Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Return of the King



Well, I got to see Return of the King last weekend and I'm so excited about it! I absolutely LOVED it! I wish I could go back and see it again but that means I'd have to carve out four hours in order to do so. Jason's mom and sister agreed to watch the girls on Saturday so we drove to Rockford to see the movie and I'm so glad we did. I didn't read the Lord of the Rings trilogy until after I saw Fellowship of the Ring so I kind of jumped on the bandwagon a little late but reading those books and then seeing the movie bring it to life was simply amazing to me. Jason and I were both commenting on how so many things in the movie looked exactly like we had pictured it in our minds- something that doesn't usually happen when a book is made into a film. I think my favorite thing about these movies though is that Peter Jackson really perfectly balances action and special effects with character development and story. One of my favorite scenes was when Pippin reluctantly sang for the disgusting old steward Denethor, who kept shoveling in his meal while his son, Faramir, rode to battle at Osgiliath. There are hugely outrageous battle scenes but the driving part of the movie are the strong characters. For me, I really cared about what happened to them and the action sequences were just super cool icing on the cake.

Plus, I never get tired of looking at Aragorn... *Sigh* How awesome was that scene where he led the army of the dead into Minas Tirith?

Thursday, December 25, 2003

Merry Christmas!

I've just been floating on air for the past week. I love Christmas to begin with but now that Ava is here, everything about life just feels so complete. I love my little family so much I think I might explode. I don't think I've ever been happier in my life than I am right now. Basically I'm just a big mushy gushy pool of goo and I wanted to share....

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Christmas Eve!

I'm so excited that it's Christmas Eve! I feel like a little kid again now that I get to see Juliana get so excited for Christmas. She woke up this morning and yelled, " Mommy look! CHRISTMAS SNOW! It's sooooo beautiful!"

It must be so fun being a kid.

On another note, Jason brought home pink roses for me yesterday. He may be learning after all. :-)

Monday, December 15, 2003

The Two Towers

Well, I've FINALLY finished watching all the extras on my Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers extended dvd. After watching all the behind the scenes footage, I've decided that working on that movie must have been the best job ever, whether you were an actor or a stunt person or a cameraman. Some of the most interesting stuff (aside from all the awesome Gollum special effects) was watching thow he sound designers recorded and created every little sound detail for the movie. I never knew that every footstep, rustling jacket or sword clash had to be recorded separately and mixed in later. The best part was seeing how the sound of a cheese grater being swung around on a string was manipulated into being the sound for the tail of the winged Nazgul. Some people have entirely too much fun with their jobs.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Waiting Waiting Waiting

Well, all this waiting around for Baby Ava to make her appearance has been taking up most of my time and energy so I haven't had anything particularly interesting to post that is non-baby-related. It's all that's on everybody's mind and I really haven't been doing much else other than trying to get all the last minute things done. My house is spotless and I'm trying to keep it that way because I would hate to come home from the hospital to a bunch of dirty laundry and dishes so I'm doing my best to stay on top of things for the time being. I finally finished printing all my photos and put them in the albums so I'm quite satisfied with that for now. I'm basically just trying to stay active- going for walks, stretching, and mentally preparing myself for the big day. I've got all my Christmas presents wrapped except for a couple that are still on their way via UPS which feels great not to have to worry about that. We'll be catering Christmas at our house this year too so I'm looking forward to just kicking back relaxing with Jason and our two girls and enjoying the holiday...

Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Kids Say the Darndest Things

So Jason and I were listening to a little Tom Waits the other day and Juliana exclaimed, "It's Cookie Monster singing!!!"

You have to admit there is a little resemblence between the two gravelly voiced fellas...


