friend and I went horse back riding with Gloria. Actually, this time I went horse back walking because I wanted to take things a little slow. We didn't exactly get off to the right hoof the last time and I felt we needed to get to know each other better. I had a nice conversation with Blaze - he revealed that he likes grass and hay and I told him that I like long walks on the beach and a good Dan Brown novel. :) I'm hoping that next week we'll get along better due to our bonding session. Of course, it may help that I plan to bring some carrots, too. A little bribe never hurt! :)

Today I climbed Mt. Laundry in our apartment.  Somehow I got really behind.  In my defense, I decided to wash all the bedding, but still, there are a tons of clothes within the mix.  I scaled about half the mountain today so hopefully tomorrow I'll tackle the remainder!

The Movie Night Was A Partial Success...

I realized that I've never taken a photo of how I set up the clubhouse with all sorts of yummy goodies for our events.  So here you go!

The event had a total of 7 people attend (2 of which were Matt and I). Another works with Matt and the other 4 were kids with their dad.  I'm not sure what to do to get people excited about the clubhouse events. Even my regulars didn't show up to this event. I'll keep on trucking since this is the only paying job I have, but geez, if I'm going through all the trouble to do these events, it would at least be nice to share the fun with other residents!  As you can see above, more food for us!

My 5 "S" Program

Every Friday, Matt has a 5 "S" program that he and his co-workers must do. The "S's" stand for: Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain.  In a nutshell, these tasks help focus the team to finalize their week's work and clean their stations. I just realized this past week I had my own 5 "S" program:

1. Stuffing

2. Stairs

3. Sticky

4. Shopping

5. Softball

Let me explain:
For the past two days, I've been prepping for the apartment's upcoming events. Both are movie-focused and one will take place tonight and the other on Tuesday. I've been designing flyers, Stuffing them into bags and placing one on each door of the complex. At first I was thrilled to help out since it gave me a chance to get outside and enjoy the weather. That was until I realized I've been spending a little too much time inside recently and didn't realize how hot and humid it is around here. I tackled quite a few buildings with lots of Stairs. By the time I was done, I wasn't exactly my most attractive self - I was one yucky, Sticky Kirsten.


On Wednesday night, our Softball team had a double header. We won both games and I was happy with my playing results as catcher - got two outs.  :) Of course, I would tell you how Matt did, but he hasn't been home since Wednesday afternoon. He was sent to a nearby city, but it's just far enough away to justify not coming home each evening. He'll be back tonight, but for a couple that thought they would be playing softball together, so far out of a possible 9 games, Matt and I together have played 1. Wow - oh well, Matt will just have to get used to the fact that I'm now best buds with all his guy friends...yeah right! They all adore Matt (and that's putting it lightly!)

In the evenings, I've been going for walks after dinner and just happened to do some Shopping...  :) Tuesday, Matt and I walked around our local outdoor plaza and I got a cute dress, headband and some pictures for the guest bathroom.

Since I'm an over-achiever, I did a bonus "S" this week. I had dinner last night with Stephanie! Afterwards,  we took a walk around the shopping center we were near and I did some more shopping!  This time I bought a necklace.  :)

It's been a tough week folks, but someone's got to do it, right!? ;) 

I hope the movie night event is well attended tonight - that's why I did all that stuffing and stair stepping.  To help advertise the events better.  Whereas each gave me a good workout, I could have substituted them for more Swimming (ah, another "S"!) and could have been a lot less sticky!  Lets hope the hard work paid off. :)

A Perfect Impression...

Dad was kind enough to send me a photo of Darth Vader for comparison - now tell me you don't think these two are a perfect clone of each other!

And From The Ashes, A New TV Is Born

Well, Matt and I bit the bullet and bought ourselves a new TV. We got an awesome 3-year, no interest deal, so we are happy with the decision. We also bought a new video game - Lego Harry Potter. I'll admit right now that if the next few blog postings are pretty boring, you may know what I'm up to.... ;)

She's a 46 incher and has no Darth Vader constellation in the middle - that's all we needed! While we were at Best Buy, we demoed the new 3D televisions and they are slick! Faithful readers, heed my advice and get yourself to a Best Buy to demo it. It is awesome technology. Matt and I aren't the type to buy the latest and greatest technology when it first comes out, but I predict that we will be getting something like this in the future. (Geez, Best Buy should hire me for that plug!)  :)

We haven't decided what to do with our other TV yet. I can't imagine throwing it away, but I also feel guilty donating it. Maybe we can donate it with a note saying it needs a $500 repair - I don't know..
I've gotten used to looking at Darth for the past couple of months... perhaps I can squeeze it into our guest bathroom. Yeah, that will really be the life of luxury won't it!?

Some Fun In The Sun!

This weekend, Matt and I had a lot of outside fun.  On Saturday, we had some work friends over for a BBQ and a movie at the clubhouse. Sadly the projector for the movie screen stopped working so we went over to a friend's house to watch the movie. You may be asking, but Kirsten, if the BBQ was at your complex, surely you could have watched the movie in your apartment. Alas, no, and I'll tell you why. Our poor TV, as of recent, had been losing pixels and it's time to buy a new one. We decided that it was time once we realized we were too embarrassed to invite everyone up to the apartment to watch the movie.  On the bright side, I think the pixels make for an excellent "constellation" of Darth Vader's head.  :)

On Sunday, we finally took the boat out! Matt found a community that surrounds a lake and it was awesome!

We were highly fascinated by a large sand dune in the middle of the lake. It was crazy. There was a circle of boats and in the middle of all the hubub, people were standing in the lake, knee-high. It was such a trip because it looked like people were walking on water. Matt noticed that some boaters even had tables so they could set their drinks on them.  Too funny!  I wish I could have taken closer picture, but this is what I got...

If you click on the photo it will zoom in and you may be able to see some of the people standing.

I'm The Mother Of Twins!

Twin tomatoes that is!  (Sorry for the let down everyone!)  As you know from previous readings, I planted tomatoes on our porch and when we got back from our trip earlier this week, I discovered my first two babbies budding happily. I'm so proud - I haven't named them yet, but I'll keep you updated.  ;)

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Whereas we had a great anniversary last Sunday, there wasn't anything that we did that reminded me to take a picture.  We had a lazy morning and then went to lunch and a movie.  We saw Grownups and it was a good flick for the day.  Afterwards, Matt and Eric were itching to play video games so Steph and I went shopping at the local mall.  When we got back, we went to an awesome BBQ place for dinner and then watched the fireworks on TV because it was raining out.  All in all, it was a great day, I'm just sorry I didn't get any pics to reflect the day.

Back To Reality...

Geeze, Kirsten, it's been a week - write something already!  :)

Matt and I celebrated our anniversary by visiting Chicago.  We had a blast being tourists and enjoying the sights Chicago had to offer.  The last time I was in the city, I was 8 years old.  It had been a long time and yet so many memories flooded back.

We took the train into the city - isn't this a great picture of Eric and Steph? And of course, we had to get a picture of Yellow Pants crossing the yellow line. Don't try this at home, kids, he's a professional!  ;)

We started our day by going to Navy Pier and had lunch at Bubba Gumps.  I hadn't been to one before and we had a very tasty lunch.

Next up, we went into the pier itself.

As you can see, it was pretty crazy from all the tourists, but we had fun walking down the pier.  We also rode on the ferris wheel to get some great vista shots.

After the pier, we visited the Water Tower.  It's a huge mall that I remember going to once as a kid with Grandma.  It had changed quite a bit since we were there, but it was still massive and had glass elevators.

That evening we met up with some of Eric's friends and had a great dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at the base of the John Hancock building.  Our dinner was yummmmmmyyyyy!  :)  And our desserts were even yummier!  Matt got plain old cheesecake - BORING!  I opted to have the pineapple upside-down cheesecake and it was fantastic!

We were pretty tuckered out from the day and headed home.  We did manage to get some shots of Union Station while we were waiting for the train.

It was a great day!

A Blast From The Past...

So a couple of days ago, I was having dinner with Gloria and Steph and Gloria mentioned that she recently met some people that own horses and she gets to ride them for free! She said that while she's been training one of the horses, the other gets jealous and wants to join in the fun. I told Gloria that I would be happy to ride with her (to keep the other horse company) and she said sure! I can't believe I'm going to be riding again! I miss it! Apparently, she goes every week so this will most likely become a weekly thing.

I played another softball game last night. I was catcher every other inning and I'm happy to report that I got two outs. :)

Matt has been busy training the next person taking his place in PA. Last night he was invited to a work-related dinner/event for new employees. The event had an Olympics theme and they asked Matt to be a judge. He had a lot of fun. :) Tomorrow is his last day in PA and we are both ready to have our family back together again...especially right before our anniversary. :)