Saturday, November 29, 2003

Keeping Busy

Well, since we found out about baby Ava's impending arrival, both Jason and I had started a number of little organization projects since we figure we most likely won't have any time to get stuff like that done for the next, oh, say eighteen years. Anyway, now with my due date only 26 days away, I must say I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm now nearing the end of my to-do list. I've got absolutely everything ready for the new baby so I'm concentrating now on my huge photo project, which involves printing all the photos from our digital camera from the past year or so and getting them into photo albums and scrapbooks. I'm also adjusting all our digital pictures in Photoshop and re-burning them to disc so every photo I have on cd is already rotated to the right direction and color corrected and such. This is a very time consuming task since we have files dating back to 2000 when we bought the camera and we've never thoroughly sorted through them all. I've also been noticing just how many shots Jason has taken of himself staring blankly at the camera with his mouth hanging open. Apparently he finds this quite amusing.

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Merce!

Well, I got to see the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on Friday night which was awesome. His style of choreography is so different from the style I like to perform (not to mention the fact that I most likely could never dance with such extreme technical precision!) Maybe part of it is that I know when I watch a Cunningham piece I don't have to concern myself with interpreting a meaning or a concept but rather I can enjoy the movement for movement's sake. I love the randomness of his work and the way he music and sets he uses seem to float in and out of the choreography but never overshadow it. Plus it doesn't hurt that his dancers are so detailed and precise with their movements that it makes me insane with jealousy. I've always been involved in dance pieces where the choreography is very passionate and theme-oriented so it's so interesting to see dancers that move with such efficiency yet also remain so detached. I tend to get very involved and attached to choreogrpahy when I'm dancing where Merce's dancers keep their distance.

I also got great amusement out of listening to someone sitting nearby get completely frustrated with the performance. Apparently she came with a friend and I got to listen to her complain about what is and isn't art all through the intermission. I believe she likened modern dance to "eating boogers": meaning that just because a room full of pretentious people say that something is good art doesn't make it true. I found that tidbit quite hilarious. Color me pretentious I guess... :-)

Saturday, November 8, 2003

DVD's!!

Well, I've pretty much reached a point in this pregnancy where I basically feel like garbage all the time, to what better way to lift my spirits than by purchasing new dvds!! Juliana and I were at the Blockbuster when it opened on Tuesday to get a copy of Finding Nemo before it was even on the shelves. This was the first movie she saw in a theater and was very excited to get it. Needless to say, we've already watched it twice along with all the extras, which are great. Between watching the behind the scenes footage on this dvd and the extras on the Monster's Inc. disc, I have concluded that Pixar Studios must be one of the most happiest places on earth. The people who work there have entirely too much fun.

Another good purchase we made over the past weekend was the Angel Season 2 dvd set. I've been fairly disappointed so far with the season that is underway right now so I'm really looking forward to watching these episodes again. This set has one of my favorite Angel episodes- "Darla," which originally aired as a complimentary episode to Buffy season 5's "Fool for Love". I thought both were great stories that showed the overlapping history of Angel, Darla, Spike and Drusilla. Yay! I can't wait to watch now, but it's obviously not suitable viewing for three year olds so I"ll have to wait a couple of hours for bedtime.

Sunday, November 2, 2003

Little Ladybug



Don't you just love Halloween? More photos up here. The picture of the little baby squid is Juliana's new friend, Aubrey, sitting on her mommy Lara's lap.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

Haircut

Well, we took Juliana to Supercuts the other day since she will not sit still long enough for me to trim her hair anymore and what do you know, she sits perfectly still like a little angel while the woman cuts her hair! She just loved sitting up in the big chair and kept staring and smiling at herself in the mirror the whole time. If you ask me, I think she loves having that much attention focused on just her. Anyway, below is a photo of her right afterwards:



There are also more photos of her new 'do up at Juliana Picture Central in the gallery of dancer pics.

Monday, October 20, 2003

Where does the time go???

The past few weeks have been flying by. I can hardly remember what I've even been doing. On Friday, we got to go see the movie Lost in Translation which was excellent. I'm so happy I got to go since I rarely see movies in the theatre anymore. Plus, Bill Murray is absolutley great in this movie. There isn't much better than some good Bill Murray deadpan humor. I'm also almost finished with Al Franken's book (finally, I know, I know). Reading this book continually makes me crack up laughing and feel completely disgusted at the same time. I'm both looking forward to and dreading the upcoming presidential election. I'm very nervous though that we may get stuck with four more years of nonesense. I just don't understand politicians. It seems like such an easy thing to live your life, be truthful, and treat people fairly but whenever I read about politics I realize it just isn't the case. Sad sad stuff.

Thursday, October 9, 2003

Little Dancer

So Juliana started her dance class last week! She's been to 2 classes so far and it's quite clear she needs to hone her listening skills. She has SO much fun but gets FAR too excited about dancing (and about Mommy not being in the room!) that she can hardly contain herself! She's also the smallest girl in the class of 3 and 4 year olds and I can tell that a year really makes a difference. She completely feeds off of other peoples energy too, so when a bigger girl started getting hyper as well she went nuts, apparently thinking that it was ok to goof off if somebody else was. So.... we had a big talk about listening to the teacher and not running in class (even if other girls start running first) and I think she's getting it. Mostly because if she is good, the teacher gives out stickers to all the good listeners! Below is a picture from her first class (when she paid more attention!) Her pants are all hiked up because the instructor was doing so in order to show her feet in first position better and Juli took it as a sign that she needed to do the same thing. She then spent the better part of the class worrying about her silly pants. :-) Anyway, all the other girls had frilly little leotards on so after class we just HAD to go to Target to buy a leotard and ballet skirt. *Sigh* I thought the stripey pants had some character but apparently the draw of being a fairy princess in a tutu is just too much for a three year old girl- even a fairly rough and tumble one.

  

There are some more class pictures in this photo gallery here. The moms have to watch class from a window above the studio so it's hard to get a good shot but it's still quite adorable if you ask me. I'll have more photos of her in her ballerina outfit up soon...

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Nice....

Let's all take a minute to look at my new desktop picture.....





I had to give Viggo a break for a while and I found this photo Peter Krause did for "Get Tied to the Cause" and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in my Jane Magazine the other day. I'm happy now.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

New Couches Delivered!

Can you tell that I enjoy color in my home?



Old News but Still Good

No updates in a week, I know, I know. Anyway, Jason and I got in touch with our friend Shiow from high school a couple of weeks ago (thanks be to Friendster.com) and it turns out she works on the WBEZ show Schadenfreude now. She invited us to a live taping of the radio show at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights and I have to say it was hilarious. Schadenfreude is a sketch comedy ensemble and I find it really interesting and different that they are on the radio. The show airs on 91.5 WBEZ on Sunday nights at 8:30pm if anybody here in the Chi-Town area feels like checking it out.The theatre we saw the show at was also a really nice space and I was very excited to learn that the Neo-Futurists will be performing Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind there every Wednesday night through the end of November. I can't wait to see that show again! See, living in the 'burbs isn't always THAT bad, is it??

Monday, September 22, 2003

Silly Award Shows

I caught the end of the Emmy awards last night and I have to say there is no way you could ever convince me that the West Wing is a better show than Six Feet Under. It just isn't possible. And as much as I'm into the Sopranos, I'd take Peter Krause over James Gandolfini any day. MMmmmmmm. Me loves me some Peter Krause..... The one thing they did get right is that Edie Falco rocks everything.

 

Saturday, September 20, 2003

My Purdy House

I'm so happy we finally had our ceramic tile installed yesterday! Jason already posted some pictures here.We still have to move our appliances and bathroom fixtures in but it looks so gorgeous I just want to do a happy Snoopy dance!

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Cheers

So Jeff took a look at gogessner.net and lamented the extreme lack of photos of him on the site. Here is my first attempt to make up for this grievous error:



Jeff and Kim Linden celebrating Easter 2003...

Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Playtime

Juliana and I had a really great day today! This morning we went to Target and bought some Play-Doh and watercolor paints and she really went to town once we got home. Below is a picture of the "Mommy and Daddy" people she made. They are so awesome! She also made some pumpkins and a huge caterpillar. I think it took about 20 minutes for her to mush all 4 Playdoh colors into one pile (which really didn't surprise me at all.) We also went to the mall to pick up her portraits and we threw pennies in the water fountain and ate some pizza. On the way home we stopped at the library to pick up some videos and she just had to have "Nokio" (otherwise known as Pinnochio) and "Cinderelly" yet again.



Thursday, September 4, 2003

Not a Baby Anymore

My big girl is finally potty trained! Well, we are not without our accidents here and there but after a year of talking about the potty she is finally deciding to do it. She's known for quite some time what she needs to do but she just needed to decide to do it for herself. I am sooooo happy about this development. Now I can enjoy a couple of months break from diapers and pullups at least. I was really afraid I'd have two "babies" at home this winter. Yay Juliana!

Sunday, August 31, 2003

Happy Girl

Just a cute picture of Juliana enjoying her birthday present:



Wednesday, August 27, 2003

I Love Books

I just got my copy of Al Franken's new book in the mail today! Yipee! What a stinkin' liberal I am. First posting about Michael Moore, now Al Franken.... I'm most looking forward to reading the chapters titled Ann Coulter: Nutcase, followed by You Know Who I Don't Like? Ann Coulter.



Bowling for Columbine



We finally watched Bowling for Columbine the other day. I'd have to say that it does have it's biases but overall it is a very good documentary about violence, guns and fear in America. I had read that a lot of conservatives were complaining about how Moore edited the film and claimed that he fabricated things but I honsestly don't understand the level of outrage. I did disagree with the connection he seemed to be making between the presence of a Lockheed-Martin plant in Littleton, Colorado and the tragedy that took place there, and yes, the clip of Charleton Heston raising the rifle over his head proclaiming, " from my cold dead hands" did not take place at the NRA rally in Littleton after the shooting, but on the whole, I thought the film was an honest presentation of facts about our country's obsession with violence. I most wholeheartedly agreed with the proliferation of fear we seem to have here in the United States and it was interesting to hear how few gun related deaths take place in countries like Canada, Germany and France where they see the same violent movies and tv shows, play the same video games and listen to the same music. Also, it always makes me laugh when people try to connect metal or goth music to teen violence I had to nod my head when the question was raised why there isn't a school shooting epidemic in Germany- the goth/industrial music captial of the world! Good god, did I even agree with what Marilyn Manson had to say in his interview? Egads. Anyway, I'm glad I finally saw this movie and would defintely recommend it. The saddest part, to me, was the montage of all the U.S. led invasions over the past 50 years or so set to Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". Geez, that was depressing. I just used that song as part of Juliana's birthday video and she came running into the room yelling, "IT'S MY SONG!!!" Note to self: Never watch a movie while she is awake again- even if she is playing happily in the other room! We usually never do that and will continue to wait until bedtime to watch dvds in the future...

Michael Moore's website

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

My Big 3 Year Old Girl

I'm posting this on both blog sites since I love it so much and there's not a thing you can do to stop me!



Birthday Bonanza

Juliana's birthday party was this past weekend and she had so much fun! She adores her new dollhouse and plays with it nonstop. I can even hear her playing with it at 6AM before she comes out to wake up me and Jason. I'm so happy she loves it! Today is her actual birthday and we took her to the bakery for a birthday doughnut and later to the library to pick out some new books and videos. She' been singing "Happy Birthday to Me" all day too! We got a package of really cute clothes in the mail from my grandparents which totally made her entire afternoon. She flips whenever we get a package in the mail. Good girl!

Well, since Jason and I didn't really get to celebrate our anniversary over the weekend, it looks like we may be going to Cafe Siboney either tomorrow or Thursday. MMMMMMMMMMmmmm. I can't wait! Food=Good. Especially for very hungry pregnant women.

Also, for the first time in the nearly 10 years that I've known Jason, he brought me home a bouquet of roses! I don't know whether to be really happy or kind of annoyed that it's taken him 10 years to buy me flowers! I think I'll go with happy and just let him know that he's not off the hook until 2013.



Thursday, August 21, 2003

Flashback: August 1997

I just helped Steph set up her new weblog and we were noticing how few pictures we have of us- just tons of pictures of our girls. Anyway, I was looking through some old photos and found this shot of us before my wedding, 6 years ago.



Pretty

I came into a little bit of money recently and along with paying off a significant chunk of my student loans, I've decided to put some money into beautifying my wonderful home. Jason and I ordered a new (red!) sofa and loveseat at Bassett Furniture the other day which should be arriving in 4 to 6 weeks. I can't wait! I also picked out some ceramic tile for our kitchen and entryway and had someone from Home Depot come out to take measurements on Tuesday. And yesterday I picked up a new area rug at Pier 1 Imports that I absolutley love. I not only got it on sale but also applied for a Pier 1 card so they knocked another 10% off the price, saving me a total of $125! I love bargains. Unfortunately, our biggest tubbiest cat, Sailor-Po, thought we bought him a new scratching post so he dug into it as soon as i laid it out- prompting me to immediately call the vet and schedule him to be declawed on Monday. I simply cannot take that anymore- especially now that we're getting new furniture. The other cats will follow in the coming weeks but Po is the worst offender so he gets the honor of going first.

Anyway, my rug will be rolled up until his claws come out but I took a picture of it first since I think it's so purdy. As you can tell, I enjoy bright colors.

  

Monday, August 18, 2003

Be My Friend

What? You haven't joined Friendster yet? Sign up and add me to your list! You know you want to.

Return of the King

Besides the arrival of our little bebe this December, the other thing I'm anxiously (or obsessively) looking forward to is the release of the final Lord of the Rings movie. The movie opens on December 17th and I am due on the 24th so I am hoping that the little nugget stays in there long enough for me to see the movie on opening night! You can rush me to the hospital when the credits are playing, is what I'm saying. I'm also hoping that the baby is born a few days before Christmas so I don't actually spend Christmas Day in the hospital, but that only leaves me about a 5 day window from the 18th to the 22nd to ensure that I not only get to see the movie but also be warm and toasty in my little home with the baby on Christmas. It' a lot to ask, I know, but that's what I'm hoping for!


This photo is on my desktop and whenever Juli sees it, she says: "OOOOOOHHHHH! VIIIIGGGGOOOOO!" I have taught her well. I love Viggo.

Friday, August 15, 2003

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Another Suburban Housewife Moment...

I'm totally psyched about my new vacuum cleaner. Sad, huh? Well, my old one broke and I did tons of online research as to the best kind to buy for people with pets and allergies and found this one- however, the cheapest model was still $400! Yikes. Fortunately, after a week of bidding against people on ebay, I finally won an auction for one and got it for $225! A penny saver I be. I should be getting it by the end of the week. Ok, I'll stop being lame and boring right about now.

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Busy Busy

So what have I been doing lately? Shopping ebay for baby girl clothes, painting our basement, watching Seabiscuit, hanging out at the library with Juliana, organizing all my photos, not posting to my blog... Hee hee. I'll try to do better. I've had a recent burst of energy and have been taking on time consuming projects around the house rather than sitting on my bum at the computer typing. I will try to find a nice balance between the two this week!

Wednesday, August 6, 2003

See! I told you so...

I really am a college graduate! See! I only wish they printed my Dance Major on the diploma instead of just Bachelor of Arts but there's not much I can do about that. I am going to check on it just to make sure it's not a glitch. I did have a major so I'd like to have it in writing, if possible.



So Happy!

This is already an entry on the Newbie News page, but I'm just so happy and excited about our newest little girl!



Monday, August 4, 2003

Friday, August 1, 2003

Juliana's Birthday

Well, I should be finally making Juli's birthday party invitations today. The party will be on Saturday, the 23rd so hopefully I will get the invites in the mail tomorrow morning. I did make her an Amazon/ToysRus wishlist last night! A couple of the things are out of stock on Amazon but I did see them at the actual Toys R Us store yesterday. Please, please, please somebody buy her a new cassete tape for her player! She's been playing the same set of songs day and night and I can't get them out of my head!

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Summer Reading

Well, I finished "Priestess of Avalon" a few weeks ago and I'm still on a fantasy/historical fiction kick so now I'm reading Rosalind Miles' "Guenevere: Queen of the Summer Country". It's pretty decent so far and an easy read for lying out in the backyard while Juli plays in the pool. I picked up one of her other books too about Elizabeth I so I'll most likely be reading that one next. When I get tired of reading about kings and queens and the battle between Pagans and Christians, I pick up "The Idiots Guide to Baby Names".

  

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

It's Nemo!!

We went to the Shedd Aquarium last Sunday and I've been meaning to post this gorgeous picture of the anemones and clown fish. Needless to say, Juliana flipped for the "Nemos" she saw in the tank.



Saturday, July 26, 2003

This Dollhouse rULeZ

Well, I placed an order for Juliana's big birthday gift tonight! I've been looking at dollhouses for a while since she loves to play with the townhouse Bailee got for Christmas last year. I was going to get her the exact same one that Bailee had (because, frankly it was the coolest one I could find!) until I saw that just this week, Fisher Price put out a NEW Loving Family model dollhouse! Woo hoo! Really, I'm probably more excited about this than she will be right now. I absolutely love toys and I love the fact that I have an excuse to buy toys now so I tend to go overboard for her birthday and Christmas. I'm just so glad that she can have a dollhouse of her own that is different from what she plays with at Bailee's house- plus it's soooooo cute! I can't wait for it to get here. I wish her birthday party wasn't 4 weeks away...

Mmmmmm..... Angel.....

We picked up the Angel Season 1 box set last night and watched the first couple of episodes. I 'm very excited to watch all of them since I didn't see Season 1 when it first aired. I don't really remember why I came to the show later since I've been a Buffy fan from the beginning, but I think it was because I wan't a huge fan of Angel's character at first. I didn't really like him that much until I started watching the spinoff regularly and got into how they brought in the goofy/nerdy dimension to Angel's personality rather than make him sulk and brood every week (which I find not only boring but quite laughable!) I still like to poke fun at "Broody Angel" scenes when they pop up but at least the other characters on the show poke fun at him too now and don't take him so incredibly seriously. It's so hard to contain my laughter when I go back and look at early Buffy episodes when Angel was so serious (and shirtless) every episode! I still love those eps but not in a "BUFFY+ANGEL 4EVA!!!" type of way.

Anyway, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the first two episodes in the set becasue I had always heard that the first half of the season was a bit rocky and didn't find it's way until the later episodes. I'm looking forward to viewing the rest of the set now (even more than before.)



Friday, July 25, 2003

Juliana's Photos

Ok, I finally put the gallery up of Juli's first roll of film. Keep in mind, this was a disposable camera without a flash, which explains the dark graininess of the images. I was fairly impressed at how well she framed the shots, being not even three years old and all...

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Birthday Video

Yay! I finished editing Juliana's "Year 3" Birthday video! I absolutely love it. This year I used Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" along with Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". The Louis Armstrong song actually was playing when Juli was born so I'm happy I used that one this year. I just love making these videos and I can't wait for people to see it at her party. Which reminds me, I should start working on some invitations this week and actually decide which day we are going to have it.

Also, I'm hoping to post a gallery of Juliana's first roll of film. Billy visited over the weekend and he brought her a little disposable camera, which she just adored. We took the film to Ritz and had it processed that day so I just have to upload them to a gallery page now. I was really impressed at how well she did! Look for that later today or tomorrow...

In other news, Jason and I watched Adaptation last night and it was great. I just knew we would love it when Jason's parents told us they hated it so much they had to turn it off! Nicolas Cage did an amazing job and in my opinion was much more deserving of an Oscar than Adrian Brody (the Pianist was also an excellent movie, I just thought that Cage's character was more challenging acting-wise and showed more range). The ending of Adaptation was a bit over the top for me but it was still funny and definitley worth seeing (that is if you are not related to Jason, at least.) :-)


Thursday, July 17, 2003

Counting the days...

I know this is technically "newbie news" material but I just have to say again here how super-excited I am about my ultrasound appointment being only 19 days away! YAY!!!

Monday, July 14, 2003

Home Again...

Ahhh....I couldn't have asked for a more relaxing vacation. Juliana went absolutely nuts, she had so much fun! We swam in the pool a few times, had a trip to the beach to swim in the ocean, and visited a zoo where we saw aligators and lots of funny monkeys. Jason and I also got to spend a lot of time together by ourselves and went out and about Naples, FL a few times. We got to see Terminator 3 which was not totally great, but worth seeing for a five dollar matinee. We estimated that Arnold made a couple hundred thousand dollars for every word he spoke in the movie. It was pretty funny. Juliana had a blast playing with "Baba Joanie" and "Papa Willis" and made friends with their cat, Simba as well. Here's a nice shot of her after my grandma put curlers in her hair:



I'm thinking now that I'd better get cracking on her birthday music video. I've got a little over a month so it's time to start sifting through all the footage we shot over the past year!

Tuesday, July 8, 2003

Vacation!

Well, after a fun filled 4th of July weekend, the fam is heading to Florida for the next 5 days. Yay! This past weekend, we all went to Bartlett's 4th celebration and even though it was about 92 degrees, we still had a blast. Juliana rode on every ride she was tall enough to go on at least once. I put up some really great pictures of the festivities on Juliana Picture Central. We also saw the fireworks on Friday night which was a lot of fun, and had two barbeques over the weekend, one hosted at our house and one at Mr. Anderson's abode in Milwaukee. Good times...

 

Sunday, July 6, 2003

Juliana Art

I just wanted to post this picture that Juliana drew since I've been meaning to do so for a while. It's one of my favorites... Now I'm off to my second barbeque of the weekend!
  

Monday, June 30, 2003

Milwaukee Zoo

Steph and I took the girls to the zoo today and they had a blast. We got to ride on the little train and make "choo choo" noises as well as ride the merry-go-round. I absolutely love doing kid stuff! You know you've had a good day when you come home with a stuffed monkey.
Juli's favorite animals...
  

Mommy's favorite...


Saturday, June 28, 2003

Weekend Stuff

Well, Jason is in Milwaukee helping Billy move his stuff to Rockford so I'm kind of stranded for today at least. It's not so bad though since the weather is beautiful once again. Juliana and I spent a lot of time outdoors yesterday and she played in the dirt while I laid in the sun reading. That's my girl, loving the dirt. I asked her what she was doing and she replied, "I gar-de-ding!" I'm reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's last novel, "Priestess of Avalon" and it's quite good. It was actually completed by a good friend of hers after she died so I was kind of wary at first, but this author seems to have really picked up on Bradley's style. It's still not as good as my all-time favorite "Mists of Avalon" but it's enjoyable and I can't put it down. It's nice to read some good fantasy fiction again after reading a string of non-fiction books for school.
   
Not that this is related to anything I just said, but I thought this picture of me and Billy at Brad's wedding reception was really cute so I'm posting it.


Thursday, June 26, 2003

Yay Me

Well, here goes the first entry. I still haven't quite figured out exactly how I'm going to separate this weblog from the "newbie" one, but I'll worry about that later. Hopefully this site will not languish for two years like the previous one with heinously outdated information! My big news for today is that I got my final grade report from Columbia in the mail, complete with 3.687 cumulative grade point average. As I said above, Yay Me! I actually should have done better overall if I hadn't slacked in a few of my general studies classes, but I can't really change that now. The important thing is that I reached the magic number of 124 credit hours (and not a single credit more or less, I might add!) I'm hoping to get my actual degree in the mail any time now. I still feel like I won't completely believe it is true until I see it in writing. Well, that's all for now. I've got a lot of designing to do with this site before I get it just right.